Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks is the production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Double Elvis. Bob Dylan was a musical genius
Speaker 1: and one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He
Speaker 1: didn't follow leaders. He chased that thin, wild mercury sound.
Speaker 1: He never looked back. Even as the times changed, and
Speaker 1: as the times changed, Bob Dylan changed. He tried on
Speaker 1: and discarded identities like they were mass He transformed. He
Speaker 1: transfigured in Somewhere along the way, the Bob Dylan that
Speaker 1: you thought you knew died. This is his story once again.
Speaker 1: This is doctor ed Sailor. Is now day five, August six.
Speaker 1: I just finished my review of the patient Robert Zimmerman,
Speaker 1: a k a. Bob Dylan here at my home in Middletown,
Speaker 1: New York. The laceration to his leg is healing nicely.
Speaker 1: It's an injury so minor that I've failed to eat
Speaker 1: mentioned it so far. I mentioned it now because everything
Speaker 1: else seems to be returning to normal. As for Bob himself,
Speaker 1: I'm afraid he's not in the best shape mentally speaking.
Speaker 1: He's struggling to process what seems like a minor accident.
Speaker 1: He's not sleeping, something I've tried to rectify with more morphine.
Speaker 1: I shall, however, review this over the coming days, as
Speaker 1: it seems to have brought on more hallucinations. Only this
Speaker 1: morning he was claiming he's seen Jesus Christ, our savior.
Speaker 1: That's who I'm talking about. Being noticed can be a burden.
Speaker 1: Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. That's
Speaker 1: why I change a lot when you think about it.
Speaker 1: No matter which way you look, Jesus is the answer.
Speaker 1: He died for sinners, and through his death he paid
Speaker 1: for all us ends. I've been touched by Jesus physically.
Speaker 1: Did you know that it happened? I didn't imagine it.
Speaker 1: It changed me forever. Sometimes you have to be directed
Speaker 1: by a higher power, gotta serve somebody. You make yourself
Speaker 1: in this life, but you can be informed by those
Speaker 1: who have a broader perspective. Christ entered my life in
Speaker 1: the late nineteen seventies. His words and actions gave me comfort, knowledge,
Speaker 1: salvation for everyone else. For those who didn't believe me,
Speaker 1: they just saw it as fresh blood on the tracks.
Speaker 1: Chapter five, Bob Dylan is born again. The prayer of
Speaker 1: faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise
Speaker 1: him up. And if he hath committed sins, they shall
Speaker 1: be forgiven. I'm sure you've seen by now that transfiguration
Speaker 1: can come in many forms. It can be physical, it
Speaker 1: can come through song, through lifestyle, but it can also
Speaker 1: come through faith. I was born into the Jewish faith,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I've taken great wisdom from. I
Speaker 1: was bar mitzvahed two, but later in my life I
Speaker 1: began to have an interest in Christianity religious transfiguration. If
Speaker 1: you will now, let me make this clear. The teachings
Speaker 1: of God, the Bible, Jesus were in my work before
Speaker 1: in the same way they are in my work after.
Speaker 1: They've been one of the few constants in fact, but
Speaker 1: for a brief time, those teachings dominated my music completely.
Speaker 1: A rock and roll preacher, that's what they called me.
Speaker 1: In a way, spreading the good news was the most
Speaker 1: rock and roll thing to do. Jesus Christ I preached
Speaker 1: for three years, just like Jesus himself. Not that I'm
Speaker 1: comparing myself to him, of course. Sure I've sold more
Speaker 1: records than him, but he did save us all, so
Speaker 1: I think he wins this round point. Being the Bible
Speaker 1: and the Lord have always been there in my songs.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mentioned the Devil in the first verse
Speaker 1: of the first song on my first album, Go and
Speaker 1: Look it Up. It's there Christ entered my life. Look
Speaker 1: at the John Wesley Harding album too. That one's got
Speaker 1: lots of the Good Book in it. But no one
Speaker 1: had a problem with that when it came out. They
Speaker 1: loved it. In fact, even Elvis himself said, rock and
Speaker 1: roll is basically just gospel music or gospel music mixed
Speaker 1: with rhythm and blues, so it's a wonder. There was
Speaker 1: such a big backlash when I started singing about Jesus
Speaker 1: and Christianity overtly. People thought I was preaching at them,
Speaker 1: but I was just offering a point of view like
Speaker 1: I've been offered when I first started going to church.
