Bob Dylan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Bob Dylan

• Bob Dylan performed for the first time at a Mother’s Day party when he was five. He sang ‘Some Sunday Morning’ and ‘Accentuate the Positive.’

• He had learned to play piano on his own by the age of nine; he chose not to take any formal lessons at that time.

• He celebrated his bar mitzvah, a coming-of-age ceremony for Jewish boys when they reach the age of 12 or 13, with around 400 guests.

• Dylan formed various bands while he was in high school. He formed his first rock and roll band, the Golden Chords, when he was a freshman in high school.

• As a kid, he loved cherry pie and often ordered it with ice cream at his high school’s diner.

• His high school principal stopped his performance during the grade 10 talent show as he found the music too shocking, loud, and unsuitable.

• In the late 1950s, he switched from an electric guitar to an acoustic guitar after being inspired by American singer Odetta’s folk music; he had traded his electric guitar for a flat-top Gibson.

• In his 1959 Hibbing High School Yearbook, Dylan expressed his desire to join American singer and pianist Little Richard. He skipped his graduation party in 1959 and left the town that night.

  

• Dylan enjoyed free access to movies in his youth as his great-grandfather owned movie theatres in Hibbing, Minnesota, at that time.

• He initially enrolled at the University of Minnesota, but he dropped out at the end of his first year in May 1960.
• He had joined the Sigma Alpha Mu, a college fraternity, before dropping out of the university.

• Bob Dylan often smokes cigarettes. In college, he was infamous for tricking his friends to give him cigarettes and clothing items.

  

• In 1960, Dylan performed with the Smothers Brothers, a duo of American folk singers, in Denver, Colorado. When he started playing unknown songs, they wanted him removed from the lineup as they thought he sounded and looked like a homeless.

• In the early 1960s, he had a romantic relationship with singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples whom he met at a folk festival. The duo bonded over their love for music and started dating. Although they considered getting married, it never happened.

• Dylan initially used to like to joke with reporters and claim that he was an orphan and had been with a carnival since he was 13. His parents attended one of his concerts in the early 1960s and were surprised when he said in an interview that he did not know them and had lost contact with them for years.

• Bob has often mentioned comic actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin as a major influence since 1961. He even paid tribute to him with his 2006 album ‘Modern Times,’ which he named after Chaplin’s 1936 film.

• His first professional recording was as a harmonica player for American singer and actor Harry Belafonte on the title track of Belafonte’s 1961 album ‘Midnight Special.’

• He once visited folk musician and singer Woody Guthrie, who was sick, in a New Jersey hospital. There, he taught how to play the harmonica to Guthrie’s son, Arlo, who later became a musician and songwriter.

• In 1961, he moved to New York. He played his first gig at Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village.

• Dylan and Suze Rotolo, an artist, met at a folk festival in New York in 1961 and dated for four years. Rotola inspired some of his protest songs. Their relationship, however, was affected by Dylan’s growing fame.

• In 1962, when Dylan joined Columbia Records, he claimed to be an orphan to avoid a requirement of his parents’ signature. Dylan, who was 20 (at 20, people were considered minor at that time), convinced the music critic and producer John Hammond to sign the document.

• John Hammond signed Dylan even though a vice president at Columbia Records thought his singing voice was “the most horrible thing he’d ever heard in his life.”

• Dylan and Johnny Cash, a singer and songwriter, had been friends since 1962. Cash played a crucial role in convincing Columbia Records not to drop Dylan before he could record his second album ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.’

• In May 1963, Dylan, who was relatively unknown at that time, was scheduled to perform ‘Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues’ on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ He, however, refused to go on the show when a CBS censor told him that he could not play the track on air due to the possibility of a lawsuit.

• Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, a singer, songwriter, and musician, met at the Monterey Folk Festival in 1963 and soon fell in love. They often performed together at various events. Their relationship, however, ended in 1965.

• Dylan made his first major appearance on American television with The Steve Allen Show in 1964. When he announced that he was going to play the song “Hattie Caroll,” only one audience member applauded in recognition.

