Based on names alone, I considered tonight while listening to "End of the Line" that The Traveling Wilburys could have been the biggest supergroup of all time.

Bob Dylan (Lucky Wilbury)
George Harrison (RIP) (Nelson Wilbury)
Jeff Lynne (Otis Wilbury)
Roy Orbison (RIP) (Lefty Wilbury)
Tom Petty (RIP) (Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr.)

I mean, you can't much bigger names than that in a group. That first record was so good. "Handle With Care," "End of the Line" were both great roots folksy rock songs.

Even MJ engineer Bill Bottrell worked his magic on the album.

The only other calibur of supergroup I can think of is Highwaymen, with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.

It's odd because you have to think about groups like Cream, Led Zeppelin, etc., but aren't those just folks leaving one band to come to another? Tom Petty still had the Heartbreakers, Lynne still had ELO, etc. Hell even Eagles or Journey could be in this camp. But that's a very broad stroke. There are side projects, supergroups, then bands that are just made from members leftover from something else.

Bad English and Damn Yankees feel like proper Supergroups, too.

But aside from Highwaymen, you can't really beat names like Dylan, Harrison, Lynne, Orbison and Petty.

What about that coked-out bootleg session with Lennon(rip)/McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Harry Nilsson (rip) from 1974?

After that best I got is when Robert Smith joined Siouxie and the Banshees for an album / tour.

Chickenfoot

Velvet Revolver

Audioslave

Not the biggest, per se, but just great music!!!

What about when aperfectcircle had James "the real soul behind billy cr0gan's guitar center wankfests" Iha in the band?

nayroo2002 said:

Chickenfoot

Velvet Revolver

Audioslave

Not the biggest, per se, but just great music!!!

I did love Velvet Revolver.

Re: Asia: See - that's the line. What is a supergroup and what is just folks getting together to make music?

Traveling Wilburys and Highwaymen seemed very purposeful in who they were and how they were advertised. They aren't the top two ever, but TW certainly has some of the biggest names ever in it.

So back to the question: Was TW the biggest supergroup of all time?

I just had a flash of some MTV show with Sebastian Bach and others that made up a supergroup for the sake of a TV show. I think it was even called Supergroup. Ted Nugent, Scott Ian, Jason Bonham and Evan Seinfeld, with Bach.

I had Asia's first record, and toyed with the second, but lost interest. They almost leaned prog-rock in some ways, which was never my jam.

Hollywood Vampires

The Power Station

nayroo2002 said:

Hollywood Vampires

The Power Station

At the time, The Power Station was kind of a big deal. I loved that album.

Power Station.

It's the drums.

The loud, bombastic, overpowered drums.

For a one-off, surely the greatest rock supergroup has been assembled by Mark Knopfler for his upcoming charity single

https://www.independent.c...92760.html

The full list of contributors is as follows: Joan Armatrading, Jeff Beck, Richard Bennett, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Brown, JamesBurton, Jonathan Cain, Paul Carrack, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Jim Cox, SteveCropper, Sheryl Crow, Danny Cummings, Roger Daltrey, Duane Eddy, Sam Fender,Guy Fletcher, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, David Gilmour, BuddyGuy, Keiji Haino, Tony Iommi, Joan Jett, John Jorgenson, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Hank Marvin, Brian May, Robbie McIntosh, John McLaughlin, TomMorello, Rick Nielsen, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Nile Rodgers, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Connor Selby, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey, Sting, Andy Taylor, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Ian Thomas, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Walsh, Ronnie Wood, Glenn Worf, Zucchero.

[Edited 2/15/24 2:27am]

Krid said:

For a one-off, surely the greatest rock supergroup has been assembled by Mark Knopfler for his upcoming charity single

i don't think that counts.

you could bring this up in the we're da world thread, though!

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