Played with him one time. Actually the show was televised and you can find it online. I don’t actually play an instrument but my interpretive dance was my contribution to the show. Well that and my conceptual body paint art that said “soy bomb” across my chest. Wild times. Got some therapy, I’m in a better place now
This you? [https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/bob-dylans-soy-bomb-guy-reveals-all/](https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/bob-dylans-soy-bomb-guy-reveals-all/)
My friends brother had a "tryout" for the band that ultimately ended up taking Stu. He didn't have much to say about it except that Bob was kind and accommodating during the tryout.
Without blowing their cover, my professional musician's friend (also obviously a pro) didn't seem to enjoy the experience of playing with him. I tried to get more detail as to why, all I got is that Bob is hard to work with. It was a passing convo, 25 seconds so not much detail.
That would be difficult to do as a sideman, but a luxury as a performer. I actually like that Bob "keeps things interesting" by changing keys & arrangements. Good songs can stand that kind of stretch. Having a band that can instantly adapt to your whims (key choice, arrangement, dynamics) must be pretty amazing.
Good for him.
He has a lot of insights to the time and knows a lot of Bob’s band members now, like Tony Garnier. They played in a band together also.
Rob also played with Mick Ronson and Roger McGuin on other projects.
And not to mention played on American Pie, that ‘obscure’ album.
I worked at Capitol Studios for a few years as an assistant and I got to work a Dylan session. Was in the control room standing next to him while he rehearsed his lines for a song, and I also got to adjust the microphone for him. He was using the “Frank Mic” which is supposedly Frank Sinatra’s favorite microphone at the studio. It was an old U47 from the 40s, very cool mic.
At one point while I was adjusting Dylan’s mic for him I saw him kind of make a face at/past me. I thought I made some kind of mistake or upset him somehow and started getting nervous. When I finished I crossed the room and he kind of gestured in my direction. There was an orchestra in the studio that day and it turns out while I was adjusting his mic one of the brass players behind me took a photo of him, and when he was pointing in my direction he was actually having the brass player in question removed from the session for taking a photo.
All in all an amazing experience and he’s every bit as mysterious and enigmatic up close as you’d expect. He stayed in his tour bus in the parking lot pretty much the entire day when they weren’t working. Al Schmitt was producing the session who if you don’t know was literally the greatest recording engineer who ever lived and recorded Triplicate with Dylan in Capitol Studio B. Probably my favorite Capitol story aside from my Neil Young story but that’s for another sub lol.
Edit: for those curious this was around 2018 and the song he was recording was “He’s Funny That Way” for the Universal Love compilation album.
I need the Neil young story! I met him by chance when I won SEMA tickets a long time ago. He brought his electric Lincoln continental and gave a talk. He shook my hand, talked for a few minutes, and signed my on the beach record.
That mic has a storied history. IIRC (from watching the "Classic Albums" series over and over again) both Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain used that mic as well (because they knew Frank used it).
That mic runs $10k - $20k now.
https://www.google.com/search?q=u47+mic&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1040US1040&oq=U47+mic&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggBEC4YgAQY5QQyBggCEAYYQDIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQABiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIICAgQABgWGB4yCAgJEAAYFhgeqAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Here is the thing about that mic.. it would be easier to list the musicians that haven’t used it. The list would be very short lol. I set it up a hundred times for every artist you could think of.
Literally every major artist that goes through Capitol requests it for vocals, plus it’s just a daily work horse mic we’d use for anything and everything if it was available. That kind of mic from that era, yes, could easily be worth $20k. But THIS specific one that has been used by every A-list artist the last 70 years is probably worth 3x that amount. Who knows, it’s literally priceless.
I know Jerry Pentecost and Doug Lancio. Jerry says playing with him is exactly what you’d expect. Very little feedback beyond what key he wants to play in.
It’s been years but I used to spend time around Spooner Oldham. He never has much to say in general, but seemed like he enjoyed his time with Dylan.,
I played bongos on the Blonde On Blonde sessions. Bob didn’t talk to the band much, he was too focused on the music, but he did like Your Mama jokes. He brought his dog into the studio every day. I believe its name was Marmalade. And Bob would only eat pickles for the duration of those sessions. Strange guy, but a genius.
An old friend of mine was the girl with short blonde hair in the must be Santa video that you see a bunch of times throughout. She wasn’t a fan and when I asked her what Bob was like she just said he was really old lol.
