The 1980s were a brilliant time to have been big in the 1960s. The sheer number of bands enjoying commercial renaissances, fuelled by the boomer generation entering middle age, was staggering. From Roy Orbison to The Monkees, many found themselves back on the charts, riding a wave of swinging nostalgia. Few, however, managed to achieve the level of success that George Harrison did.

For a few years, the quiet Beatle silenced all questions about which member of his former band had the most successful solo career. Sure, Paul and John had dominated the 1970s with Band On The Run and Imagine. George, however—up until then the critics’ choice thanks to the eternally brilliant All Things Must Pass—staked his claim with 1987’s Cloud Nine and, in particular, its chart-topping lead single, a cover of James Ray’s ‘Got My Mind Set On You’.

Harrison made the album with the help of Electric Light Orchestra main man Jeff Lynne, who produced and co-wrote a number of tracks. After the album was a resounding success, Harrison and Lyne began planning the next step. At first, all they knew was that they wanted to work together evenly on it, leading to the first mention of the band’s name in a radio interview in 1988.

When Bob Coburn asked Harrison what he was planning next, Harrison responded: “What I’d really like to do next is … an album with me and some of my mates. It’s this new group I gotit’s called the Traveling Wilburys, I’d like to do an album with them and then later we can all do our own albums again.”

Those “mates” turned out to be the beginning of the most high-profile supergroup ever.

So, how did George Harrison put it together?

Both Lynne and Harrison didn’t want the project to be a duo, so they started brainstorming who else they wanted in the band. It says a lot about their stature that when Harrison suggested Bob Dylan for the band and Lynne suggested Roy Orbison, they were both completely confident about not just securing them for the group but also finding another Wilbury to complete the set too.

At the time, Harrison had struck up a close friendship with Tom Petty and felt that his appreciation for the rock ‘n’ roll of the 1950s would make him a perfect fit to complete the Traveling Wilburys. Petty, a fanboy of basically everyone else in the group, jumped at the chance and thus, the first incarnation of the Wilbury’s was born. It was enough of a miracle that this group of icons ever saw the studio, but there was also a plan for them to tour as well.

Fittingly, for a group who bonded over a shared love of Monty Python (Orbison, in particular, could recite entire sketches off the top of his head), there was something inherently surreal about Harrison’s vision for a Traveling Wilburys tour. In an interview with Uncut, Jeff Lynne said: “George would say, ‘Right, we’re going to get an aircraft carrier and follow the sunshine. Play Hawaii, the Caribbean, all these lovely little spots … We could park in the dock and play on the deck, then hoist up the gang plank and off we’d go to the next one!’”

For all of Harrison’s joking, it was probably never to be even before Orbison’s death in 1988, a mere two months after the debut Wilburys record. Fittingly, for a band that was always about bringing innocent joy into a dark world, a Traveling Wilburys tour would have to remain a fantasy. What a fantasy it is, though.