Roy Orbison Part III

 Roy was beginning to realise  how exceptional his voice was and it was so well suited to performing Heartbreak songs.  One big hit was "Only the Lonely" and another was Running Scared about  a man who was afraid of his girlfriend leaving him. He toured in the UK and was somewhat surprised and annoyed to find that the Beatles were now famous  yet at a concert he performed 14 encores and the Beatles would not let him go out on the stage again.  During that time however he got to know George Harrison and they would later become close friends. 

In 1963, his wife Claudette, left alone in Nashville was lonely and embarked on an affair with the contractor who was working on their new house there.  Their marriage was unhappy on and off at the time because Claudette was depressed when he was away touring.  He toured in Australia and again in Britain and Ireland.  He was popular with young teenager girl fans... He had another big hit with Pretty Woman which is also about a man who falls in love with a woman because he is lonely....His own marriage was getting more difficult and he and Claudette divorced in 1964 because of her affairs. 

Roy and his wife reconciled a while after their divorce and revealed that they had remarried. but tragedy was in the offing.  Roy loved cars and motorcycles and he and Claudette went riding on his bike one day a couple of years after their reconciliation...and they had an accident.  Roy survived but Claudette was killed.  Roy was desperately grieving for his wife but continue to bury himself in work.  However it was the 1960s and his gentle style of music, and country background was a little out of step with the world of the 60s.  He had always sung rockabilly but his albums at this time did not do well.  He went on touring and then in 1968 another tragedy struck.  He was working in England and in September got the horrific news that his house in Hendersonville Tennessee had burned down and his two elder sons had died in the fire.  

Again he buried himself in work, his youngest son Wesley went to live with Claudettes parents.. and a few years later Orbison married a German woman and they had 2 more children.   Johnny Cash bought Roy's house in Hendersonville and planted an orchard...as Roy could not bear to own the property...