Artists Recall Their Time on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue

“I don’t remember a thing about Rolling Thunder,” Bob Dylan said in 2019’s Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story, directed by Martin Scorsese. “It happened so long ago, I wasn’t even born. So what do you want to know?”

It’s a fitting statement from a man who has spent years fudging facts and refusing to adhere to one singular understanding of his artistry. There has pretty much always been a confusing but captivating line between what the public knows about Dylan, what Dylan tells us and what the actual “truth” is.

Whatever Dylan’s memories are of his Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, a carnivalesque trek that began on Oct. 30, 1975 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the reality is that plenty of other people were there for the ride. Below, we’ve rounded up 13 such people, all of whom have spoken about their experiences performing on the tour in subsequent years. Here’s what they recall…

Mick Ronson (Guitar):
“I were fookin’ gobsmacked. I’d never heard half of these numbers. And at first, I was completely baffled by them all. Really baffled and confused. Everyone else was already familiar with these songs and with each other and the way they played. I had a real problem fitting in, and I kept thinking I was terrible. I wasn’t comfortable at all. But Dylan, [Bob[ Neuwirth, [Rob] Stoner, T Bone [Burnett]. They were all wonderful, really took a bit of time with me. And as we went on, I really grew into the music…

And that’s the thing about Dylan. I’d follow him anywhere, no questions asked. That whole tour was this huge, huge adventure. A real treasure hunt. There was Joan Baez. [Roger] McGuinn. Ginsberg – he’s a grand lad, is Allen. There was Dylan. And there I was, too. For a lad from Yorkshire like meself, it were truly out of this world.” (via Uncut)

Joan Baez (Guitar, Vocals):
“The first Rolling Thunder was absolutely fun – and beautiful. There were scarves and flowers – a delight really. My strongest memory is that I went out every night to watch Bob’s set – it was wonderful. On the second [leg], I don’t know what was going on. The flowers had gone away and the scarves had disappeared and there were head wraps and it just wasn’t as glorious…

I think, ‘Oh gosh, I got to be there!’ There’s Woodstock, there’s the March on Washington in ’63. It’s the same: I got to be there.” (via Mojo)

Joni Mitchell (Guitar, Vocals):
“John Guerin [Mitchell’s drummer and one time boyfriend]’s grandfather owned a circus and the clowns used to be paid in booze, so I said ‘pay me in cocaine’ because everybody was out of their minds. I was the only straight person. Try being the only straight person. So I thought I might as well bite the bullet and see what this thing is about. Well, it had an incredible effect. It made me so aggressive, the next thing I knew I was ripping off cops. And I couldn’t sleep. I read Freud’s ‘Cocaine Papers.’ It was the only thing of his I could recall because Freud was such an idiot and a narcissist. He was a cocaine addict himself, so he was proselytizing it. He thought it was a cure for the inferiority complex. And I kept thinking, this is a warrior’s drug. You’d be like Scarface. You could have 10 bullet holes in you and you’d still be shooting. Initially what it does is it’s a new head and by tracing the dragon it creates epic thought, so much thought. I think too much anyway.’ (via Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell)

Listen to Joni Mitchell Perform on the Rolling Thunder Revue

Roger McGuinn (Guitar, Vocals):
“[Dylan] was often a visitor at my house in Malibu. He liked the house a lot and wanted to rent it from me. One time we were up there and he said: ‘I wanna do something different, man.’

When I asked what he meant, he said: ‘I dunno, maybe something like a circus.’ Six months later I was in New York and bumped into him in the Village. That’s when he invited me to go on the tour. He wanted to revive the spirit of Greenwich Village with Rolling Thunder. It was like a traveling artists’ colony. There were about 300 people on the road with him.” (via Classic Rock)

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (Guitar, Vocals):
“It was like a bunch of kids who’d run away with the circus. They’d never tell us what town we were going to. We’d find out minutes after we got there. It was a big military secret. We were coddled and protected and it was kind of fun; it was like being a kid again. We probably had too much to drink and it seemed like we had a lot of rollicking fun the whole way.” (via Rolling Stone)

Scarlet Rivera (Violin):
“I really connected with Joni Mitchell. Sometimes I sat with her on the bus. She was a huge inspiration on that tour for me, somebody that I looked up to. I was very withdrawn, but it was nice to be able to step out and connect with her. I’m still friends with her today. I see her in L.A. from time to time…

