Roy Jr. - The Authorized Roy Orbison

Class of 55Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkinsat the Sun Studios in Memphis, September 1985.

Wild, young kids at the time, wed met Jeff at the door when he arrived, and he had played with us for a bit, chasing Roy Jr. under the pool table. But wed been having a fight with wet paper towels, trying to pummel one another, or one of our moms friends who was visiting, and poor Jeff had no idea what he was in for. As he went to wait for Dad, we went into a nearby bathroom, loaded up our paper towel bombs, and resumed our battle. Just as Dad came down the stairs, we let loose with a furious storm, and one of the bombs nailed Jeff.

Dad sure wasnt too pleased, but Jeff took it in stride, and after we made our apologies, everything went back to normal and Dad and Jeff disappeared to talk shop.

Dad had just made the Class of 55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming album with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, which was sort of a Sun Records version of the Wilburys, but that was really unlike him, because it felt to everyone like a step backward. Dad was a songwriter, first and foremost, and he sure wasnt sentimental. He was always looking forward. If you asked him what his best song was, hed surely tell you The next one. But we had no idea how important Jeff, or any of the other guys around at the time, such as Rick Rubin and T Bone Burnett, would be to Dads career. Once they stepped in our door, they were just guys there to visit Dad, and we sure didnt think much of it.

Even a few years later, after wed moved to Malibu, when Dad seemed busier than ever before and the director David Lynch and Jeff and George and Tom and Bob Dylan were around a lot, daily life for us didnt change all that much. It was only later, after Dad was gone, that we realized that his story reads like the treatment for an almost unbelievable movie, conjured up by some highly imaginative Hollywood screenwriter.