The only guest guitarist the Traveling Wilburys ever had
For a band made up of living legends, The Traveling Wilburys always remained a fairly insular unit. As much as they loved playing with their fellow bandmates, there was no point in bringing in an outsider to dilute everything or, worse yet, make the good vibes stop flowing for a while. It all depended on whether everyone was having a good time, but for the first time without Roy Orbison, the band launched back into the stratosphere with some help from a friend behind the fretboard.
Looking through the accolades in the band, did anyone really need to show up someone like George Harrison on record? Sure, he may not have been the flashiest guitar player in the world, but the way that ‘The Quiet Beatle’ weaved together melodies was enough to leave any other guitarist in the dust whenever he played.
Then again, the old joke was that the Wilburys were the first band to boast five different rhythm guitar players, and no one wanted to showboat next to their friends. Each tune was brought together from a songwriter’s perspective, but listening back to ‘She’s My Baby,’ everyone knew that something needed to take the song to the next level.
Granted, it’s not like they had the best song to work with. The tune was clearly a barnburner on the same level as The Beatles’ early numbers, but what really made everything move was the insane guitar fills throughout the tune. And for as much as Harrison gets credit as a song craftsman, he could never have done what Gary Moore did when he walked into the studio.
How did Gary Moore fit into the Traveling Wilburys?
Harrison had already been a major fan of Moore’s playing ever since hearing him play blues guitar. Listening back to his own work, Moore had studied under some of the best blues guitarists of his time, and considering how well he used strange chords on tracks like ‘Still Got the Blues’, it was clear that he was at least speaking the same language as the other Wilburys when he walked into the studio.
And compared to every other solo on a Wilburys record, this was one of the most fiery performances of the bunch. There had been rumblings of other artists playing with the group, but outside of Eric Clapton being a friend, even ‘Slowhand’ couldn’t match what Moore did on this track, almost like he had some fiery demon inside of him that needed to be let out sooner or later.
None of the members seemed all that intimidated by him, either. Harrison was far more suited to playing slide guitar at that point and listening to the rest of Traveling Wilburys Vol. III, hearing him break out the sitar as well as other soaring leads are what made the tunes sound that much sweeter.
Out of all the other guitarist friends in their arsenal, though, Moore was the only guitarist to be considered an honourary Wilbury, even being given the nickname ‘Ken Wilbury’ in the album’s liner notes. No part of the band’s sound was supposed to be a fireworks show, but Moore created the kind of bad-boy solo that perfectly captured the rock and roll every one of them loved growing up.
