“I play the emotion of the song” – Jim Keltner on working with Bob Dylan, George Harrison and more

This article originally appeared in Uncut Take 339 [June 2025]

A pro ’til the very end, Jim Keltner still talks about his home neighbourhood of Los Feliz in terms of its proximity to his place of work for the last six decades. “It’s basically three or four minutes to any of the studios in Hollywood. Well, it used to be,” he adds, with reference to LA’s increasingly hellish traffic. “Now you’re lucky if you can get there in 25.”

The recent wildfires have meant that sessions for “several really fun artists” have been put on hold, but “it looks like I’ll get busy in the summer again. It’s all young people now! A lot of young, very talented people, and I enjoy that. I love playing on new stuff and hearing the playback and all that. I love the whole process.”

One thing Keltner won’t be doing, sadly, is going back out on the road with Bob Dylan following a brief but fascinating stint on the Rough & Rowdy Ways tour at the end of last year. “Maybe I’ll join up at some other point in time, but he loves to just never stop and I can’t do that, so I won’t be out with him this time. But I will tell you that I’ll go see him the first chance I get, because it’s gonna be amazing.”

How did growing up in Tulsa influence you musically?
Paul Metsa, Duluth, MN

My dad was more of a jazz guy than he was a country guy, he loved the big bands – Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, a lot of that stuff. And then on the other hand, one of my uncles on my momma’s side, Willie Mendoza, was a bass player that was always subbing for somebody at Cain’s Ballroom. He played with Johnnie Lee Wills and a lot of the country acts that would come through. My mom would go dancing there with my aunts. She would play all kinds of different stuff around the house, and I think that’s where I gained my love for pop records.

You are one of the great ‘song’ drummers along with Ringo, Levon and Charlie. What is your process for getting into the feeling of the track? Do you like to have the lyrics/demo beforehand, or do you like to wing it?
Bob Collum, via email

When I first started, I had a tendency to not concentrate on the vocal, because you knew the vocal was gonna be replaced. But then I talked to Ringo one day and he said, “Oh, I always play to the vocal.” And whatever Ringo was doing, that’s what I wanted to do, because he played on some good records, I’d say! The emotional part is the part that really counts. There are a lot of guys who had very limited technical ability, but still made the songs they played on sound so incredible. When I was young, I prided myself that I had real cool little chops. Then later on, making records, I started thinking, ‘Right, maybe I’m gonna have to pull back here…’ An important part of playing on records is to play the emotion of the song and have just enough technical ability to pull that off. That’s the key.

You’ve joined Bob Dylan at so many different points of his career. Was there anything, in terms of the musical approach, that stood out as particularly surprising to you this time around?
Virgil Kinsey, via email

I think his singing. One of the main criticisms of Bob Dylan [is that] he never sings his melody any more. That’s not totally true, but he’s never been known to be a crooner. Vocally, the main thing that stood out for me this time was that Bob is a phrasing genius. It made it so much fun to play with him. There were a few nights on some of the songs that I thought I was playing with one one of the great rappers.

I was fortunate to be present during the now infamous performance of “Desolation Row” at Darien Lake Amphitheater featuring a wrench [that Dylan banged against his microphone]. Could you share your perspective on this?
Olivia Hines Whittaker, via email

Yeah, he was doing that because he felt it at the time. He’s got a great sense of rhythm. What he lacks in being able to play melodically and chordal-wise on the piano, he makes up for with his rhythm. He’d play those low notes, bang ’em really loud. At one point in rehearsals, I thought he was doing it because he was angry at the guitar players. But I misinterpreted. When everything started to gel, you could see he was just using it as part of the overall rhythm, and it was amazing.

How did George [Harrison]’s spirituality rub off on you?
Louis Emory, via email

Well, it couldn’t help but affect you. George had a way of explaining things that just made so much sense at the time. When I think of George, he becomes bigger than life. George had that way about him, and yet he would have laughed at that. He was an amazing person. He was as human as you could possibly be, but he also made you feel that he was from another part of the galaxy.