  

• Dylan initially loved to pick up hitchhikers and talk to them about Jesus while driving around secretly in an old damaged car with a ski hat covering his famous curls.

  

• It has been reported that Dylan uses Ouzo, a dry anise-flavoured aperitif (an alcoholic drink used to stimulate the appetite), as a hair relaxer to set his curly hair.

• On 28 August 1964, Bob met the members of the rock band ‘The Beatles’ and asked if they wanted to smoke weed with him, but he later came to know that they were not familiar with it. Dylan had mistakenly assumed that they had smoked marijuana before as he misheard the lyric ‘I can’t hide’ of their song “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” as ‘I get high.’ They, however, all ended up getting stoned together.

• His first wife, Sara Lownds, initially worked as a bunny girl, a waitress at a playboy club.

  

• He met Sara shortly after the death of her husband in late 1964. They later began dating and got married the next year. He adopted Maria Dylan Himmelman, Sara’s daughter from a previous marriage.

• During the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, while Dylan played an electric set on the stage, an American singer named Pete Seeger tried to cut the cables with an axe. Dylan later criticised folk singers and called them “a bunch of fat people.”

• Dylan is good at inventing fake names. In 1965, he gave the name ‘William W. Kasonavarich’ to a reporter in Los Angeles, and in 1988, he provided the name ‘Knezelvitz’ to a reporter in Sydney, Australia.

• Despite reaching number 2 on the Billboard charts with songs like ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35’ in 1965 and 1966, Bob has never had a number 1 single. The cover of his song ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ by The Byrds, however, reached the top spot in 1965.

• Dylan has often served as a great distraction. When he arrived at Heathrow Airport in 1965, it caused such excitement among reporters that they completely ignored the renowned singer and actor Lena Horne.

• In 1965, Bob Dylan’s concert tour was held in England, UK. The tour was recorded by the American filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, who later used the footage in his documentary ‘Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back’ (1967).

• During his visit to the United Kingdom, he played a prank on Donovan, his supposed British counterpart, by showing up to their meeting wearing Halloween masks with his friends.

• In 1966, he met an accident on his motorcycle that he believed saved his life. He suffered broken vertebrae and a concussion. This experience later made him re-evaluate his priorities and gain a new perspective on life.

• Dylan explored an abandoned house along with the members of The Spencer Davis Group in England in 1966. The house was rumoured to be haunted by a dog’s ghost. When they heard a dog bark, Dylan was convinced it was the ghost. He was excited, running around like a kid, exclaiming, “This is unbelievable!”

• Dylan’s father, Abraham Zimmerman, died of a heart attack in Hibbing, Minnesota, at the age of 56 on 29 May 1968.

• In an interview in 1968, Dylan’s mother, Betty Zimmerman, mentioned that she used to put ribbons in his hair when he was a child and jokingly tell him that he should have been a girl.

• Apart from being a songwriter, Dylan is also a prolific painter. His artwork became publically known when he painted the cover of The Band’s ‘Music from Big Pink’ album in 1968. He has also created artwork for many of his album covers including the cover of his 1970 album ‘Self Portrait.’

  

• Dylan was unhappy to find no toilet in his dressing room at the UK’s Isle of Wight Festival in 1969. When Aronowitz, who helped organise the trip, suggested he use the window, Dylan ended up taking his advice and urinated out of the window.

• In the early 1970s, Dylan briefly dated actor Sally Kirkland after they developed feelings for each other at a party.

• From the mid-1970s, he had a fluctuating relationship with former lawyer Ruth Tyrangiel for over two decades.

• He published his first book, Tarantula, in 1971.

• In 1973, he shared more of his artwork with the world by releasing his book ‘Writings and Drawings.’

• He left Columbia Records for a brief period in 1973 to join Asylum Records.

• Dylan played the role of a drifter named ‘Alias’ in the film ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’ in 1973. He appeared as ‘Billy Parker’ in the 1987 film ‘Hearts on Fire.’ The film was commercially unsuccessful.

• In 1974, after splitting from Sara Dylan, Dylan dated a tour manager named Chris O’Dell, who worked for his manager; they dated for a short period.

