Roy Orbison facts: Singer’s wife, children, songs and why he always wore glasses explained

Roy Orbison was one of the rock and roll’s most popular and successful artists ever.

Thanks to his trademark passionate vocal style, dark ballads and distinctive sunglasses, he was a hugely influential singer and composer.

Roy Orbison’s music has been described as operatic, giving him the nicknames ‘the Caruso of Rock’ and ‘the Big O’.

He was one of the first male rock and roll stars to show vulnerability at a time when it was the norm to project strong masculinity. He was also known for his shyness and stage fright, which he attempted to battle by wearing dark sunglasses.

Roy started out as a rockabilly and country-and-western singer, and he soon found success in the early 1960s with hits including ‘Only the Lonely’, ‘Running Scared’, ‘Crying’, ‘In Dreams’ and ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’.

Due to a number of personal tragedies, his career nosedived. However, he found new popularity in the 1980s thanks to successful cover versions of his songs.

In 1988, he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne, and a new album of songs – such as 1989’s ‘You Got It’ – proved to be very successful, even after his death.

Roy Orbison was born on April 23, 1936 in Vernon, Texas.

He was the middle son of parents Orbie Lee Orbison (1913–1984), an oil well driller and car mechanic, and nurse Nadine Vesta Shults (1913-1992).

It was said that all the Orbison children had poor eyesight growing up.

Roy used thick corrective lenses from an early age, and was self-conscious about his appearance. He began dyeing his almost-white hair black when he was still a young boy.