You have had a close relationship with John, George and Ringo. Ever been close to playing on a McCartney album?
Jaime Guardamino, via email

I never did play with Paul in a recording situation, but we jammed a lot back in the day. He would come to Record Plant, and I got a chance to play double drums with him. He played on Ringo’s drums one time and I looked over to see the stick go right into Ringo’s snare drum. I said, “Oh my God, you just broke the Ed Sullivan head!” That’s the way I referred to it, because it was the original drum, the same head on from the beginning of The Beatles, cause that’s how easy [Ringo] played it. And not only that, it was a calfskin head, it wasn’t even a plastic head. He just said, [adopts breezy Macca voice] “Oh, it’s alright, I’ll buy ‘im a new one.” I thought that was so freakin’ funny. I was amazed and appalled, but I kind of knew that Ringo wouldn’t care. And sure enough, it was no big deal to him at all. Ringo’s another amazing cat. To have recorded with those three guys is one of the greatest things in my life, so to add Paul McCartney in there would have been almost too much!

How was the process of writing “Hurry Down Doomsday” [from 1991’s Mighty Like A Rose] with Elvis Costello?
Mats, Stockholm

Oh, that was a fun thing. I wasn’t really a part of the writing – all I did was I had this crazy little groove and El loved it, so he put his song together around that. Costello is probably one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He’s just one of those guys that knows a lot about everything, and musically so amazingly fertile. Just being around Elvis was, and still is, one of the most fun things you can do. The guy’s got more energy than just about anybody I know.

You hadn’t worked with Neil Young for aeons, then out of the blue, you got a call to head to Malibu where you recorded in four days. How did Neil explain what he wanted for this one?
Jason Carey, via email

Neil is yet another one that I was very blessed to spend time with, musically and otherwise. There was not a whole lot of talking, Neil would just play. Fortunately, I did homework back in the day. I became very acquainted with Neil’s groove, and so when it was time to play with Neil, I knew where to go. “Peace Trail” is a perfect example. He started playing the song – another drummer might have sat there and made notes, but I was just going to catch on. I didn’t even have a chance to put the snare on. So I just kept playing with the snares off, and so that was the first correction I was gonna make. But we went in to hear the playback, and that turned out to be the take he wanted. That’s typical Neil. Sometimes the track that you hear on the record is not even Take One. It’s not even like, “Hey guys, let’s run this down.” It’s actually just the first time that he starts playing and everybody falls in.

How mad was [Joe Cocker’s 1970] Mad Dogs And Englishmen tour?
Peter Fors, Stockholm

It was as mad as you can imagine. You know, young people having the reins, y’all go out there and have fun, and that’s exactly what we did. You couldn’t do those things now! And Joe was on fire. He couldn’t do anything wrong.

Was there any rivalry between yourself and the other great LA session drummers?
Andy Falstaff, Rochdale

There wasn’t really a rivalry, we were all friends. Jeff Porcaro was like my little brother. We’d see each other sometimes at the studio. An album would come out, and it would be me on one track, Jeffrey on another track, Russ [Kunkel] on another track. Hal Blaine was my first mentor, because he was playing on all the records when I first got into this thing. When I joined with Gary Lewis & The Playboys, they had Hal at the sessions, just in case I wasn’t cuttin’ it! I didn’t know that was the reason he was there, I thought he was there to play tambourine and shakers. So I was blown away that the great Hal Blaine would come to the studio. I’d pick his brain constantly and make him tell me about sessions that he’d played on. He was a great storyteller, just a great cat overall.

Which track that you’ve played on are you most proud of?
Dave Menzies, via email

I can’t say, there’s just so many things that I love so much. In the same week, I went from playing Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again”, which was a big crossover single for her, and a few days later, I played “Josie” with Steely Dan. So with an itinerary like that, I don’t know how I could say to anybody what my favourite song is!