Messing up the Podcast for "Oh Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison

One of the songs I wanted to do a podcast for was Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison. I knew a few facts about the song before I started doing the research. And basically it was what most people know. Namely that it was a hit for Roy Orbison in the 60's. Van Halen covered it in the 80's. And that there's a movie by that name with Julia Roberts, Richard Gere and a Jason Alexander with way too much hair. So I figured there was a lot of territory to explore. Little did I know there was enough story there for a whole book. Well, for someone who is capable of writing books. I was certain I could write enough questions for a ten to fifteen minute podcast.One of the things I do is go to Amazon to check out the books on the subject. I found a few and finally picked one called Dark Star The Story of Roy Orbison by Ellis Amburn. I checked it out from the library because for some reason it is too expensive to buy online. It costs $48. It was an interesting book about the life of Roy Orbison. You kind of felt bad for the guy because he saw himself as an unattractive guy . And he had those thick bottleglass eyeglasses. He had this crush on a girl who hooked up with one of the guys in his band when he was a teenager. Which must've been rough. Roy finally got the nerve to ask her out once his band mate and her split up. But only after their first single came out. Anyway, they finally married and she became the inspiration for Pretty Woman and they lived happily ever after. Or did they?

Anyway, it's an interesting story. Eventually, I would imagine, he felt more satisfaction when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and realized how much fans as well as artists like Bruce Springsteen adored him. And of course being in The Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.I emailed Ellis Amburn and didn't hear from him, so I found another book that seemed interesting and contacted the author. The book was Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity by Peter Lehman. He was interested. I was on a roll. Two out of three ain't bad. I wish I had those kinds of odds when I was dating. Well, if I had dated. I was actually worse than Roy Orbison. Asking girls out was something I was not very good at.
So a date was set for the interview. I had the host and the back up ready. The host was going to be the woman who liked Nic Harcourt and I was looking forward to listening to her because she had a nice voice. The questions were written. But I had a feeling something wasn't right. I had written the questions from the perspective of Dark Star. I hadn't read the Peter Lehman book and he struck me as a person who would not discuss some of the questions we were going to ask him because he seemed like a huge fan. A few of the questions didn't put Roy in such a good light. He was going to have a symposium about Roy Orbison at Arizona State University where he taught. So on a lark I sent him the questions. Sure enough he emailed me back and told me he was withdrawing from the interview. Some of the questions were too biographical, he told me. And he was not a biographer. I thought of asking someone else but I changed my mind once I saw a website that has Wesley Orbison, son of Roy, writing briefly about his father. So I'm holding out for him. Once we get the website going I would like to approach him for an interview about Roy and his mother, the inspiration for the song Pretty Woman