“I was so poor. I was pushing 50 years old. I thought, ‘I might have to get a job again’”: Guitar wizard Nels Cline was about to get a day job before Jeff Tweedy changed his life and asked him to join Wilco

Nels Cline has looked back on the life-changing moment when he received a call from Jeff Tweedy out of the blue inviting him to join Wilco.

Cline joined the indie rock outfit in 2004, having been brought onboard to support the band’s fifth studio record, A Ghost Is Born. A year later, he made his live debut, and he’s been a pillar of Wilco ever since.

Before that, though, the trajectory of Cline’s career looked very different, and as he explains in a new interview with Guitar World’s Paul Riario, he was preparing himself a career pivot before Tweedy made the call.

Cline had experienced success as a solo and session artist before he was headhunted by Tweedy, but his financial situation was unstable. He’d given up the day job to do music full-time, and was struggling to make ends meet.

As a 48-year-old at the time, he was seriously reflecting on what he wanted from his career. He was about to go back to work before the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity landed in his lap.

In his Guitar World interview, Cline explains he was playing with alt rock vocalist Carla Bozulich. Tweedy, in need of a new guitarist, reached out to Bozulich, letting her know he had Cline in mind. The rest was history.

Nels Cline: 22 Years in Wilco, Jazz Tourism, and Why 30 Watts Is Enough - YouTube

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“I have no idea. I still don't know after 22 years,” Cline says when asked why Tweedy picked him to join Wilco. “Carla and I were doing music together and had been asked to go on tour with some people that I wasn't really particularly musically passionate about.

“But I was so poor. I'd stopped the day job thing. I was trying not to have a day job after almost 18 years of day jobs. I was pushing 50 years old at this point, and I thought, ‘I think I might have to get a job again.’

“I thought, ‘Okay, I've never had a job that had a computer or a cash register. I never had to clock in. I always had bookstore and record store jobs. I sold Christmas trees one time.

“I thought, ‘What am I going to do? I'm almost 50 years old. My jobs have never had any kind of normal parameters as far as how to do them. I thought, ‘Maybe Starbucks? They'll probably take somebody with no experience, and I can just learn how to do it.’ And that's when Jeff called it.”

The divine intervention nature of Tweedy’s approach isn’t lost on Cline, who, to this day, can’t believe how close the call came to him getting a job as a barista.

“It's actually a true story. I was driving down from the Bay Area. I had played with Scott and Devin… I think I had something like $800.

“Then I realized, ‘Oh, I have to pay my rent. Well, that leaves $200. That's not terrible, but I think I should get a job.’ And that's when Carla called my cellphone and said that Jeff had called.”

As far as sliding doors moments go, Cline’s experience is pretty significant. Had he not been picked out by Tweedy to join Wilco – a group with which he’s now synonymous – his career could have looked very different indeed.

Cline’s full interview is available to watch on the Guitar World YouTube channel.