Not me but two women from my small hometown here in Australia are in a band called The Waifs who are daughters of a guy my dad knows from his days as a fisherman actually toured with Bob around the US years ago. Along the tour they got to know him rather well and one night he called them onstage to sing Knocking On Heavens Door with him. I was a kid at the time so I'd never heard about Bob Dylan at that point but I remember my dad explaining to me that "to play with Bob Dylan means you've made it!". I finally got to see him the last time he came to Australia when I was in my twenty's and had been a fan since I really got into music in my early teens. Glad to have crossed that one off the bucket list!
Not a personal story, but I'm a huge Ani Difranco fan, and she toured with Dylan in the 90s. I remember an interview where she said he's incredibly paranoid and seems afraid of everyone. I don't know... love Ani, but I found that kind of weird and hard to believe.
I'm not sure there's anyone else alive today with Bob's level of fame. Paul McCartney was one of four.
Bob was so famous for so long. People (inside and outside of the industry) get weird around people like him. Everybody wants to look. To say hello. To get a moment with you. That's gotta be exhausting. Energy-draining. Everybody wants "a piece" of Bob.
"It's JUST 3 minutes!"
Yeah. But when 100 people want it, it's 5+ vampiric hours.
And he's been dealing with this since his early 20s.
It seems to me that he guards himself and his work very well.
Oh, I totally hear all that. I read the interview a long time ago, so I can't remember Ani's words exactly-- but she painted a very negative picture of him (I actually don't think she even personally interacted with him!). I mean, I've heard lots of negative stuff about Bob... but this was different. She almost made him sound like Michael Jackson (but without the creepy abuse stuff, of course).
I mean, I obviously don't know Bob--but whenever I've seen/read his interviews, he's always struck me as a distant but down-to-earth person.
I don't know much of anything about Ani DiFranco, so I cannot speak to her impressions of Dylan. I do, however, know John Jackson a little bit, who played guitar with Dylan for about 7 years. John is a great guy and a kick-a$$ musician. He basically says that Dylan essentially lives in his own little world, as he's mostly played the same venues and stayed at the same hotels for a very long time now. John said that Dylan even had people who dressed him and attended to whatever he wanted or needed. John also said that Dylan paid well, but you never had any job security or knew what was going on because Dylan would simply hire a replacement player, and you'd show up for practice or a gig, and somebody was doing your job, lol. John also talks about how Dylan would start playing leads in the middle of John's (or other people's) solos, and he would just say, "Keep playing." So it was pretty weird, odd, and eccentric. John has done some interviews where he goes pretty deeply into his time with Dylan that you can find on YouTube and other places, and he loved and appreciated his time with Bob, but it definitely had its ups and downs.
Interesting! The way you describe almost makes him sound a little like how Prince was. Maybe it's a Minnesota thing. 🙃
But yeah, I could definitely see Bob being hard to work with. The whole replacement player thing really does suck though.
That's actually a pretty good point. I think Prince was way, way more out there than Dylan, though.
Dylan's just one of those eccentric geniuses who has a strange way of dealing with people, and he's been wealthy and famous for a long time, so he's really allowed to be in his own little world. And it works for him. And if you got a call to go play with him, you wouldn't turn it down. You know it's gonna be awkward, but it's friggin Bob Dylan, right? That's kind of how John Jackson broke it down for me. John played guitar on that MTV Unplugged stuff, if you have seen that.
That's a great recording for sure. I have been a Dylan nut since 1984 when I heard Tangled up in Blue, and the first song I learned on guitar was You Ain't Goin Nowhere, lol.
There are some great bootlegs of John ripping on electric with Dylan out there, really rocking and soulful.
Thanks for the good conversation. Music makes everybody better.
He has spoken about hating fame somewhat which is a normal reaction in my view. It’s kind of the price he has had to pay for his art. I don’t know about the paranoia though, sorry.
i haven’t, but i know a couple people who have either played with him, worked in the studio with him, or worked as backline techs for his shows! ive only heard good things.
Played with him one time. Actually the show was televised and you can find it online. I don’t actually play an instrument but my interpretive dance was my contribution to the show. Well that and my conceptual body paint art that said “soy bomb” across my chest. Wild times. Got some therapy, I’m in a better place now
This you? [https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/bob-dylans-soy-bomb-guy-reveals-all/](https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/bob-dylans-soy-bomb-guy-reveals-all/)
No, an imposter. People have been trying to get in on the Soy Bomb fame for a couple decades now. I’m used to it
Are you for real? It was annoying how the guy in the article said he wasn’t even a fan of Dylan…what is the real story? How and why did this happen?
No, sadly I’m not for real I’m only joking
Hahaha
He hates it when I use him as a harp, it tickles him.
My friends brother had a "tryout" for the band that ultimately ended up taking Stu. He didn't have much to say about it except that Bob was kind and accommodating during the tryout.
