Highway ’01 revisited – the Fanning/Dylan outtakes

DAVE FANNING: The media celebrated your sixtieth birthday. Did you?

Just in the usual way. Blew out some candles, that’s about it.

BOB DYLAN: Did you invite friends?

Yeah, mostly just family.

Are you younger than that now?

Sure hope so (laughs).

Does the level of celebration around such an event bother you or please you?

No.

Lately you’ve won a bunch of awards including Grammys and, this year, an Oscar. Feel good?

Yeah, I know, I’m winnin’ a lot of stuff. Kinda funny, isn’t it?

Are they catching up on wasted time?

I think there’s an element of that in it. I wouldn’t know.

I’ve heard rumours about a Nobel Prize nomination...?

Yeah, I hear about that. Who would that put me in the company of? I’m not sure.

Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck...

Oh Hemingway. I think all the guys who write like Hemingway write for Time magazine, don’t they?

Isn’t Steinbeck an old favourite of yours?

Hmmm, I’m not sure if I really belong in that category of people.

Is that a question of higher or lower?

It’s difficult to say. It’s all really pretty relative.

How does the Dylan legend affect what you do?

Ninety-five percent of the time, that doesn’t affect my life whatsoever. The other part?... Well, we who are involved in fame, we just have to learn to deal with it any kind of way we can.

Any strategy?

I don’t have any strategy for it. I try to be as polite as possible.

Ever wonder ‘why me’?

Not at this point. I know what it is I’ve done to be famous, so...

In one of your last conversations with Allen Ginsberg you said that fame had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. What would you substitute fame for?

I really don’t travel in the world of the rich and famous. I don’t really feel I’m part of that culture in any way.

Do you find it hard to find places where you’re not recognised?

Well, at this point I’m recognised just about everywhere. Everywhere. I don’t even remember the last time I wasn’t recognised.

Looking back, when you first made an impact, was it a good time to be doing what you were doing?

I didn’t really choose to do what it is you see me doing. It chose me. If I had anything to do with it, it’d be something different… a scientist, an engineer, a doctor. Those are the people I look up to. I don’t really look up to entertainers at all. They don’t have any meaning for me one way or another.

Do you miss much from the past? Are times good now?

Oh, there must be something. I think I miss plenty but I’m not really a very nostalgic person so I don’t really yearn for things like that from the past.

Would you have any chance in the business now if you were a newcomer?

I think so, ’cos if you have the ability and the knowledge and the strength to do it, y’know?, that’s all you really need and I think I know more about what I’m doing now than I ever...I know I could find a place if that’s what I wanted to do but I don’t think I’d want to do it if I came on the scene now. Like I said, I’d want to do something else.

Do you feel you’re part of a band now?

Well, I always try to have a current band, a current bunch of performers to play the music. You never know how long you can keep a band together or how a band will change from one individual to another; I mean, those things aren’t foreseen but this particular group are very competent and can go a lot of different ways musically.

How long do you see yourself doing this?

I don’t really know. I suppose until one day I might have had it. I don’t know. I can’t say until the crowds dwindle down but I may just one day have had enough.

Ever go on the Internet?

I’m afraid to go on the internet. I’m afraid some pervert’s gonna lure me somewhere.

Do you listen to a lot of music nowadays?

Some. Not any more than I used to.

New music?

I don’t know. Like, who’s new?

Eminem?

I wouldn’t know anything about that.

On the storytelling level, could you take anything from hip hop?

Beats me. Never really occured to me to pay attention to what’s going on.

You championed Bono pretty early on in U2’s career. Didn’t you spend a long evening with him once telling him that he should examine the writers, songs and stories from his own Irish past for inspiration? Y’know, look back further than the rock and pop decades?

I could have. I don’t remember verbatim or a time and place but if I’m being held responsible for telling him that, I don’t really know that I could deny it.

Did Elvis have a strong influence on you?

He did. Growing up he did.

How did you feel when he recorded your song ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’?

What can you say? When someone like that records your song, I’m sure any songwriter would feel intensely gratified.

Did you ever meet Elvis?

Emm… (long pause) …I never did meet him. (Pause). Well, that’s what I’m supposed

to say. (grins).