(Credits: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys)
Sun 15 March 2026 18:30, UK
From the moment the Traveling Wilburys started, none of them took each other all that seriously.
The whole band felt like an exclusive club of friends that happened to include some of the biggest rock stars in the world, and even if they weren’t making the most thoughtful music in the world, you could hear that they were having the time of their lives playing off each other. But even if George Harrison handpicked everyone to be a part of his “other” band, there were more than a few people who were almost in the fold before politely declining the offer.
At the same time, there’s a good chance a lot of people would be looking like anyone, as if they are insane, if they were told that they missed the chance of being etched into rock and roll history. The thought of witnessing this kind of collaboration is one thing, but getting to play with all of them and maybe add a few licks in here and there is the stuff of legend, but even someone like Mike Campbell had to admit he wasn’t up for the task.
He was Tom Petty’s right-hand man throughout every phase of the Heartbreakers, but even when he was asked to lay down a few licks here and there, he couldn’t bring himself to commit any blues fills to ‘Handle With Care’. When you have someone like Harrison looking over your shoulder to see what you’re going to do, you’d probably be shaking in your boots as well, so it’s no big deal for Campbell to watch from the sidelines and have some fun watching everything come together.
And that’s before getting into the other honorary band members that were supposed to join the group. Harrison would have happily asked John Lennon if he wanted to join had he lived to see them come to fruition, and getting Gary Moore to throw in a couple of blues licks over ‘She’s My Baby’ showed that he was more than welcome to hang with the rest of the group. But if there’s anyone who should have been a member already, it should have been Jim Keltner. I mean, it’s obvious, isn’t it?
Keltner was the drummer for every one of their albums throughout, and he’s even in their videos behind the kit, so naturally, he would be the drummer, right? Well, not quite. You see, Keltner was a legend of the session drummer scene, and while he loved the idea of playing music with his friends, there were a lot of times when he felt like that mantle of pressure was a bit too much for him to have to carry.
He was happy to have played on the record, but even after being given the name Buster Wilbury, Keltner felt he didn’t belong with the rest of the band, with Petty recalling, “[George] used to say, ‘Jim, you’re a Wilbury’ and he’d say, ‘No, I’m a Sidebury’. All of us would have been content to have Jim as a Wilbury but he didn’t want to be. He just felt like ‘My job is to play the drums. That’s my area, and that’s where I’m going to stay.’ That’s just how beautiful the man is.”
But even with all of those accolades, Harrison could appreciate someone that was so humble about their gifts. That said, it’s not like the former Beatle didn’t have a little bit of fun messing around with Keltner, even as far back as Living in the Material World where he talked about becoming a member of the Jim Keltner fan club in the liner notes of the record after he played drums on the album.
So while Buster Wilbury is still considered a member of the family by both fans and the band themselves, it’s not like he was ever trying to be known as one of his living legend colleagues. His job was just about playing the drums, and that was more than enough for him when making a few of those classic tracks.