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The Big O Interview
Cath Carroll visits Roy Orbison (1985)




On May 30, 1985 Cath Carroll recorded this interview with Roy Orbison in his Montcalm Hotel room. Using a next-generation, post- can & string era, recording device (a hand-held, monaural, audio cassette-recorder), Cath conducted her one-on-one with Mr. Orbison as a free-lance journalist for the NME.

The original cassette found its way to America via the cardboard moving box used to transport Cath's belongings when she moved to the states in 1990. The cassette sat in this box and moved around various parts of greater Chicagoland until I unearthed it Autumn 2003. Not being exactly sure what I had discovered, Cath seemed rather surprised when I showed her a very dusty, low-grade, audio cassette marked, "The Big O 1985." When I attempted to play the cassette, chunks of oxide began to fall off the ribbon. As a recording engineer with a large, analogue archive, I recognized this phenomena as the dreaded tape-shedding nightmare so familiar to restoration engineers dealing with old master tapes. Sometimes they can be saved. Sometimes not.

The salvaging attempt requires the baking of these tapes at a low heat setting (around 135* F) for a period of 2.5 - 3.5 hours. After doing this, you must immediately off-load the information because it is not known exactly how long the flaking condition is postponed. Approximately 30 minutes of this interview was saved. Complete with all the glass clinking, ice dumping and recorder rustling any restoration specialist would have night sweats over, The Big O interview made it's way onto a stable DAT cassette and then re-transferred at 24 bit/96KHz to our ProTools editing setup. I began audio sweetening, using re-equalization, leveling, noise reduction and in some cases, crash protection. No, not for a computer but for your ears. There were simply hundreds and hundreds of pops, clicks, door slams, glass clinks, ice droppings and more door slams. LOTS of Wilburys too - aka, audio gremlins - as George Harrison & Jeff Lynne used to call them. You would have thought the Lefty Wilbury interview was conducted during a drive-by shooting inside a cocktail glass. And then, there was the dead air...

Well, now it's late winter and as promised, The Big O Interview has reached a happy compromise. By no means a good restoration. Still lots of noise, ice clinks and pauses present. But, it's also a glimpse into the warmth and humor of a singer people still worship 15 years after his untimely death at the age of only 52. Cath must have charmed Roy into divulging some of the nuggets of this interview because it did not start off like much. But by the time you hear all thirty minutes that were salvaged, you will feel as if you got a glimpse of the man, minus the persona, and come to find that Roy was a genuine spirit and a kind soul.

We still miss Roy. He was a truly amazing vocalist and a very special songwriter. I was delighted when I heard Roy state his favorite original song was "Crying" since I love that tune of his THE most! I was also comforted to find out that even a true legend gets nervous before he performs. We hope you like it.

Kerry Kelekovich
Lilypad restoration engineer
October 2003


Updated March 9, 2008 Using ProTools 7.4 and better noise reduction.
All audio content and restorations are property of Cath Carroll © 2003/2008 Lilypad Records / Superclammy, Ltd. Publishing
Intended for the exclusive use of the visitors of The Pad, cathcarroll.com and loyal fans of Mr. Roy Orbison everywhere.
NOT intended for sale, resale or retransmission via any other media or broadcast medium.
© 2008 Lilypad Records / Superclammy, Ltd. Publishing ASCAP All Rights Reserved
He may be gone but his spirit will always be with us.