There was a magic to the first leg of the tour. There was a great sense of harmony amongst all the players. Although the music was as good on the second leg, I think it was a little bit less harmonious. Some element of tension wove itself in that wasn’t there in the first one. Perhaps it was because Bob was going through his divorce or maybe there was some more tension with the guitar players and the band. I don’t know. There was a little bit less of that magic fairy dust glow on the second one for me.” (via Flagging Down the Double E’s)

Ronee Blakley (Vocals):
“I liked our shows better when they were tighter. Sometimes the audience and the journalists like the shows where more stars appear. It’s more exciting for the audience when the guest stars and friends would show up, whether it was Kinky [Friedman], Rick Danko, Roberta Flack. If you ask me, sometimes the show itself was better when it just went straight through with us the way we did it.

Bob never had an off night. He was always great. I never heard him make a mistake. I would often go out and watch from the audience in the dark after the lights went down. Nobody could see me. Most of us watched a lot of the show.

We were like a family in a way. It was pretty special. Bob did not hang out with us all the time, but, for the rest of us, we would be together every day, every night, riding on the bus. We didn’t know where we were going, because it was a secret. We’d only be told on the day of where we were headed.” (via Flagging Down the Double E’s)

READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Bob Dylan Album

Rob Stoner (Bandleader, Bass, Vocals):
“Well, it was a challenge. And I really enjoyed that challenge, man, when we would get different people up there. We got different people up there all the time. We’d go to – we’d – for instance, we went to Toronto, we got Ronnie Hawkins in the show. We went to Quebec, we got Gordon Lightfoot in the show…I mean, we would pick up cool local people – and I enjoyed that, man. And it was without rehearsal – we would have a meeting before the show, and they’d tell me what keys the tunes were in, I’d maybe write out a quick chart, go over it with a couple of the key guys in the band, and we’d go up on stage and wing it. And there were no train-wrecks, it worked out great. And yeah, Joni, her tunes were very challenging and I really enjoyed working with her. She’s a true genius.” (via The 13th Floor)

Luther Rix (Drums, Percussion):
“I thought that Bob was a pretty cool guy. I didn’t get to hang with him much, but once in a while he’d come over and talk to me for a few minutes. I think he felt like he ought to, especially because we hadn’t really had a chance to get to know each other. A nice enough guy.

I remember one time, as the tour was winding up, I said to him, ‘I’m really looking forward to getting back and sleeping in my own house.’ He looked at me like, ‘What?’ Like he was just dumbfounded. Such a thing had never occurred to him. I think that’s who he was, and maybe still is. His real home was being on the road with the band. That was it for him, whereas I had two or three modes that I was equally satisfied with, one of which was just being in my house.” (via Flagging Down the Double E’s)

Watch Bob Dylan Perform ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ on the Rolling Thunder Revue

Steven Soles (Guitar, Vocals):
“It was by far the most fun, spontaneous and irreverent experience I had had to date — a tightrope act with no net. Those days were a constant party; substances often blurred the lines, on so many levels. I was almost sober in a room full of forgotten brilliance followed by indiscriminate acts of beauty and unkindness.” (via Variety)

David Mansfield (Steel Guitar, Mandolin, Violin, Dobro):
“[Dylan] was totally on fire. I got that when Scorsese made that documentary [Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story] and used all that footage Bob had shot for the movie, all the concert footage. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was every bit as exciting as I remembered it. There are amazing performances on his part and a lot of people’s parts.” (via Rolling Stone)

T Bone Burnett (Guitar, Vocals):
“It was an interesting time. Bob had just recorded Blood on the Tracks and Desire. He was at the absolute peak of his powers and completely generous, finding people on the street and putting them on his stage. Finding old friends that he hadn’t seen for 20 years and putting them on the stage. He gathered a pretty large group of artists for a tour. And it was an extraordinary act of generosity. I don’t know where I would be today if Bob hadn’t discovered me, if he’ll forgive me for using that word. (via Esquire)

Allen Ginsberg (Vocals, Finger Cymbals):
“In 1975 I was touring with Dylan’s legendary Rolling Thunder Revue. I was reading poetry and getting highly amused. I liked it. However, the truth is that I’m really very shy…I don’t know how to present myself to large public; I don’t know how to modulate my voice. Dylan helped me a great deal with my general public appearance.” (via Rock and the Beat Generation)

Watch Bob Dylan Perform ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ on the Rolling Thunder Revue