Lighting Bob Dylan on the Never Ending Tour
"He doesn't want spotlights in his eyes. He doesn't want lights moving around. He just wants to do his thing."
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In his three-decade-and-counting career, Joel Reiff has done lighting for a host of superstars from Jason Mraz to Korn. For three of those 30-plus years, from 1999-2002, he was Bob Dylan’s Lighting Director. (As it happens, his stint coincides with what some call Dylan’s greatest Never Ending Tour band.) Reiff both designed what the lights would look like in advance, then traveled the world executing his and Dylan’s vision on stage every night.
It will surprise no one who’s seen Dylan live that his lighting instructions were, basically, to keep it minimal. It’s not really a “strobe lights and lasers” sort of show. So I asked Joel how that works in practice. He told me about his job day-to-day, and also shared some memorable gigs that stick out all these years later. While there are a few funny Dylan stories near the end, this is one that gets real nerdy into the minutia of what goes into putting on a Bob Dylan concert.
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