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John Selby attended high school and college along with Karl. In addition to playing saxophone and flute, John was a poet and playwright. In 1981, he asked Karl to compose incidental music for a production of his play, Hydrophobia.

John debuted with Automatic Pilot at the I-Beam in January 1982, the theme from Hydrophobia became a permanent part of the band's repertory. John performed with Automatic Pilot until 1983.

He passed away in 1985.

John's poetry: THE THIN MUSICIAN (John read this poem, about the late conductor Calvin Simmons, at an Automatic Pilot performace at the Valencia Rose), SALT SPRING ISLAND, AS I DIG THIS GARDEN, INDIAN SUMMER and WHILE LAUREL LEAVES WERE ALL AROUND and an appreciation of John's life by Ray Hughes may be found on The Liferaft website.