One-of-a-kind tribute to the late music legend Roy Orbison bound for Bunbury and Albany

A one-of-a-kind tribute to the late music legend Roy Orbison is bound for Bunbury and Albany stages. The internationally renowned show is the only tribute presented and endorsed by Wesley Orbison, the son of Orbison and his first wife Claudette. The show is performed by artist John Stephan, who said the audience could expect an intimate showcase of Orbison’s story and music to keep his legacy alive. “I guess it’s a lot of emotion. It’s a real rollercoaster of a story and compilation of music,” he said. “We try and take people on that rollercoaster, just because he had such an emotional and passionate life with the loss of his two children in a house fire and his wife being hit by a truck whilst riding a motorcycle. “His beautiful wife’s name was Claudette, who he wrote all his famous and great songs about — Pretty Woman, Crying and Only The Lonely were for Claudette.” Stephan said he was lucky his parents had “amazing taste in music”. with Orbison’s music soundtracking his childhood memories. “It was obviously not my era of music, it was my parents’ era,” he said. “I was lucky enough that they had amazing taste and used to play his music all the time. His records were the soundtrack of my life growing up. “I’ve got two brothers who are also singers, and we’d all get in the car together and go on family holidays and just sing mostly Roy Orbison songs. “My parents had their cassettes playing in the car and it’s basically every smell and every emotion or every memory that I have includes, a lot of the time, the soundtrack of Roy Orbison.“ Stephan — who writes and sings his own music too — said the tribute shows stemmed from of a friendship formed with Orbison’s family. “When I became friends with the Orbison family in Nashville, it was just such an honour that they entrusted the music to me to remind the world of how great Roy Orbison was,” he said. “It took me right back to when I was a kid. “I’m not impersonating him, I’m merely paying homage to the amazing music and the amazing voice that Roy Orbison had.” The show will grace the South West at Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on November 2, and Albany Entertainment Centre on November 1.