You’ve probably never heard of the Wrecking Crew, but you’ve certainly heard the Wrecking Crew. Largely unheralded during their heyday of the ’60s and ’70s, this collective of session musicians performed on hundreds of Top 40 tracks, including Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’.” One of these illustrious artists was bassist Joe Osborn, who enjoyed a six-decade career with both Los Angeles’ Wrecking Crew and Nashville’s A-Team. On this day in 2018, Joe Osborn died at his Greenwood, Louisiana home following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 81 years old.
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Joe Osborn Stumbled Upon the Bass By Accident
Born Aug. 28, 1937, in Mound, Louisiana, and raised in Shreveport, Osborn got his start as a guitar player—”not a great one,” he dryly said, despite the fact that he was playing weekly in church by age 12. He switched to bass “sort of by accident” when he and fellow guitarist Roy Buchanan arrived in Las Vegas to accompany country singer Bob Luman during his yearlong Showboat Hotel run. Turned out, Luman needed a guitar player and a bassist.
Remembering Joe Osborn an
— Lee Jerome (@LeeJero32024251) December 14, 2025
American bass guitar player
who passed away on this
day 12/14/2018. Osborn was
a session musician who was
part of the Wrecking Crew in L.A.
and the A-Team in Nashville.
Joe played on many songs
including MacArthur Park-
Richard Harris;
(cont.) pic.twitter.com/84A9jZ3NS2
So, Joe Osborn bought himself a Fender Precision bass and learned to play the instrument. Having no idea that neither a pick nor an amplifier were necessary, he used both. One day, he turned the amp up only to hear, “No, man, you can’t do that. The bass should be felt and not heard.”
“I didn’t know what to say to that except, ‘Well, I guess you’re going to get both,’” Osborn recalled in a June 2015 interview with Pop Culture Classics.
[RELATED: 10 Classic Songs That Were Backed by the Wrecking Crew]
He Hated Playing Live
Continuing to perform until his death in 2018, Joe Osborn is one of the most-recorded bassists of all time, playing with the Carpenters, Neil Diamond, Ricky Nelson, and more. Despite his prolific and talent output, he never had aspirations beyond session work. Notably, Osborn rejected offers to tour with some massive acts, including Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley.
“I didn’t like playing live, because it didn’t sound good… I love the microscope,” he said. “Playing there with the headphones, you get the sound and you’re able to get the part right. Playing live, when you make a mistake, it’s gone. And I just never liked it.”
Featured image by Greg Campbell/WireImage for NARAS
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