Speaker 1: Being noticed it could be a burden. The shift in
Speaker 1: my work came on the album's Slow Train, Coming Saved
Speaker 1: and Shot of Love. Those are albums I still get
Speaker 1: behind to this day, but other people, other people couldn't
Speaker 1: get behind them. I still can't to this day. Even
Speaker 1: John Lennon had an issue with it. I didn't imagine it.
Speaker 1: John Lennon, Mr. Peace and Love wrote a song called
Speaker 1: Serve Yourself Have you ever heard that, not a lot
Speaker 1: of people have. It's only a demo. It's rough, like
Speaker 1: a sketch, very punk, very angry. You got to hand
Speaker 1: it to John and he could write a song, but
Speaker 1: the subject matter that was less appealing to me. He
Speaker 1: wrote it as a reply to my song Gotta Serve
Speaker 1: Somebody a little glib pardy agitated swipe at my interest
Speaker 1: in Jesus. He was rattled and why did he care
Speaker 1: so much about what I was singing about. Maybe he
Speaker 1: wanted a little revenge for my song fourth time Around,
Speaker 1: which was a friendly dig at his Norwegian wood. Who knows.
Speaker 1: Despite a lot of reactions like that, I still went
Speaker 1: ahead and spread the word of the Lord on those
Speaker 1: three albums in the three gospel tours to promote them.
Speaker 1: Jesus the Answer. Some shows on those tours reminded me
Speaker 1: of that Newport Folk Festivals show, which is funny because
Speaker 1: with my message, I was being the complete opposite of
Speaker 1: Judas really, but some of the crowd just didn't get
Speaker 1: at it. It's not what they came to see, it's
Speaker 1: not what they wanted to see. I was singing about
Speaker 1: the same things I was singing about before, just in
Speaker 1: a different way, but they couldn't see it, and that
Speaker 1: wasn't my problem. But it is your problem. It's our problem.
Speaker 1: Shut up. Like I was saying, those shows, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: change them, same for those albums. What an artist can't
Speaker 1: change and adapt? Transfiguration moves in mysterious ways. You can't
Speaker 1: always decide how it moves and how you change. T
Speaker 1: Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, Stephen souls Bono, all those guys
Speaker 1: found salvation like me, differences. No one gave them a
Speaker 1: hard time. We're different. You know that. You shut up.
Speaker 1: The question I asked all the time is why why
Speaker 1: did I start singing about Jesus and the Lord so
Speaker 1: intense sleep? Why did I embrace Christianity? I had my reasons,
Speaker 1: and we'll get to them in time, but let me
Speaker 1: tell you right now, it was not because I was
Speaker 1: having a personal crisis. I've seen that written lots of
Speaker 1: times before. People think you find religion when you're down
Speaker 1: and out, Well, not me. Is that some kind of joke.
Speaker 1: Don't listen to him. Our personal life wasn't in crisis.
Speaker 1: Our personal life was fine. We had three girlfriends at
Speaker 1: once Helen could have been five. Don't use that word.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, that word. Don't talk about private matters either.
Speaker 1: Our relationships broke up. So what broke up? We ruined them.
Speaker 1: We were on a self DESTRUCTI mission with our private life.
Speaker 1: How so February ninety seven, remember Malcolm, our girlfriend at
Speaker 1: the time sat around the breakfast table, the family breakfast table.
Speaker 1: Then our wife came in. How would you feel if
Speaker 1: you came down and saw the person you were married
Speaker 1: to sitting with his lover around the breakfast table with
Speaker 1: your kids. That was your idea, It was your idea,
Speaker 1: and then you screamed at her. All right, our marriage
Speaker 1: fell apart. That's not unusual. Every relationship we had at
Speaker 1: the time fell apart. Then there's the drugs and drink
Speaker 1: here we go. Yeah, you can act like that when
Speaker 1: you're twenty one. But might I remind you of our profession.
