Late rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Roy Orbison has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Orbison’s widow, Barbara, accepted the star in front of the Capitol Records building on his behalf on Friday 29 January. Orbison died of a heart attack in 1988, aged 52.
He was in the midst of a comeback with the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup that included Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne. Lynne attended the ceremony, as did Chris Isaak, Dwight Yoakam and actor Dan Aykroyd .
Orbison was famous for the wide range of his distinctive and emotional voice, especially in his songs about unrequited love like "Only the Lonely”, "Crying”, "In Dreams" and "Oh, Pretty Woman”.
Orbison’s life was hit by tragedy in 1966, when his first wife, Claudette, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Two years later, he was in the middle of a tour of England when his Tennessee home burned down, during which two of their three sons died. He was remarried to Barbara in 1969 and had two more sons, Alex and Roy.