Overview
Bob Dylan, enigma and superstar, has intrigued millions of fans over the past five decades. His life, music, and influences have been explored through numerous mediums and the market for Dylan-related products continues to grow. Nonetheless, the oral records of his career—his interviews—have been unavailable until now. Gathered here are the most revealing and personal of Dylan's interviews. As a group they show a brilliant, adored, and eclectic musician, unsettled and angered by the fame and reverence surrounding him. In one interview with Time magazine he denigrates his newfound celebrity status, belligerently attacking the interviewer, pushing him nearly to tears. In a later Rolling Stone interview Dylan announces that the archangel Gabriel has visited him, and that he is a born again Christian. Collected from small publications and zines like Positively Tie Dream, Trouser Press, and New Music Express as well as mainstream outlets as disparate as Seventeen, Playboy, Spin, and the New York Times, Dylan's interviews illuminate his journey from ornery folksinger to acclaimed Grammy-winner. Included are interviews by Pete Seeger, Nora Ephron, Susan Edmiston, Studs Terkel, Jon Pareles, Nat Hentoff, Kurt Loder, Steve Allen, Ron Rosenbaum, Bono, Jonathon Cott, Jann Wenner, Robert Shelton, and many others.