Speaker 1: Oh then there's the film Bobby and Sarah whatever we
Speaker 1: call it. My god, that fucking film it was called
Speaker 1: Ronaldo and Clara. How much time do we waste on that?
Speaker 1: How much money it? It was? We were such a
Speaker 1: mess that you wanted to stay on tour because you
Speaker 1: couldn't bear to go home. That's the truth, isn't it? Pathetic,
Speaker 1: a little boy lost. Okay, you've made your point. Look
Speaker 1: it's true it wasn't the best time for me personally
Speaker 1: or professionally. But I still dispute that I was lost.
Speaker 1: I wasn't so much searching for something more, just stumbling around.
Speaker 1: My girlfriend at the time, one of our many girlfriends, Yes,
Speaker 1: one of our many girlfriends, Mary Alice Artees she was
Speaker 1: born again. Whatever that meant. Sometimes you have to be
Speaker 1: directed by a higher power. But a lot of what
Speaker 1: she had to say seemed to be true to me.
Speaker 1: It resonated with me. I'd come to see, there's no
Speaker 1: right and left. There's just truth and untruth. There's honesty
Speaker 1: and hypocrisy. It's all in the Bible. It's the only
Speaker 1: thing that stays true no matter which way you look.
Speaker 1: Mary introduced me to the Vineyard Christian Fellowship and Evangelical
Speaker 1: Christian Denomination. I met all those guys and we talked.
Speaker 1: I asked them all about the Bible, and they answered
Speaker 1: all my questions. They said, if I wanted to know more,
Speaker 1: there was a Bible class I could attend. I'd assumed
Speaker 1: i'd be going back on tour soon, and when they
Speaker 1: told me the class was going to run for three months.
Speaker 1: I thought they were crazy. I can't give up that
Speaker 1: much time. One day, though, I remember waking up. I
Speaker 1: looked at the watch on my nightstand. It was seven am.
Speaker 1: I was alone, no family with me, no girlfriend around,
Speaker 1: no tour booked, no band. I don't know why, but
Speaker 1: I felt compelled to go. It just made sense. There
Speaker 1: was something in me that wanted to study, to learn,
Speaker 1: to change. That's why I changed a lot. I got
Speaker 1: in my car and drove straight to receive it where
Speaker 1: the Fellowship's offices were. I stayed for over three months
Speaker 1: and learned more than I ever thought possible, comfort, knowledge, salvation.
Speaker 1: Towards the end of Mary was baptized in a swimming
Speaker 1: pool at the house of a Fellowship pastor. It was
Speaker 1: total immersion. I went and witnessed the whole thing. Not
Speaker 1: long after, I was baptized in the ocean. I've been
Speaker 1: touched by Jesus. I felt renewed. I had become a
Speaker 1: different man, this time, transfigured by God. But why, Like
Speaker 1: I say, everyone asks, why, what happened to spark all
Speaker 1: of this? Well, it had all started a year earlier.
Speaker 1: The Lord had given me a sign. If you confess
Speaker 1: with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your
Speaker 1: heart that God raised him from the dead. You will
Speaker 1: be saved. For it is with your heart that you
Speaker 1: believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth
Speaker 1: that you confess and are saved. The air was thick
Speaker 1: inside the arena that night. I never understood that expression before,
Speaker 1: but that night it was thick like smog, hot and close.
Speaker 1: Well that's how it felt to me. Anyway. We were
Speaker 1: playing in San Diego, one of those giant places. That's
Speaker 1: how we did that to all arenas and champagne and
Speaker 1: parties no matter which way you look. I kept turning
Speaker 1: to Billy Cross, my lead guitar player. I kept asking
Speaker 1: him if it was hot. No, Bob, he kept saying, God,
Speaker 1: it was so hot. I've never known heat like that.
Speaker 1: It was like I was staring at Hell cloaked in fur.
Speaker 1: After a while, they moved one of those big fans
Speaker 1: next to the stage and pointed it right at us.
