Jeff Bridges names his favourite Bob Dylan song: “I do a version of that”
He might be one of the industry’s most respected veterans and one of his generation’s greatest actors, but Jeff Bridges would be the first to admit that acting was never his first love.
Not that he had much of a choice when his father Lloyd was an established star, his mother Dorothy was an experienced performer, and his older brother Beau also got into the family business at an early age. In fact, Bridges made his screen debut in his old man’s 1951 drama The Company She Keeps, which arrived in cinemas when he was 13 months old.
By the time he’d turned 30, his desire to follow a musical path had long since fallen by the wayside, with Bridges earning his first two Academy Award nominations for The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot while still in his 20s, working with names like Clint Eastwood, John Huston, and John Frankenheimer.
That’s not to say he downed tools entirely, though, with Bridges selling his self-penned songs to famed producer Quincy Jones and performing on the soundtrack to Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow’s drama John and Mary. He never went to set without a guitar close at hand, maintaining an interest in his musical exploits as more of a hobby than a full-fledged second career.
Of course, he won an Oscar for playing a musician in Crazy Heart, which came after he’d released his debut album, Be Here Soon, in 2000. Continuing to play with his band, The Abiders, Bridges has never let that flame burn out, and the band even does a cover of his favourite Bob Dylan song.
When asked by Rolling Stone which music continues to move him the most in his veteran era, there was only one answer on his mind. “Bob Dylan,” he responded. “I love all the different incarnations of his music.” Being a celebrity often comes with the perks of coming face-to-face with heroes and idols, but thanks to his guitar prowess, Bridges went one better and jammed with the man himself.
They were both part of the sprawling and star-studded ensemble in Larry Charles’ 2003 drama Masked and Anonymous, playing the two lead roles, and it was hardly an opportunity he was going to turn down. “He’d knock on my trailer door and go, ‘Hey, you wanna pick?'” Bridges recalled. “We would play the version of ‘You Belong to Me’ that he did on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack.”
As for his favourite Dylan song? “The first thing that popped into my head is ‘The Man in Me’ because it was in The Big Lebowski,” he offered. “I do a version of that with The Abiders.” He’s jammed with Dylan, he’s played with Dylan, he’s covered Dylan with his own band, and Dylan’s music changed his life, so there aren’t any prizes for guessing which musician Bridges holds on the highest pedestal.
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