![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-Traveling-Wilburys-Band-Bob-Dylan-Jeff-Lynne-Tom-Petty-George-Harrison-Roy-Orbison-Far-Out-Magaz.jpeg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ The Traveling Wilburys)<\/p>\n
Thu 18 December 2025 15:06, UK <\/p>\n
They almost seem like a myth, too good to be true. Things on this planet just don\u2019t happen like that. It\u2019s obvious: The Traveling Wilburys<\/a> never existed. You dreamt them up at a house party.<\/p>\n Or at least if someone were to tell you that now, that you\u2019d made them up in a mad drunken fever dream, you\u2019d probably believe them. How could it be true that an era-spanning clutch of the greatest musicians in history just casually came together and jammed out a slew of classics at some curious juncture in 1988?<\/p>\n Thankfully, for sanity\u2019s sake, they\u2019ve sold around ten million copies of their two albums to prove their lauded existence. While their albums, which charted third and 11th in the US standings, respectively, might not have hit the lofty heights of their members at their best, now the band represent something far beyond that. In the interim years, the brotherhood of the band has embellished the music, the myth, and the legend of friends thrashing out a few tunes has established itself as an endearing window into a different time.<\/p>\n The joviality of the concept extends to the constitution of their history, too. In essence, their formation was akin to George Harrison making a group text with his musical mates. Fated did the rest. As Tom Petty once opined, \u201cNone of this would\u2019ve happened without [George Harrison]. It was George\u2019s band<\/a>\u2014it was always George\u2019s band and it was a dream he had for a long time.\u201d He assorted a few mates to perform on what would be his next single, realised he\u2019d left his guitar at Petty\u2019s house, and then figured they may as well have a jam while they were at it. The stars loved it so much that a band was soon born.<\/p>\n And the band worked! It wasn\u2019t a case of too many cooks. Bob Dylan\u2019s innate sense of melody propped up the tunes, George Harrison threw in his trademark chords, wistful songwriting and upbeat ways, Jeff Lynne offered production and arrangement wizardry, Roy Orbison had pipes from heaven and solid rock \u2018n\u2019 roll sensibilities and Tom Petty injected the visceral edge of cool youth. But there is one notable ingrediant missing from that mix: percussion.<\/p>\n That honour went to the mythic Buster Sidebury. Within the Wilburys, each of the members had alter egos; George Harrison was known as Nelson Wilbury, Jeffy Lynne went by Otis Wilbury, Roy Orbison took on the moniker of Lefty Wilbury, Tom Petty got fancy and called himself Charlie T Wilbury Jr, while Dylan went with Lucky Wilbury. As for Buster Sidebury\u2019s tax return, you\u2019ll find the birth name of Jim Keltner.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to imagine the pressure that Keltner was under as the session musician called in to play drums on their debut. It almost seems like it would pile even more pressure onto Keltner\u2019s shoulders that for them it was all a bit of a laugh. Thankfully, he was already familiar with Dylan (he would drum for the folk star for a whopping 30 years), and, frankly, he had been selected and asked by the group\u2019s leader, in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was George completely,\u201d Keltner recalled of how he became involved. \u201cGeorge became like a brother. He liked having me around all the time for different things. When he was working on something, I\u2019d be [there]. I think it was [Harrison\u2019s album] Cloud 9 that preceded Wilburys. I was at his studio. H.O.T. Studio we called it \u2013 Henley-on-Thames \u2013 and we were having a ball.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJeff Lynne was working with him on the Cloud 9 record,\u201d he told Ray Padgett. \u201cJeff and George had very similar senses of humor. The crazy English kind of Monty Python humor. The more beers they had, the sillier they would get. We were sitting around one night. I think we had just cut my favorite song on the record, \u2018This Is Love\u2019. They\u2019re being funny and started making up names for a band. They kept going and going. Finally they settled on the Traveling Wilburys. They thought that was just hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n Keltner laughed along, not thinking much of it. He heard that Harrison was planning to jet off and cut \u2018Handle With Care\u2019 with his old pal Dylan, and he keenly awaited the results, like everyone else. The next thing he knew, Harrison and Lynne were returning to England with a prized record from a supergroup asking him to overdub some drums onto the tracks.<\/p>\n How did the Traveling Wilburys write?<\/p>\n![\"George](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/George-Harrison-The-Travelling-Wilburys-Far-Out-Magazine--1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>George Harrison playing with The Traveling Wilburys. (Credits: Far Out \/ The Travelling Wilburys)So, who played drums for The Traveling Wilburys?<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The powerhouse supergroup. (Credit: Wikimedia)Who else could\u2019ve joined the Traveling Wilburys?<\/p>\n