Three Musicians Who Auditioned to Play with Bob Dylan (and Didn't Make the Cut)
Never-told stories from Marshall Crenshaw, Rick Ruskin, and Johnny Lee Schell
With all the Dylan band members I’ve interviewed, one thing that comes up a lot is the strange audition process to join Bob’s band. For one, it’s rarely called an “audition.” As gospel-era guitarist Fred Tackett put it to me, “It’s just like, ‘Want to come down and jam?’” Larry Campbell, almost 20 years after Tackett, said his was the same: “They weren’t quite calling it an audition. Although, ostensibly, that’s what it was. I showed up at the studio, and I met Bob, and we started playing.”
The vibe at the quote-unquote “audition” tends to be equally informal. Scarlet Rivera’s “audition” was a surprise sit-in at a Muddy Waters show. Rob Stoner’s was Bob trying to stump him on old bluegrass tunes in Kris Kristofferson’s hotel room. Regina McCrary sang “Amazing Grace” into Dylan’s boombox.
All those musicians obviously passed their amorphous “auditions.” But not everyone does. So, today, stories of three musicians who auditioned to be in Bob Dylan’s band but, for one reason or another, didn’t make the cut: Marshall Crenshaw, Rick Ruskin, and Johnny Lee Schell. None of them have told their Dylan audition stories before now. The first half will be free, the second for paid subscribers.