[Associated Press] Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.
Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.
A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.
“I don’t think she was familiar with his entire body of work,” Woolley said.
The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.
The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:
“What is your name, sir?” the officer asked.
“Bob Dylan,” Dylan said.
“OK, what are you doing here?” the officer asked.
“I’m on tour,” the singer replied.
A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.
The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” said that he didn’t have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night’s show.
The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.
The officers thanked him for his cooperation.
“He couldn’t have been any nicer to them,” Woolley added.
How did it feel? A Dylan publicist did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Friday.
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Count on a lad like Dylan to be wandering around some neighbourhood on the wrong side of the tracks, just to keep his head in check.
While it’s likely he wasn’t impressed with being harassed for doing something perfectly legal, it was probably refreshing to meet up with people young enough not to recognize him, or even know who Mr. Zimmerman was.
Unlike many superstars from his generation, Dylan has not cashed out on his stardom with the boomer generation. His peers have signed big contracts with national concert promoters who charge $150-$400 for the first 20 rows of floor seats, whereas Dylan often has open floors without seats that are general admission.
When he played Ricoh Collosseum in Toronto a few years ago, floors were $35, whereas seats in the stands were about $60. So if you weren’t willing to stand, you had to pay nearly twice as much to sit and be much farther away – a message perhaps to the privelaged?