Who is the best candidate for the sixth Traveling Wilbury?
Not every supergroup could have managed to have the magic of The Traveling Wilburys. The entire reason why they got together in the first place felt like one of the happiest accidents in rock history, and even when Roy Orbison passed away, there was no chance that any of them could have been able to carry on the name with the remaining members for too long afterwards. If there had been an honourary Wilbury, though, there would have been a few people from whom they could have chosen.
Looking back on their golden years, names were floating around to join before they started. Since they had recorded parts of their tunes at Dave Stewart’s house, there was a good chance that the mastermind behind Eurhythmics could have strapped on an acoustic guitar alongside Tom Petty and George Harrison, but his sound felt far too electronic for what they were going for.
At the same time, Orbison’s death also left the door open for another living legend to enter his shoes. Since Jeff Lynne and Petty had fallen in love with his music, Del Shannon was initially offered to join the group for a second record before he passed away during the album’s production.
And what about Gary Moore, some of you might ask? The blues guitarist, admired by George Harrison and even featured on ‘She’s My Baby’, certainly warranted at least a mention, even if he didn’t get a proper “Wilbury” alias like the rest.
So, who could have been the sixth Wilbury?
If there’s one person who truly deserves to be ranked among the legends, it’s Jim Keltner.
Because Keltner has been in the background of half of the Wilburys’ stories before they even got together. He had worked with Bob Dylan before they got started and was present at the Concert for Bangladesh when Harrison was putting together the initial charity concert, so it’s not like he didn’t know how to get along with the rest of them.
Even when Petty was on the rise, he hit it off with the heartland rocker in the halls of the recording studio when making Damn the Torpedoes, initially telling him to put a shaker on the top of ‘Refugee’ to make everything come to life. And when you look at the man’s pedigree, he could have outplayed everyone else in the room had he had the chance.
Going through his discography, Keltner had turned in time playing everything from rock to pop to rockabilly, so his chops were more than intact. When working on the album Aja, even Steely Dan called him to lay down a track for the title song that never got used. It probably did nothing for his ego, but the fact that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen singled him out would have been enough for him to be far superior to every other musician.
More than anything, though, his demeanour is the main reason he deserves top billing among the rest of the Wilburys. Since the band’s entire mentality was about making unassuming music and leaving their egos at the door, Keltner had so little ego that he could slide into the group with no problem.
While he would eventually have some screentime with them in the video for ‘End of the Line’, Jim Keltner deserved to be ranked among Dylan, Harrison, and Petty as one of the legends behind the group. Everyone else in the band may have known his importance, but for the greater public, Keltner was the forgotten Wilbury who never got to see the same spotlight as his bandmates.
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