Dylan's back pages - Rolling Stone interview with Jann Wenner, June, 1969, with audio link

Jann Wenner interviewed Bob Dylan for Rolling Stone magazine on Thursday, June 26, 1969. It was published in issue 47 later that year.

Rolling Stone was first published in June, 1967.  Co-founder and publisher Wenner started courting Dylan for an interview in early 1968, and they met and spoke on the phone a few times before the interview actually happened. 

Wenner had spoken to Dylan previously in late February, 1969, quoting Dylan about new songs written for his upcoming Nashville Skyline album, in the May 31, 1969 issue. Here's an example:

"They are the songs I've been writing over the past year. Some are songs that I've sung and never written down and just turn up again. I can't remember where they come from. . .I can't remember too much about how I wrote the new songs"

This should have given Wenner a clue about Dylan's unwillingness to reveal anything about himself.  But Dylan was seen as an enigmatic recluse at the time, so any interview would be a coup, and it would help establish the credibility of the young counter-culture magazine. Dylan, however, was dismantling the madness surrounding his life at the time by singing country tunes, staying off the road, and being coy, agreeable, and willfully ignorant on any potentially controversial subject.  If nothing else, it's a fascinating timepiece, showing Dylan's masterful skill of avoiding questions, telling people what they wanted to hear, and remodeling himself as a simple family man. Yet Dylan, despite trying to appear out-of-touch, does give us a lot of information, if you read between the lines.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

WENNER: Are you thinking of bringing any other artists with you? (On an upcoming tour that never materialized)
DYLAN: Well, every so often we do think about that. (laughter) We certainly do. I was thinking about maybe introducing Marvin Rainwater or Slim Whitman to “my audience.”
WENNER: Have you been in touch with either of them
DYLAN: No... no.

WENNER: Do you read the current critics? The music critics, so-called “rock and roll writers?”
DYLAN: Well I try to keep up. I try to keep up-to-date... I realize I don’t do a very good job in keeping up to date, but I try to. I don’t know half the groups that are playing around now. I don’t know half of what I should.
WENNER: Are there any that you’ve seen that you dig?
DYLAN: Well I haven’t seen any.
WENNER: I mean like Traffic, and...
DYLAN: See, I never saw Traffic... I never even saw Cream. I feel bad about those things, but what can I do?
WENNER: See them? (laughs)
DYLAN: Well, I can’t now. I’m going to see this new group, called Blind Faith. I’m going to make it my duty to go see them... ‘cause they’ll probably be gone (laughter) in another year or so. So I’d better get up there quick and see them.
WENNER: Do you like Stevie Winwood singing?
DYLAN: Oh sure, sure... Stevie Winwood, he came to see us in Manchester. Last time we were in Manchester... that was 1966. Or was it Birmingham? His brother – he’s got a brother named Muff – Muff took us all out to see a haunted house, outside of Manchester, or Birmingham, one of those two. Or was it Newcastle? Something like that. We went out to see a haunted house, where a man and his dog was to have burned up in the 13th century. Boy, that place was spooky. That’s the last time I saw Stevie Winwood.
 

WENNER: What writers today do you dig? Like who would you read if you were writing a book? Mailer?
DYLAN: All of them. There’s something to be learned from them all.
WENNER: What about the poets? You once said something about Smokey Robinson...
DYLAN: I didn’t mean Smokey Robinson, I meant Arthur Rimbaud. I don’t know how I could’ve gotten Smokey Robinson mixed up with Arthur Rimbaud, (laughter) But I did.

WENNER: Did you like “Don’t Look Back”?
DYLAN: I’d like it a lot more if I got paid for it. (laughter)

You can read the entire interview (including Dylan talking about meeting Otis Redding, the Basement Tapes, Elvis, Joe South, the Beatles, A.J. Weberman, Tarantula, and explaining that his voice changed because he gave up smoking cigarettes) , and hear audio excerpts, at Wenner's website.

Audio clips include:

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