Speaker 1: The rest of the band were shivering, but me, I
Speaker 1: was on fire. Jesus Christ. I had felt unwell for
Speaker 1: a while. Touring can do that to you, but this
Speaker 1: felt ten times worse than anything I've felt before that night,
Speaker 1: I'd slid into some sort of feverish existence. When it
Speaker 1: was time to play Maggie's Farm, I remember I couldn't
Speaker 1: stop talking. I blurted out some old rubbish like I
Speaker 1: was invited to play the Newport Folk festist. They invited
Speaker 1: me three times. I played this song the last time
Speaker 1: I was there. They never did invite me back. I
Speaker 1: don't hold any grudges anyway. Sometimes I told this man
Speaker 1: up here who asked me about the song, sometimes the
Speaker 1: whole world looks to me like Maggie's Farm. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna work on Maggie's Farm no more. I
Speaker 1: couldn't stop talking. Between the songs, I was rambling. I
Speaker 1: felt compelled to talk. Things were just coming to me.
Speaker 1: I was getting hotter and hotter as the show went on.
Speaker 1: A fever had started to grip my body. I felt
Speaker 1: like I was succumbing to it. I didn't imagine it
Speaker 1: before the song signor. I stood in front of the
Speaker 1: giant fan and didn't feel a thing, nothing. It was
Speaker 1: like a bonfire. I started to ramble again. I took
Speaker 1: a train once from Monterey, Chihuahua, up to San Diego,
Speaker 1: I said crowd cheered. This guy was sitting next to
Speaker 1: me on the rain, a man wearing a blanket. He
Speaker 1: his eyes were burning up. It was there was smoke
Speaker 1: coming out of his nostrils. I thought I'd talked to him.
Speaker 1: When I turned around to look at him, he was gone.
Speaker 1: The crowd cheered again. Could they not see the state
Speaker 1: I was in? Do they not notice? I was making
Speaker 1: less sense as the night wore on. Being noticed can
Speaker 1: be a burden. We played the song and I felt
Speaker 1: even worse. In fact, I wasn't sure i'd be standing
Speaker 1: by the end of it. The final notes rang out,
Speaker 1: and I felt like something was seriously wrong. I took
Speaker 1: a few steps forward, the sweat from my head dripping
Speaker 1: onto the stage floor. As I walked, A white mist
Speaker 1: appeared in the corner of my vision, and the loud
Speaker 1: sounds of the arena slowly disappeared. It all sounded like
Speaker 1: I was under water. I felt my body about to
Speaker 1: give away, But then something caught my eye high power.
Speaker 1: Someone had thrown something onto the stage. Now, people throw
Speaker 1: things onto the stage all the time. It's not usually
Speaker 1: too bad. Tom Jones got panties. I'm more likely to
Speaker 1: get a paperback. But this time it was something small,
Speaker 1: something silver. It caught the light as it lay there.
Speaker 1: It looked closer and saw that it was a silver cross.
Speaker 1: Christ injured my life. Now. Usually I don't pick anything
Speaker 1: up that is thrown on the stage. But the way
Speaker 1: this cross caught the light, it lured me in and
Speaker 1: the feverish heat. This cross looks so cool, It looked calming.
Speaker 1: It looked like salvation. Jesus is the answer. I bent down,
Speaker 1: picked it up and placed it in my pocket. Twenty
Speaker 1: four hours later and I was on another stage and
Speaker 1: another arena. This time it was Arizona. I felt even worse.
Speaker 1: I was feverish again. I saw dots in front of
Speaker 1: my eyes. Made me think of those flashes from the
Speaker 1: camera bulbs way back at the Newport Folk Festival. Images
Speaker 1: from that day began to flash into my mind. Then
Speaker 1: I saw the road in Woodstock where I rode my motorcycle.
Speaker 1: It changed me forever. I smelled the Hell's Angels gasoline.
Speaker 1: I saw the blood dashed against the wall of the Lafayette.
Speaker 1: That's who I'm talking about. Then I remembered the cross.
Speaker 1: I reached into my pocket. It was still there. I
Speaker 1: grabbed it and held it tightly holding on for dear life.
Speaker 1: Touching it was like a shock to my system. When
Speaker 1: I touched it, like a needle in my arm. Touched
Speaker 1: by Jesus, my fever slowly came down. I began to
Speaker 1: see properly in both senses. I was slowly brought to life.
Speaker 1: After the show, I put the cross around my neck.
