My daughter phones me up. ‘Dad’ she says. ‘Be ready to leave at four o’clock’. I ask ready to leave where? But she says don’t worry, and just be ready. She pulls into the driveway and soon after we are headed down the road. We stop and pick up one of her friends and his old man and off we go. By now I have found out that we are going to a concert. A Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan concert. Pretty cool! Even cooler is that we apparently have backstage passes! The friend’s dad had some connections to the stage lighting crew so that’s how the passes were scored.
Sure enough some guy was there to meet us with the passes and in we went. It was still some time before the start of the show so we relaxed in one of the busses and knocked back a few beverages. Eventually we wandered up onto the side of the stage. The venue was a triple A ballpark. Once on stage we got some instructions from one of the stage managers. Pretty common sense stuff. We could basically come and go as we please as long as we didn’t get on stage. There was however one unusual request. (Come to think of it the whole scene was a bit unusual) The request was… that under no circumstances were we to talk to, approach, or even look at Mr. Dylan. The manager said that Dylan is very private and even a bit paranoid about fans. I guess he has the right. But he also ensured us that Bob never wanders around back stage prior to the show or during any opening acts. The chances of seeing him were somewhere between slim and none, however in the unlikely event he appeared… keep your distance. He had armed bodyguards apparently. Okay, we could do that. There were only a small handful of us there. The four of us, some woman, and Vince Vaughn (the actor)
We were just hanging out, chatting, and soaking in the vibe as the opening act was getting set up. It was a tight little bluegrass combo. They would be followed by Willie, and Bob would be going on last. So, as soon as this band starts to play out of the corner of my eye I see this guy walk up the steps to the stage. Yep, you guessed it. This guy was Bob Dylan. He walks right over and stands right beside me for the whole set. We had been warned. We were all on our best behaviour, and wanted to respect his wishes. As tempting as it was to say hi and shake his hand, I restrained myself.
After the set was over he simply just turned and walked away. Between sets we were talking to the bass player from the bluegrass band; she was blown away that Dylan had watched their set. She said that all tour she had not even seen him once.
The rest of the concert was pretty wild and all in all this was a really bizarre and fun filled evening.