Wilco’s Nels Cline on how he joined the band: “I knew that Wilco would kind of rescue me…”
Nels Cline has spoke out on how he came to join the band alongside Pat Sansone
Image: Taylor Hill / Getty
Guitarist Nels Cline of Wilco has recently reminisced on how he came to join the band in 2004 alongside Pat Sansone.
The band have recently released their twelfth studio album, Cruel Country and are set to head out on the road. In a recent interview on US radio station WFPK, Cline reflected on how he came to join the band.
Speaking of the difference between his solo work and the music of Wilco he explained, “I met Jeff [Tweedy] when I was playing in a band called Geraldine Fibbers, one of my favourite bands. I was touring with them in 1996 as a substitute guitar player quite happily and there’s some similarities stylistically with Wilco and with [what] Carla Bozulich of the Geraldine Fibbers was writing on that first record, Lost Somewhere Between The Earth And My Home, it’s a brilliant record. But basically [I] just play music I like.”
He continued, “It was quite a struggle to keep playing my music and playing other’s music on the West Coast, I wasn’t really looking to join a prominent rock and roll band. Having met Jeff and having met everybody eventually I opened [for] Wilco with Carla under her name in 2003 on a couple of shows… That’s when I knew that Wilco would kind of rescue me on one level as to offer flexibility and creativity that no other project could offer really so I was ready for it.”
To get your tickets for the Cruel Country Tour, you can visit their website here.