“It’s the same for me”: the band Bob Dylan was in awe working with
Bob Dylan was never known to be the kind of artist that scares easily. The whole point behind his greatest interviews was his ability to toy with his public persona, so even if someone claimed to know every piece of his music inside and out, they would get hit with a curveball whenever he started talking about the true meaning behind his music. Then again, Dylan could still have a handful of moments when he could get visibly shaken by his peers.
After all, his long time away from music after his motorcycle accident in the 1960s wasn’t something that anyone was going to shrug off easily, and when he finally did manage to come back, you could practically feel him taking a more delicate approach when listening back to tunes off of Nashville Skyline. However, the real issues with his career would come later down the line once his personal life became a focal point of his writing.
Although Blood on the Tracks has never been confirmed to be solely about his divorce, his brilliant wordplay almost doesn’t need to have him air his dirty laundry. The massive length of ‘Idiot Wind’ is already one of the angriest tunes he had ever made, but underneath all of that was a lot of hurt that was never going to be healed properly if he kept all of it inside for the rest of his life.
He might have been willing to show his fans some of his back pages, but that was always when he was in the confines of his solo career. Dylan could get away with being that candid and honest when writing for himself, but when he ended up in the Traveling Wilburys, there was a much different approach to how everyone wrote tunes.
“I think George frightened Bob.”
tom petty
While the supergroup itself felt like the classic rock equivalent of The Avengers coming together, there had to be some trepidation. Roy Orbison was already a legend in the eyes of everyone in that band, but for as much of a humble musical god as Orbison could be, Dylan was practically shaking at the idea of working with George Harrison in any capacity. But that wasn’t coming from any sort of inferiority; it was the idea of having fellow legends inside the group.
Tom Petty may have been considered the new kid on the block by a long shot, but the heartland rocker remembered Dylan being a bit apprehensive about working with Harrison, later recalling, “I think George frightened Bob. When the Wilburys started, George was so reverent of Bob. At the end of the first say, he said, ‘We know that you’re Bob Dylan and everything, but we’re going to just treat you and talk to you like we would anybody else.’ And Bob went, ‘Well, great. Believe it or not, I’m in awe of you guys, and it’s the same for me.’”
Then again, Dylan didn’t have anything to be ashamed of when working with his peers. He had already sprinkled in his magic to some of Harrison’s first solo efforts, and since he was doing multiple tours across the world with the Heartbreakers as his backing band, the sessions quickly turned into the kind of jam session that every single ageing rock and roller has with their friends, usually playing the odd tune and messing around with their favourite songs of yesteryear.
Although the Wilburys didn’t last nearly as long as most fans expected, it’s a miracle that we even managed to get the material we did from them. Dylan would eventually be moving on to the next phase of his career, but given the pedigree at work there, it’s almost reassuring knowing that one of the most cocksure musicians of the 1960s could still get a bit shaken from time to time.
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