Trivia & Extras / Pseudonym Glossary
The Complete Traveling Wilburys Pseudonym Glossary
Nobody in this band used their real name on a record for three straight years, and several of them kept the habit going for decades afterward. Here's every Wilbury alias on record, in one place.
The Core Five
| Real name | Vol. 1 alias (1988) | Vol. 3 alias (1990) |
|---|---|---|
| George Harrison | Nelson Wilbury | Spike Wilbury |
| Jeff Lynne | Otis Wilbury | Clayton Wilbury |
| Bob Dylan | Lucky Wilbury | Boo Wilbury |
| Tom Petty | Charlie T. Wilbury Jr. | Muddy Wilbury |
| Roy Orbison | Lefty Wilbury | (did not appear) |
All five were presented as half-brothers, sons of a fictional patriarch named Charles Truscott Wilbury Sr. For the full story of where this entire conceit came from, see the Wilbury family mythology.
Honorary and Session Aliases
| Real name | Alias | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Jim Keltner | Buster Sidebury | Session drummer on both albums, never an official Wilbury |
| Dhani Harrison | Ayrton Wilbury | 2007 overdubs on "Maxine" and "Like a Ship," named for F1 driver Ayrton Senna |
| Gary Moore | Ken Wilbury | Lead guitar on "She's My Baby," Vol. 3 |
| Paul Reubens | Pee Wee Wilbury | Winter Warnerland Christmas compilation, 1988 |
Full write-ups on each of these are on our honorary Wilburys page.
Harrison's Extended Alter Egos
George Harrison kept the Wilbury name going well beyond the band's active years, layering on new versions almost every time he stepped in front of a microphone again:
- Nelson Wilbury: reused on Warner Bros.' 1988 Christmas promotional album Winter Warnerland
- Nakihama Wilbury: adopted during a solo tour of Japan in December 1991
- "Spike and Nelson Wilbury": a combined credit Harrison gave himself as producer of his 1992 live album Live in Japan
The Fictional Film Crew
Harrison's own 1988 promotional reel about the making of Vol. 1, titled Whatever Wilbury Wilbury and shown internally to Warner Bros. staff, extended the joke to an entirely invented behind-the-camera crew:
- Cecil Bidet Wilbury: director
- Lenny W. Wilbury: sound
- Chopper Wilbury: editor
- Edison Wilbury: lighting
- Evelyn Wilbury: wardrobe
The Next Generation
The joke has outlived several of the men who started it. At a 2019 Tom Petty tribute concert, Roy Orbison's own sons performed under the names Lefty Wilbury Jr. (Roy Orbison Jr.) and Ginger Wilbury (Alex Orbison): a warm, deliberate way of folding the family's next generation into a bit that, by then, was more than thirty years old.
Want the full story behind any individual alias? Start with the band's real history, or read about the fictional family mythology that made all of this necessary in the first place.