• In 1978, he attended a three-month course at the Vineyard School of Ministry to become a born-again Christian.

• Dylan met the American singer Carolyn Dennis in 1978 when she was chosen as a backing singer for his album ‘Street-Legal.’ They later began dating each other. They secretly had a child together, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, in 1986 after which they married each other that same year.

• Dylan wrote and directed a 4-hour film titled ‘Renaldo and Clara’ (1978), which combined documentary, concert footage, and diction. He played the role of ‘Renaldo’ in the film, which received negative reviews.

• In 1980, he performed at the University of Arizona. The audience got angered by his songs about Christ as they were expecting his hit songs instead. Dylan sharply responded and suggested they go see the rock band ‘Kiss’ for rock and roll. Yet, his view on the band softened later, and he even collaborated with a member named Gene Simmons on a song for Simmons’ 2004 solo album.

• Dylan started the extensive live shows with ‘Never Ending Tour’ on 7 June 1988. He has been doing around 100 shows every year since then.

• He owns houses in Malibu, Minnesota, and New York, and also a big boat in the Caribbean; however, with over 100 concerts every year, he probably does not get to visit them.

• Critics have varied opinions on his live shows. While some praise his innovative approach to his old songs, others do not like the changes he makes during his live shows.

• In the early 1990s, Dylan briefly dated Dana Gillespie, an actor and singer. They met during a tour and instantly connected. The duo had a brief yet intense relationship.

• In the late ’90s or early 2000s, Dylan decided to appear in a comedy show on the channel HBO. He attended a meeting with comedian and screenwriter Larry Charles at HBO where someone referred to Dylan as a “retarded child.” Although the project was initially bought, Dylan rejected it for not suiting his taste.

• Joni Mitchell, a singer and songwriter, had an uncomfortable experience sharing a mic with Dylan at a concert in Japan in 1994. In her biography, she described Dylan’s breath as unpleasant and said he did not take good care of his dental hygiene. It read,
  

  On the third night they stuck Bob at the mic with me … and he never brushes his teeth, so his breath was like … right in my face.”

• In 1996, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize by the Gordon Ball of the Virginia Military Institute.

• Dylan lost his mother on 25 January 2000; she passed away in St. Paul, Minnesota, at the age of 84.

• Some people think that his memoir ‘Chronicles: Volume One’ (2004) contained copied words from other sources, but many still consider it one of the greatest memoirs ever written.

• In 2004, Dylan was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from the University of St. Andrews.

• He appeared in the Victoria’s Secret commercial along with the Brazilian model Adriana Lima in 2004.

• In 2007, his first art exhibition, ‘The Drawn Blank Series,’ was held at Kunstsammlungen in Chemnitz, Germany.

• In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize committee honoured Dylan with a special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”

• In 2009, Dylan was mistaken for a suspicious person while he was taking a walk in Long Branch, New Jersey. Police officers picked him up as he had no ID. He was then taken back to his hotel, where the staff clarified his identity to the officers.

• In 2010, despite heavy snow, Dylan performed at a civil rights concert at the White House in Washington, DC. Barack Obama once in an interview recalled his brief interaction with Dylan after the performance and mentioned how he did not follow the formalities like attending rehearsals and getting pictures clicked at the event.

• Joni Mitchell, a singer and songwriter, holds grudges against Bob Dylan. In a 2010 interview with the LA Times, she called Dylan a plagiarist with a fake name and voice. She said,
  

  Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I.”

• Dylan was the finalist of the 2012 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

• In August 2013, Dylan’s first exhibition in the United Kingdom titled ‘Face Value,’ a collection of twelve pastel portraits, was held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

• Dylan’s artwork exhibitions have been held at various galleries such as Gagosian Gallery in New York and Halcyon Gallery in London.

• In 2014, Dylan and his band performed at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for a single fan as part of a Swedish film series.

• On 13 October 2016, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for ‘having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.’

• Since 2019, Dylan had been using an autopen to sign books and artworks, which were sold as ‘hand-signed.’ He, however, apologised for this in November 2022.

• Apart from music and painting, he enjoys restoring old cars, horseback riding, sailing, cooking, and gardening.

