TIL somebody besides my wife thought that Roy Orbison was blind.
TIL people assumed Roy Orbison was blind.
I have never even had the passing thought that he was blind.
Orbison sang so Bono could warble.
Funny story, Bono fell asleep listening to the Blue Velvet soundtrack and dreamed he heard a Roy Orbison song. Turns out it didn’t exist. So he tries to recreate it, and comes up with “She’s A Mystery to Me,” which he happened to be carrying around on a cassette when he bumps into Orbison by accident at a function. Bono nervously plays it for Orbison like a high schooler fumbling through a presentation due to star shock, and Orbison agrees to record it. Tl;dr that’s why it sounds like a U2 song fronted by Orbison.
Not blind. Just cool af
If he were blind though, Pretty Woman would have a different feel
I always thought that.
In the old days, before the internet, stupid people would say he was blind and stupid young people like me would believe it. I never cared enough to fact check it in the new days.
He was from the mirror universe, got it!
So he had what German singer Heino only pretends to have. In reality, Heino has a condition that makes his eyes look unattractive.
Is it assumed he was blind? Hadn’t heard that before personally
Yep, plenty of folks believed he was blind.
You believed he was blind 🤣
A simple Google search will tell you that it’s a common misconception.
Yes, we know Google is blind, duh.
Is there any other evidence other than sunglasses? Were there prior internet discussions about his vision abilities, or lack thereof?
Yes, there have been plenty of things across the years. I’m not linking Reddit, but a quick search online will show that it’s a pretty common misconception.
The source is some old “Top 10 Oldies Myths” article from About.com. Never cite wikipedia. Cite the source. https://web.archive.org/web/20140711194805/http://oldies.about.com/od/oldieshistory/a/oldiesmyths.htm
And that source doesn’t say anything about light sensitivity.
Roy did have eyeglasses to correct his vision, but they were quite normal; en route to an Alabama concert, however, he accidentally left them on the plane. The only other pair he had were prescription sunglasses, so he wore those instead. The very next day Roy was scheduled to open up a European Beatles tour, and there was no time to go find his old pair, so the dark shades stayed on him throughout the tour. The resultant frenzy of Beatlemania ensured that the singer would be seen throughout the world in that pair; by the time he returned home, it was a trademark.
Not that I necessarily believe anything in such an article.
In all my years, I’ve never heard a single person say they ever thought he was blind. I have a really hard time believing this was ever commonly believed.
I’m not disputing that you might have believed it and that some other people might have believed it, too. It’s just, I doubt it was a common thing.