Speaker 1: It transfigured me. I ended up wearing it for the
Speaker 1: rest of that tour. It even influenced the songs we
Speaker 1: played during the shows. I changed the lyrics to some
Speaker 1: of those songs straight away, Tangled Up in Blue, for example,
Speaker 1: In that song, I mentioned a mysterious lady in a
Speaker 1: topless bar, quoting an Italian poet from the century. But
Speaker 1: live with that cross around my neck, I changed the
Speaker 1: lyrics to her, quoting the Bible, the Gospel according to Matthew,
Speaker 1: to be precise, That's who I'm talking about. It felt right.
Speaker 1: Even my songs transfigured along with me. I knew something
Speaker 1: had changed on that tour, something seismic. But what I
Speaker 1: didn't know was the Lord was just getting started with me.
Speaker 1: Soon we'd meet. We'll be right back after this. Were
Speaker 1: were were? The Lord blesses thee and keeps thee. The
Speaker 1: Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be
Speaker 1: gracious unto thee, and gives the peace. Tucson, Tucson, Arizona.
Speaker 1: That's where it happened. That's where my life changed forever.
Speaker 1: If you could have given me a million guesses as
Speaker 1: to where my life would alter beyond all recognition, I
Speaker 1: never would have said Tucson, Arizona. But it's true. I
Speaker 1: didn't imagine it. We were playing another show, another arena.
Speaker 1: Although my fever had improved, I still wasn't right. I
Speaker 1: was still being eaten up by something. Before we played Seor,
Speaker 1: I told the same story on the stage, the one
Speaker 1: about the man on the train, that man with the
Speaker 1: smoke coming out of his nostrils and whose eyes were
Speaker 1: burning up. I couldn't stop thinking about him. The whole
Speaker 1: scene kept coming into my mind. That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I saw him in my dreams and in my waking
Speaker 1: hours too. I was haunted by him. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know who or what he was. On stage, I started
Speaker 1: to feel dizzy again. The heat had returned, and I
Speaker 1: felt my temperature rocket all Just after thinking about him.
Speaker 1: I reached into my pocket and found the cross again
Speaker 1: I clutched it tight, but this time it didn't help
Speaker 1: like it had before. I knew I needed to up
Speaker 1: my dose, so I took it out of my pocket
Speaker 1: and put it around my neck for all to see.
Speaker 1: You make yourself in this. As soon as I put
Speaker 1: it there, the cross leveled me out. This tour had
Speaker 1: been draining. Where the motorcycle crash and woodstock back in
Speaker 1: sixty six had slowed my life down, my life had
Speaker 1: regained its velocity. By this point. I was once again
Speaker 1: reaching breakneck speed directed by a higher power. But the cross,
Speaker 1: the cross brought calm to me, to my world, to everything.
Speaker 1: The rest of the show sailed by, I was feeling
Speaker 1: better and better that night. When I was driven back
Speaker 1: to the hotel, they let me out at the front entrance.
Speaker 1: I didn't go in. I just stood in the parking lot,
Speaker 1: breathing the fresh air and gulps, with my new cross
Speaker 1: firmly around my neck. The parking lot was large and
Speaker 1: dimly litten. As I stared out into it, I could
Speaker 1: see something someone an old man with well. He looked
Speaker 1: like he had a kind of blanket over him. Right
Speaker 1: there on the other side of the lot. He looked
Speaker 1: like the thing from that train. I ran to where
Speaker 1: I had seen him, but he'd already gone. I searched
Speaker 1: the parking lot over and over, but nothing. After looking
Speaker 1: for almost an hour, I gave up. Being noticed can
Speaker 1: be a burden. I thought it must be lack of
Speaker 1: sleep that was making me think this way, so I
Speaker 1: called it a night. I made my way to my room,
Speaker 1: walking quickly down the long hotel corridor. It was so quiet.
Speaker 1: All I could hear were my footsteps. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but I became aware that I was tensing up. Every
Speaker 1: door I passed seemed to make me more and more tense.