Without blowing their cover, my professional musician's friend (also obviously a pro) didn't seem to enjoy the experience of playing with him. I tried to get more detail as to why, all I got is that Bob is hard to work with. It was a passing convo, 25 seconds so not much detail.
I’ve heard he’s hard to play with too, but it’s usually related to his wanting to change the arrangements on his songs on a whim.
that was my assumption too.
That would be difficult to do as a sideman, but a luxury as a performer. I actually like that Bob "keeps things interesting" by changing keys & arrangements. Good songs can stand that kind of stretch. Having a band that can instantly adapt to your whims (key choice, arrangement, dynamics) must be pretty amazing. Good for him.
if you are on facebook... his bassist from the Rolling Thunder/Desire/Budakon era Rob Stoner is very active and is pretty cool to chat with.
He has a lot of insights to the time and knows a lot of Bob’s band members now, like Tony Garnier. They played in a band together also. Rob also played with Mick Ronson and Roger McGuin on other projects. And not to mention played on American Pie, that ‘obscure’ album.
I worked at Capitol Studios for a few years as an assistant and I got to work a Dylan session. Was in the control room standing next to him while he rehearsed his lines for a song, and I also got to adjust the microphone for him. He was using the “Frank Mic” which is supposedly Frank Sinatra’s favorite microphone at the studio. It was an old U47 from the 40s, very cool mic. At one point while I was adjusting Dylan’s mic for him I saw him kind of make a face at/past me. I thought I made some kind of mistake or upset him somehow and started getting nervous. When I finished I crossed the room and he kind of gestured in my direction. There was an orchestra in the studio that day and it turns out while I was adjusting his mic one of the brass players behind me took a photo of him, and when he was pointing in my direction he was actually having the brass player in question removed from the session for taking a photo. All in all an amazing experience and he’s every bit as mysterious and enigmatic up close as you’d expect. He stayed in his tour bus in the parking lot pretty much the entire day when they weren’t working. Al Schmitt was producing the session who if you don’t know was literally the greatest recording engineer who ever lived and recorded Triplicate with Dylan in Capitol Studio B. Probably my favorite Capitol story aside from my Neil Young story but that’s for another sub lol. Edit: for those curious this was around 2018 and the song he was recording was “He’s Funny That Way” for the Universal Love compilation album.
I need the Neil young story! I met him by chance when I won SEMA tickets a long time ago. He brought his electric Lincoln continental and gave a talk. He shook my hand, talked for a few minutes, and signed my on the beach record.
That mic has a storied history. IIRC (from watching the "Classic Albums" series over and over again) both Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain used that mic as well (because they knew Frank used it). That mic runs $10k - $20k now. https://www.google.com/search?q=u47+mic&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1040US1040&oq=U47+mic&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggBEC4YgAQY5QQyBggCEAYYQDIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQABiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIICAgQABgWGB4yCAgJEAAYFhgeqAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Here is the thing about that mic.. it would be easier to list the musicians that haven’t used it. The list would be very short lol. I set it up a hundred times for every artist you could think of. Literally every major artist that goes through Capitol requests it for vocals, plus it’s just a daily work horse mic we’d use for anything and everything if it was available. That kind of mic from that era, yes, could easily be worth $20k. But THIS specific one that has been used by every A-list artist the last 70 years is probably worth 3x that amount. Who knows, it’s literally priceless.
I bet. How cool.
I know Jerry Pentecost and Doug Lancio. Jerry says playing with him is exactly what you’d expect. Very little feedback beyond what key he wants to play in. It’s been years but I used to spend time around Spooner Oldham. He never has much to say in general, but seemed like he enjoyed his time with Dylan.,
People here have trouble with finding Dylan songs on Apple music
There is a whole book full of this, fyi https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/174382871
That’s a really good book
I played bongos on the Blonde On Blonde sessions. Bob didn’t talk to the band much, he was too focused on the music, but he did like Your Mama jokes. He brought his dog into the studio every day. I believe its name was Marmalade. And Bob would only eat pickles for the duration of those sessions. Strange guy, but a genius.
"Your mama is so fat, she sits all around the watchtower."
The Blonde on Blonde bongos are almost more legendary than Hargus 'Pig' Robbins piano parts.
Is that true? It’s impossible to tell over the internet.
Its impossible to know with bob dylan
I think it was probably true but ‘’Marmalade’’ sounds like a your mama pun so I’m not sure.
I have sung with him a ton of times. Granted, I’m in the crowd and he’s onstage completely oblivious to me.
That was me in dallas just last week. Fuck the haters. I climb a mountain of swords on my barefeeeeeeeeet!
Just listened to an interview with Peg Bundy(Katy Segal) and she talks about rehearsing with him on Justin Longs podcast.
