ELO frontman and Traveling Wilbury Jeff Lynne hasn't made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet, but if the kind words of Hall of Famers Joe Walsh and Tom Petty at Lynne's Hollywood Walk of Fame induction today (Thursday) are anything to go by, it shouldn't be long. The two combined to speak for about 12 minutes, or about 12 times longer than Lynne's acceptance speech. Walsh went first and was hilarious. He started by asking the crowd of a couple of hundred fans and friends to let out a yell every time he mentioned an Electric Light Orchestra song title, and he worked in lots of them. Then he went through a list of "things you may not know about Jeff Lynne. Here are just a few:
Then it was Petty's turn and he couldn't have offered higher praise for Lynne.
When it was Lynne's turn, he spoke for less than a minute. Something he said in thanking people for coming may have explained why.
We caught up with him after the ceremony and asked about having a star in front of the Capitol Records tower, near his friends in The Beatles and fellow Wilbury Roy Orbison.
Among many friends and family who attended the ceremony were Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Heartbreakers' guitarist Mike Campbell, producer Peter Asher, legendary record executive Jerry Moss, film director Richard Donner and Ringo Starr's wife, actress Barbara Bach.