Speaker 1: The faster I walked, the more doors I passed, the
Speaker 1: more tense I became. I thought I felt breath on
Speaker 1: my neck. I felt like I could feel eyes on
Speaker 1: me too. I pulled the cross off my neck and
Speaker 1: held it tightly in my hand as I walked faster
Speaker 1: and faster down the corridor. By the time I came
Speaker 1: to my room, I was out of breath, partly due
Speaker 1: to my pace, but also due to my rising anxiety. No,
Speaker 1: not anxiety, terror, Jesus Christ. I fumbled with my room key,
Speaker 1: but I dropped it. I could feel that breath again.
Speaker 1: I spun around, but there was nothing. I clumsily picked
Speaker 1: up the key and threw open the door. As it
Speaker 1: slammed behind me, I ran to the window on the
Speaker 1: other side of the room. I pulled the curtains back
Speaker 1: and scanned the view silence. My room was facing the
Speaker 1: parking lot. I looked all over for that man, but
Speaker 1: again nothing. I ran back to the door and peeked
Speaker 1: through the spy hole. Nothing. I cursed that fever again.
Speaker 1: I thought maybe I should start cleaning up when I
Speaker 1: was on the road, start eating properly, cut the booze
Speaker 1: and the drugs, maybe even stop touring. Traveling can do
Speaker 1: things to your body and mind a lot. I slumped
Speaker 1: down onto the bed, holding the cross closely to my chest.
Speaker 1: As I closed my eyes, I'd never been more ready
Speaker 1: for sleep. The room began to spin again. I thought
Speaker 1: the fever was back, but I was wrong. The bed
Speaker 1: rumbled beneath me. I felt a huge movement, like the
Speaker 1: world around me was splitting in two. But I can't
Speaker 1: explain it. The world itself, the physical world was normal,
Speaker 1: but the spiritual world was splitting, moving changing somehow all
Speaker 1: around me. Sometimes you have to be directed by a
Speaker 1: higher power. I thought it must be that that thing,
Speaker 1: that man with the smoke coming out of his nostrils.
Speaker 1: But it felt different. This felt comforting. My temperature was
Speaker 1: rising again, my heart began to pound. I kept my
Speaker 1: eyes closed and held the cross. Instantly I felt a presence.
Speaker 1: I knew what it was straightaway. No one had to
Speaker 1: spell it out for me. It couldn't have been anybody
Speaker 1: but Jesus. I knew it was him, Christ, Lord of Lords,
Speaker 1: King of kings. He was in that room with me.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the answer. I lay there, stunned. I could
Speaker 1: feel him all around me, moving around the room. There
Speaker 1: was a silent grace to it all. I placed the
Speaker 1: cross on my chest and basked in the glory of it.
Speaker 1: I've been touched by Jesus. His presence was confirmed to
Speaker 1: me in a physical way when I felt a hand
Speaker 1: on me. I actually physically felt it physically. It started
Speaker 1: in the center of my body. Then I felt it
Speaker 1: all everywhere, covering me, cleansing me. The room was spinning quickly.
Speaker 1: Now my whole body was trembling too. I could feel
Speaker 1: the cross starting to rattle between my chest and my hand.
Speaker 1: With my eyes shut tight. I let it all pass
Speaker 1: over me, and then it stopped. I opened my eyes
Speaker 1: and the quiet had returned. The room was empty. There
Speaker 1: was nothing around me, no bright light, no apparition, no angels, nothing.
Speaker 1: I looked at the hotel bed and it was covered
Speaker 1: in sweat, but my body was dry. The fever had
Speaker 1: gone down, my temperature and heart rate had returned to normal.
