Roy Orbison Jr.


Roy Kelton Orbison Jr. is an American musician and record producer. He is also the cofounder of the record label Roy’s Boys, and co-president of Still Working Music. Among his work, he co-produced the album Roy Orbison: The Ultimate Collection, which reached #10 on the UK Album charts.

Early life

Roy Orbison Jr. was born on October 18, 1970 to his parents Roy Orbison and Barbara Orbison in Nashville, Tennessee. His godparents were Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. He first learned to play the guitar at age five, and learned to play the bass at age 11. At age 17 he co-wrote a song for U2 with Bono, before becoming a professional musician himself.

Record producing

In 2008 Orbison co-produced the 4-disc career retrospective of his father entitled The Soul Of Rock And Roll, as well as the 2016 collection Roy Orbison: The Ultimate Collection. He has also written the liner notes for further retrospective collections. The album reached number 10 on the UK album charts.
Orbison has also mastered previously unreleased recordings of his father and has begun to distribute them, including the song “The Way is Love”, a track on which he also played the guitar and contributed vocals. The process he uses was the subject of an episode of the television series Strange Inheritance on Fox Business Network, and the track was included on the 25th anniversary re-issue of the album Mystery Girl. He was also an executive producer of the album One of the Lonely Ones in 2015. Orbison is currently the co-president of Still Working Music, which has a catalog of songs from artists including Taylor Swift, Lost Frequencies, and Joe Walsh.

Film producing

Beginning in 2016, Orbison served as a co-produced for the biopic The Big O: Roy Orbison, written by Ray Gideon and Bruce Evans. He was also the co-writer and co-executive producer of the documentary Mystery Girl: Unraveled.

Books

In 2017 Orbison co-authored the book The Authorized Roy Orbison with music journalist Jeff Slate, his two brothers and with research by Marcel Riesco.

Personal life

Orbison became a father in 2016 with the birth of his first son Roy Kelton Orbison III, with his wife Åsa, whom he married in September 2017. His son was featured playing on a toy guitar and tambourine with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra during a rendition of his grandfather's song Pretty Woman in May 2017, at the age of 10 months.