{"id":10550,"date":"2026-04-27T12:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/jim-keltner-on-working-with-bob-dylan-george-harrison-and-more-154408\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T12:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:15:09","slug":"jim-keltner-on-working-with-bob-dylan-george-harrison-and-more-154408","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/jim-keltner-on-working-with-bob-dylan-george-harrison-and-more-154408\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI play the emotion of the song\u201d \u2013 Jim Keltner on working with Bob Dylan, George Harrison and more"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

This article originally appeared in Uncut Take 339 [June 2025]<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

This article originally appeared in Uncut Take 339 [June 2025]<\/strong><\/p>\n

A pro \u2019til 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. \u201cIt\u2019s basically three or four minutes to any of the studios in Hollywood. Well, it used to be,\u201d he adds, with reference to LA\u2019s increasingly hellish traffic. \u201cNow you\u2019re lucky if you can get there in 25.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent wildfires have meant that sessions for \u201cseveral really fun artists\u201d have been put on hold, but \u201cit looks like I\u2019ll get busy in the summer again. It\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Keltner won\u2019t be doing, sadly, is going back out on the road with Bob Dylan following a brief but fascinating stint on the Rough & Rowdy Ways<\/em> tour at the end of last year. \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll join up at some other point in time, but he loves to just never stop and I can\u2019t do that, so I won\u2019t be out with him this time. But I will tell you that I\u2019ll go see him the first chance I get, because it\u2019s gonna be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did growing up in Tulsa influence you musically?
Paul Metsa, Duluth, MN<\/strong><\/p>\n

My dad was more of a jazz guy than he was a country guy, he loved the big bands \u2013 Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, a lot of that stuff. And then on the other hand, one of my uncles on my momma\u2019s side, Willie Mendoza, was a bass player that was always subbing for somebody at Cain\u2019s 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\u2019s where I gained my love for pop records.<\/p>\n

You are one of the great \u2018song\u2019 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<\/strong><\/p>\n

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, \u201cOh, I always play to the vocal.\u201d And whatever Ringo was doing, that\u2019s what I wanted to do, because he played on some good records, I\u2019d 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, \u2018Right, maybe I\u2019m gonna have to pull back here\u2026\u2019 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\u2019s the key.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve 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<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think his singing. One of the main criticisms of Bob Dylan [is that] he never sings his melody any more. That\u2019s not totally true, but he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

I was fortunate to be present during the now infamous performance of \u201cDesolation Row\u201d 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<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, he was doing that because he felt it at the time. He\u2019s 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\u2019d play those low notes, bang \u2019em 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.<\/p>\n

How did George [Harrison]\u2019s spirituality rub off on you?
Louis Emory, via email<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, it couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

You have had a close relationship with John, George and Ringo. Ever been close to playing on a McCartney album?
Jaime Guardamino, via email<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s drums one time and I looked over to see the stick go right into Ringo\u2019s snare drum. I said, \u201cOh my God, you just broke the Ed Sullivan head!\u201d That\u2019s the way I referred to it, because it was the original drum, the same head on from the beginning of The Beatles, cause that\u2019s how easy [Ringo] played it. And not only that, it was a calfskin head, it wasn\u2019t even a plastic head. He just said, [adopts breezy Macca voice] \u201cOh, it\u2019s alright, I\u2019ll buy \u2018im a new one.\u201d I thought that was so freakin\u2019 funny. I was amazed and appalled, but I kind of knew that Ringo wouldn\u2019t care. And sure enough, it was no big deal to him at all. Ringo\u2019s 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!<\/p>\n

How was the process of writing \u201cHurry Down Doomsday\u201d [from 1991\u2019s Mighty Like A Rose<\/em>] with Elvis Costello?
Mats, Stockholm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, that was a fun thing. I wasn\u2019t really a part of the writing \u2013 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\u2019ve ever met. He\u2019s 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\u2019s got more energy than just about anybody I know.<\/p>\n

You hadn\u2019t 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<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/em>. Fortunately, I did homework back in the day. I became very acquainted with Neil\u2019s groove, and so when it was time to play with Neil, I knew where to go. \u201cPeace Trail\u201d is a perfect example. He started playing the song \u2013 another drummer might have sat there and made notes, but I was just going to catch on. I didn\u2019t 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\u2019s typical Neil. Sometimes the track that you hear on the record is not even Take One. It\u2019s not even like, \u201cHey guys, let\u2019s run this down.\u201d It\u2019s actually just the first time that he starts playing and everybody falls in.<\/p>\n

How mad was [Joe Cocker\u2019s 1970] Mad Dogs And Englishmen tour?
Peter Fors, Stockholm<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was as mad as you can imagine. You know, young people having the reins, y\u2019all go out there and have fun, and that\u2019s exactly what we did. You couldn\u2019t do those things now! And Joe was on fire. He couldn\u2019t do anything wrong.<\/p>\n

Was there any rivalry between yourself and the other great LA session drummers?
Andy Falstaff, Rochdale<\/strong><\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t really a rivalry, we were all friends. Jeff Porcaro was like my little brother. We\u2019d 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\u2019t cuttin\u2019 it! I didn\u2019t 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\u2019d pick his brain constantly and make him tell me about sessions that he\u2019d played on. He was a great storyteller, just a great cat overall.<\/p>\n

Which track that you\u2019ve played on are you most proud of?
Dave Menzies, via email<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say, there\u2019s just so many things that I love so much. In the same week, I went from playing Dolly Parton\u2019s \u201cHere You Come Again\u201d, which was a big crossover single for her, and a few days later, I played \u201cJosie\u201d with Steely Dan. So with an itinerary like that, I don\u2019t know how I could say to anybody what my favourite song is!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post \u201cI play the emotion of the song\u201d \u2013 Jim Keltner on working with Bob Dylan, George Harrison and more<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in Uncut Take 339 [June 2025] This article originally appeared in Uncut Take 339 [June 2025] A pro \u2019til the very end, Jim Keltner still talks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[380,4516,31,2302,35,5958,384],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bob-dylan","category-elvis-costello","category-features","category-george-harrison","category-interviews","category-jim-keltner","category-ringo-starr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}