Speaker 1: The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked
Speaker 1: me up. It changed me forever. I truly had a
Speaker 1: born again experience. If you want to call it that,
Speaker 1: don't believe me, That's fine. People have told me ever
Speaker 1: since that they don't believe the Lord himself was present
Speaker 1: with me in that room that night. I can't prove
Speaker 1: anything to anyone except to say that I saw the
Speaker 1: world differently after that. As for the rest of the evening,
Speaker 1: I didn't sleep at all. Sometime in the small hours,
Speaker 1: I opened up a drawer on the nightstand. Sliding to
Speaker 1: the front of the drawer as I did, was a
Speaker 1: small King James Bible. I opened it and read. I
Speaker 1: read for so long that the only thing that took
Speaker 1: my eyes off those pages was a knock at my
Speaker 1: door telling me we had to move on to the
Speaker 1: next show, Comfort, Knowledge and Salvation. We were heading to
Speaker 1: El Paso, Texas. The show wasn't until the next day,
Speaker 1: so I spent the next twenty four hours reading that
Speaker 1: little Bible constantly. My life had begun again. I had
Speaker 1: experienced rebirth before, but nothing like this. This time it
Speaker 1: was from the Lord. It felt like that cross would
Speaker 1: never leave my neck. I was the property of Jesus
Speaker 1: now A Pastor Ken Gullikson took a deep breath. He
Speaker 1: stood in the wings of the stage at the Arrowhead
Speaker 1: Pond in Anaheim, California. His brain went into intense focus,
Speaker 1: as it always does in this moment, the moment before
Speaker 1: he had to address the sea of faces looking back
Speaker 1: at him, sixteen thousand faces that hung on his every word,
Speaker 1: the word of God. Pastor Gullikson heard his name announced
Speaker 1: and walked confidently to the stage. He was blinded by
Speaker 1: the bright house lights. Sixteen thou people cheer him on.
Speaker 1: Good evening, friends, he said. He spoke that day at
Speaker 1: the Jesus p Bull Reunion. It was his usual rallying sermon.
Speaker 1: Pastor Gullikson as a knack for speaking to people at
Speaker 1: events like these. It made him feel like a rock star.
Speaker 1: He commands the stage like an illusionist and has the
Speaker 1: charisma of a Hollywood a listern. And by the time
Speaker 1: he finished, the crowd went wild, like he just performed
Speaker 1: a grand opera. Thank you and may God be with you,
Speaker 1: he bellowed, and then he left the stage. Pastor Gullikson's
Speaker 1: performance was done, but he was already dreading what was
Speaker 1: coming next. A journalist from the Assist News service sat
Speaker 1: waiting for Pastor Gullikson in a sofa lined backstage area.
Speaker 1: His dictaphone was at the ready. The journalists had requested
Speaker 1: an interview some weeks ago, and the pastor knew why
Speaker 1: these news requests were always for the same reason, the
Speaker 1: same person, Pastor Gullikson's most famous of students. Four minutes
Speaker 1: into the interview, it happened. Can we talk about Bob Dylan,
Speaker 1: the journalists asked, trying to sound off hand. Pastor Gulliksen
Speaker 1: looked at his watch. Only took the guy four minutes
Speaker 1: to say the D word. The journalists asked how Pastor
Speaker 1: Gulliksen came to teach one of the biggest stars in
Speaker 1: the world all about the Bible. The pastor responded with
Speaker 1: a well rehearsed, carefully crafted story about a short time
Speaker 1: with Bob Dylan, like a good joke. The pastor knew
Speaker 1: the beats of the story inside out. He paused to
Speaker 1: add drama at various points, and through in a couple
Speaker 1: of embellished truths to sensationalize. He executed this story perfectly,
Speaker 1: just as he had done for more than two decades now.
Speaker 1: The journalists then suggested that Dylan had lost his faith.
Speaker 1: God is not through with him yet, smiled the pastor,
Speaker 1: maintaining a relaxed exterior, I would ask people to really
Speaker 1: intercede for Bob to pray without ceasing, that God will
Speaker 1: access his heart so that he would be open responding
Speaker 1: again to the truth. Sensing that's poll quotes were about
Speaker 1: to materialize, the journalist moved his dictaphone closer to the
Speaker 1: pastor and then asked the next question, do you think
Speaker 1: Dylan is still on a spiritual journey? Pastor Glickson's tone
Speaker 1: became serious as he responded directly into the dictaphone. I
Speaker 1: believe he is on a greater search than ever. He's
Speaker 1: getting older and he's struggling with what is the most
Speaker 1: real being Bob Dylan having this acclaim or having a
Speaker 1: relationship with God. The journalists asked that the pastor had
Speaker 1: seen him recently. No, I'm just waiting on the Lord
Speaker 1: for the right time to initiate contact. The journalists asked
Speaker 1: a final question, was there a particular moment when Bob
Speaker 1: Dylan stopped coming to the church? Pastor Gollokson gave a
Speaker 1: faint one word reply. No. Nineteen years earlier, Bob Dylan
Speaker 1: lay blinking in the sunlight, sweating. In fact, the sweat
Speaker 1: poured off of him, but he wasn't running fever. The
Speaker 1: hot midday Caribbean sun was the culprit. The sun had
Speaker 1: beat down on this particular part of the ocean for
Speaker 1: some time, but now it hit behind a large cloud.
