TIL people assumed Roy Orbison was blind.
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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I have never even had the passing thought that he was blind.
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.
It's in his wiki bio under public image:
The sunglasses led some people to assume he was blind.[93]
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.
I don't know what to tell you. Myself and lots of people I know thought he was blind. I don't know the whole world, but the source and other places tell you that some people thought he was blind. You can find mentions of it and other people people asking the question on Reddit, quora etc. It was more than the people I know who listed these things.
So he had what German singer Heino only pretends to have. In reality, Heino has a condition that makes his eyes look unattractive.
As far as I understand it, he doesn't even have that anymore, but now it has become a part of his look so he doesn't change it.
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.
If he were blind though, Pretty Woman would have a different feel
I always thought that.
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
He was from the mirror universe, got it!
Might not have even been light sensetivity so much as point sources of light would wash everything else out.
Source: My defective eyeballs.