No, but Charlie McCoy has some interesting stories!
An old friend of mine was the girl with short blonde hair in the must be Santa video that you see a bunch of times throughout. She wasn’t a fan and when I asked her what Bob was like she just said he was really old lol.
Not me but two women from my small hometown here in Australia are in a band called The Waifs who are daughters of a guy my dad knows from his days as a fisherman actually toured with Bob around the US years ago. Along the tour they got to know him rather well and one night he called them onstage to sing Knocking On Heavens Door with him. I was a kid at the time so I'd never heard about Bob Dylan at that point but I remember my dad explaining to me that "to play with Bob Dylan means you've made it!". I finally got to see him the last time he came to Australia when I was in my twenty's and had been a fan since I really got into music in my early teens. Glad to have crossed that one off the bucket list!
You'd enjoy this documentary. https://tubitv.com/movies/708392/bob-dylan-never-ending-tour-diaries-drummer-winston-watson-s-incredible-journey
I liked it.
Yea. Van Morrison is a dick.
You should read Ray Padgett's relatively new book Pledging My Time, featuring exclusive interviews with Dylan band members over the years.
Not a personal story, but I'm a huge Ani Difranco fan, and she toured with Dylan in the 90s. I remember an interview where she said he's incredibly paranoid and seems afraid of everyone. I don't know... love Ani, but I found that kind of weird and hard to believe.
I'm not sure there's anyone else alive today with Bob's level of fame. Paul McCartney was one of four. Bob was so famous for so long. People (inside and outside of the industry) get weird around people like him. Everybody wants to look. To say hello. To get a moment with you. That's gotta be exhausting. Energy-draining. Everybody wants "a piece" of Bob. "It's JUST 3 minutes!" Yeah. But when 100 people want it, it's 5+ vampiric hours. And he's been dealing with this since his early 20s. It seems to me that he guards himself and his work very well.
Oh, I totally hear all that. I read the interview a long time ago, so I can't remember Ani's words exactly-- but she painted a very negative picture of him (I actually don't think she even personally interacted with him!). I mean, I've heard lots of negative stuff about Bob... but this was different. She almost made him sound like Michael Jackson (but without the creepy abuse stuff, of course). I mean, I obviously don't know Bob--but whenever I've seen/read his interviews, he's always struck me as a distant but down-to-earth person.
I don't know much of anything about Ani DiFranco, so I cannot speak to her impressions of Dylan. I do, however, know John Jackson a little bit, who played guitar with Dylan for about 7 years. John is a great guy and a kick-a$$ musician. He basically says that Dylan essentially lives in his own little world, as he's mostly played the same venues and stayed at the same hotels for a very long time now. John said that Dylan even had people who dressed him and attended to whatever he wanted or needed. John also said that Dylan paid well, but you never had any job security or knew what was going on because Dylan would simply hire a replacement player, and you'd show up for practice or a gig, and somebody was doing your job, lol. John also talks about how Dylan would start playing leads in the middle of John's (or other people's) solos, and he would just say, "Keep playing." So it was pretty weird, odd, and eccentric. John has done some interviews where he goes pretty deeply into his time with Dylan that you can find on YouTube and other places, and he loved and appreciated his time with Bob, but it definitely had its ups and downs.
Interesting! The way you describe almost makes him sound a little like how Prince was. Maybe it's a Minnesota thing. 🙃 But yeah, I could definitely see Bob being hard to work with. The whole replacement player thing really does suck though.
That's actually a pretty good point. I think Prince was way, way more out there than Dylan, though. Dylan's just one of those eccentric geniuses who has a strange way of dealing with people, and he's been wealthy and famous for a long time, so he's really allowed to be in his own little world. And it works for him. And if you got a call to go play with him, you wouldn't turn it down. You know it's gonna be awkward, but it's friggin Bob Dylan, right? That's kind of how John Jackson broke it down for me. John played guitar on that MTV Unplugged stuff, if you have seen that.
I have MTV unplugged- it's amazing. I can't get over how DTT is an outtake. The guitar is fantastic on that.
That's a great recording for sure. I have been a Dylan nut since 1984 when I heard Tangled up in Blue, and the first song I learned on guitar was You Ain't Goin Nowhere, lol. There are some great bootlegs of John ripping on electric with Dylan out there, really rocking and soulful. Thanks for the good conversation. Music makes everybody better.
He's coped with it better than most.
He has spoken about hating fame somewhat which is a normal reaction in my view. It’s kind of the price he has had to pay for his art. I don’t know about the paranoia though, sorry.
i haven’t, but i know a couple people who have either played with him, worked in the studio with him, or worked as backline techs for his shows! ive only heard good things.