Speaker 1: Dylan slowly sat up and took in a deep breath.
Speaker 1: The salty sea air filled his lungs. He jumped up
Speaker 1: onto the deck of his boat, the Water Pearl, and
Speaker 1: took stock of his surroundings. He was off the coast
Speaker 1: of Martinique, one of the many Caribbean islands he sailed
Speaker 1: around that summer. Before the end of that summer, you
Speaker 1: get to see them all. He pulled the sail in,
Speaker 1: and as he did, he noticed that the wind had
Speaker 1: picked up. The knocking of rope on the masts suddenly
Speaker 1: confirmed that the wind had changed. Clouds formed quickly, and
Speaker 1: the pearls large sails began to rattle, and the waves
Speaker 1: started to make the horizon rise and fall while Dylan
Speaker 1: listened to the wind whistle. Five minutes later, the whole
Speaker 1: scene was transformed. The wind began its attack on the pearl,
Speaker 1: so strong that loose items on the deck were picked
Speaker 1: up and tossed around. A pan of my hat drifted
Speaker 1: a few inches across the polished wood in A book
Speaker 1: on the poet Homer lost its page, and the boat's
Speaker 1: sails flapped violently. Dylan took a look at the entrance
Speaker 1: to the ship's cabin. It looked inviting. He knew he
Speaker 1: could ride out this mini storm in there, if you wanted.
Speaker 1: He took a few steps toward, but stopped. He suddenly
Speaker 1: realized this was the moment. He moved to the boat's bow,
Speaker 1: staring straight into the face of the wind. He saw
Speaker 1: other vessels on iron waves in the distance. He rose
Speaker 1: up to his modest but full height and stretched out
Speaker 1: his arms. Every muscle and his torso extended. With one
Speaker 1: swift movement, he grabbed the silver cross from around his
Speaker 1: neck and yanked it with full force, causing the chain
Speaker 1: to snap. He took one last look at the iconic
Speaker 1: symbol and launched it into the air. It sailed to
Speaker 1: the wind and crashed into the Caribbean Sea. Bob Dylan
Speaker 1: stood on the ship as the wind blew through him.
Speaker 1: It was peaceful. An hour later, back in the sunshine
Speaker 1: on solid Land and Martinique, Dylan made a phone call
Speaker 1: from the harbor's booth. His booking agent was on the
Speaker 1: other line. Dylan agreed to his next project, a musical
Speaker 1: retrospective tour, a run of shows that would combine Dylan's
Speaker 1: secular music with his religious songs. Over the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: another new composition would be added to the rehearsal set
Speaker 1: list too, Caribbean Wind. Bob Dylan's so called born Again
Speaker 1: phase had come to an end. Like all his faces,
Speaker 1: he had shown another side of himself, another transfiguration, another
Speaker 1: creative rebirth. It had added to his artistic integrity, challenged
Speaker 1: his fans, and left a whole lot of blood on
Speaker 1: the tracks. M Blood on the Tracks produced by Double
Speaker 1: Elvis in partnership with I Heart Radio. It's hosted an
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Jake Brennan, also executive produced by
Speaker 1: Brady sath. Zeth Lundie is lead editor and producer. This
Speaker 1: episode was written by Ben Burrow, Story and copy editing
Speaker 1: by Pat Healy, Mixing and sound designed by Colin Fleming.
Speaker 1: Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spreaker. This episode
Speaker 1: featured Chris Anzeloni is Bob Dylan. Sources for this episode
Speaker 1: are available at double Elvis dot com on the Blood
Speaker 1: on the Tracks series page, follow Double Elvis on Instagram
Speaker 1: at double Elvis and on Twitch at Grace and Talks,
Speaker 1: and you can talk to me per Usual on Instagram
Speaker 1: and Twitter at Disgrace Land Pond Rock a Roll Herding
Speaker 1: it