Another Facet To Mr. Dylan

After Lynda and I saw Dylan perform here last month cousin BJ was relating to her sister 'Roon' out in Winnipeg what we thought of the show. Dylan had played there the week prior. Roon forwarded this piece from the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper that tells me Bob is just as human as the rest of us. He is a 'fan'. Thanks to BJ for sending it along.


Winnipeg Free Press
used to be entertainment
That old guy in front of Neil's Winnipeg house? It was Bob Dylan
Updated: November 12, 2008 at 02:50 AM CST

It's not every day that you drive home from grocery shopping to find Bob Dylan rubbernecking in front of your house.
But that's what happened to city employees John K___. and Patti R__., whose Grosvenor Avenue home was the early-1960s domicile of music icon Neil Young.
"It was very neat," says K___, 53, a landscape architect who claims to have spent about 25 minutes chatting with the famous singer-songwriter.
"It's a wonderful memory."
Two Sundays ago, the day of Dylan's MTS Centre concert, K____ and R___ arrived home between 4 and 4:30 p.m. to see two scruffy men who had arrived by taxi standing on the sidewalk outside their house.
"Oh, oh, Neil Young fan alert," said R___, who has become accustomed to such incidents in the six years they've lived in the amalgamated duplex at 1123 Grosvenor.
She went to talk to them while K____ lugged in the groceries. After he was finished, he walked out to chat, too.
"They were older than your typical Young fans," K____ recalls thinking.
Nothing clicked until he noticed that one of the men had his black leather pants tucked into expensive-looking cowboy boots. He glanced up and studied the lined, unshaven face topped by a grey tuque and realized he was looking at Dylan.
K____ kept his cool, while R___, a project manager in the city's permits department, remained oblivious. Dylan, 67, was curious about the house and neighbourhood as they related to Young.
He also made small talk about the weather. K____ replied that it was unseasonably mild.
"You're from Minnesota, so you know what's usually like," K____ said. "Subtract 10 degrees."
Dylan laughed.
K____ asked if they wanted to see inside the house, and Dylan was eager.
"How long do you have for the tour?" K____ asked, meaning the tour of the house.
Dylan replied: "We're touring for another two weeks."
They showed him Young's old bedroom, now painted bright pink and occupied by K____'s 16-year-old daughter.
"So this is where Neil would have listened to his music," Dylan mused.
They took him into the old second-floor kitchen, now a laundry room. "I remember thinking I should have done the laundry before I went out," K____ says.
K____ explained the whereabouts of the Earl Grey and Crescentwood community centres, where a teenaged Young and bandmates played their first concerts.
"He was introspective and thoughtful," K____ said. "He had an interest in music beyond himself."
The encounter lasted more than 20 minutes before the two visitors left. K____ believes the cab driver did not know who his passengers were.
While K____ called him "Bob," Dylan did not formally acknowledge his identity. He didn't have to. "This was a guy who doesn't shake hands or introduce himself."
As the cab drove off, K____ said to R___: "You were pretty cool talking to a huge celebrity."
"What celebrity?" R___ asked.
"Bob Dylan."
"That's why he looked so familiar!" she exclaimed.
She started screaming to neighbours who were raking their leaves: "Bob Dylan's in the cab! Bob Dylan's in the cab!"
Ki____ admits they have no documentary proof of Dylan's visit, nor did they even get an autograph.
"It seemed cheesy to ask," he said. "I was embarrassed that we hadn't bought tickets to the concert."
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Dylan could also have done the same thing while in town here as Neil Young spent some of his earlier years living about 15 miles west of here in a town called Pickering, over on the border of Toronto. He also lived about an hours drive north-east of here in the town of Omemee. Neil's late father, Scott, was a famous sports writer for the Toronto Telegram newspaper (now defunct) and a broadcaster.