• For the first decade of his career, Albert Grossman, an American entrepreneur and manager, managed his work; Albert had earlier overseen the career of singers and songwriters like Janis Joplin.

• Dylan likes sharing his made-up stories with people. When he once told Mary Rotolo, a writer, that he would go blind from an eye disease, she never trusted him again.

• Dylan and American actor and playwright Sam Shepard once co-wrote a song over 11 minutes called ‘Brownsville Girl,’ inspired by the 1950 film ‘The Gunfighter.’ To this date, Dylan has performed it live in a concert only once.

• Dylan was so deeply affected by the death of the American actor and singer Elvis Presley that he did not speak to anyone for a week.

• He once exchanged an Elvis Presley painting, made by visual artist and film director Andy Warhol, for a couch and later regretted his decision. He wished he could apologise to Warhol and promise not to repeat the mistake.

• He nearly died that year when he was diagnosed with a condition called histoplasmosis. While talking about this, in an interview, he said,
  

  I really thought I’d be seeing Elvis soon.”

• He wrote his first song for Brigitte Bardot, a French activist and former actor he admired. It was a simple love song with just one chord.

• Michael Parkinson, a renowned television presenter, once approached Dylan at a restaurant to express his admiration for his music. Dylan, however, thought him to be a waiter and responded with his breakfast order saying, “Eggs over easy and coffee.”

• Dylan loves playing chess. He once played it with a stranger to avoid crowds after a concert; he played the game to be left alone during the ferry ride back to the hotel.

• He also loves playing golf and wonders why many people are surprised that he is into something different from music.

• Dylan is close friends with musician and songwriter Dave Stewart and is often seen with him at an Indian restaurant named Shamrat Restaurant, where he enjoys ‘Chicken Madras.’

• He often refuses to stay in air-conditioned hotel rooms.

• He likes to travel to his gigs on foot or by bike, with his limo following behind.

• Dylan, who has shifted between Christianity and Judaism, has played concerts for the Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Jews, who are known for their strict Orthodox beliefs.

• Dylan is an avid animal lover, and he once had a bullmastiff dog named Brutus, who was quite mischievous.

• Dylan once rented a home next to American actress Katharine Hepburn in Manhattan. His pet Brutus would often mess up her flowerbed. Once, Brutus even ate American actor Michael Douglas’ caviar.

• Dylan loves boxing and regularly spends a few hours each week at a gym in Santa Monica. He has drawn inspiration from boxers for some of his songs like ‘Who Killed Davey Moore?’ and ‘I Shall Be Free,’ which he dedicated to the American boxer Muhammad Ali.

• Dylan once mistakenly went to the wrong Dave’s house in London while trying to find the musician and songwriter Dave Stewart’s studio. He ended up confusing the homeowner whose husband’s name was also Dave.

• Bob Dylan once sang ‘stadows’ instead of ‘shadows’ during a live performance of a song from his album ‘Love and Theft.’ Engineer Chris Shaw tried to correct it, but Dylan insisted on keeping that version, saying “Well, you know: ‘stadows.’”

• He once stole folk records from the music critic Paul Nelson and his friends in Minnesota as he liked them very much. He took about twenty or thirty of them, which Nelson said were the best.

• Initially, a street in Duluth, Minnesota, was going to be named ‘Bob Dylan Boulevard,’ but it did not happen when Dylan failed to show up for a reunion at a high school in Duluth, where he was invited as a guest of honour.

• Dylan’s worst lyric is often considered to be, Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop,” (from the song Wiggle Wiggle).

• Dylan and Sinéad O’Connor, an Irish singer and songwriter, were once kicked out of a Dublin restaurant because he looked so untidy.

• Dylan has nine grandchildren and sports a bumper sticker on his car that reads “World’s Greatest Grandpa.”

• Dylan does not like mics except for the one he is using.

• Singers and songwriters Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne once gathered at Dylan’s beach house in Malibu to record Harrison’s B-Side song ‘Handle with Care.’ The collaboration went so smoothly that they decided to form a supergroup called ‘Traveling Wilburys.’

• He often consumes alcoholic beverages.