Everybody wants to share the stage with Peter Wolf.
Whether on the road fronting the J. Geils Band or his solo group, the Midnight Travelers, Wolf has spent the last decade sharing bills with superstars and cult heroes from Tom Petty to Bob Seger, Kid Rock to Bon Jovi, Lynyrd Skynyrd to John Prine. On Thursday, Wolf adds Jimmy Buffett to that list when he opens at Fenway Park for the hardest-working, richest beach bum in the world.
“I have a lot of history with these people. I have known (Jimmy) since he started out as a folk singer,” Wolf said. “He collaborated on a lot of songs with a gentleman by the name of Will Jennings, who I have also collaborated on a lot of songs with.”
Wolf says he rarely turns down the chance to “get a house party started” for anyone. But he finds real pleasure in working with anyone who knocked around the late-’60s, early ’70s music scene. For the old guard, there’s a camaraderie that has lasted through boom and bust years.
“In the ’60s, our generation started to redefine rock ’n’ roll, and we had no idea where it might lead,” Wolf said. “But we would all meet out on the road, maybe meet in places like skating rinks, places that had never had music before us. We were all young and together out there on the highways and byways crisscrossing the United States.
“I think about when Traffic would come to town and we would tour with them,” he added. “Billy Joel is someone that used to open up for the old Geils band on just piano, and we still laugh about how we made sure the piano was always in tune for him. The original Lynyrd Skynyrd opened up for many of the Geils’ early shows. And of course Tom (Petty) and I became friends in the late ’70s when he kicked off our shows.”
Wolf has some wonderful memories of those halcyon days, but he doesn’t spend much time looking back.
Without disrespecting the dozens of aces he has worked with, his current outfit, the Midnight Travelers (featuring the twin guitar stylings of Duke Levine and Kevin Barry), makes for one of the world’s great backing bands. They can match Wolf’s every artistic turn: classic R&B, garage rock, twanging country, mournful folk and more.
“It’s great to be working with people who are great artists but also important friends,” he said. “I love having them with me.”
With the Travelers and a lot of the same crew from 2016’s “A Cure for Loneliness,” Wolf has started work on a new LP he hopes will be out as soon as this winter — a fast pace for a 72-year-old who typically averages half a decade between albums.
“The key thing is making sure the quality remains to one’s satisfaction,” he said. “Making it is easy. Making it good gets a little bit harder.”
Quality control can also be a challenge when every few weeks the phone rings with someone asking you to share a bill with them. Thankfully, Wolf is happy to take on the challenge.
Jimmy Buffett, with Peter Wolf, at Fenway Park, Thursday. Tickets: $65-$271; ticketmaster.com
