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.
Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw’s songs have been recorded by Bette Midler, Ronnie Spector, and The Gin Blossoms. He played Buddy Holly in the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba. He’s been nominated for both a Grammy and a Golden Globe. But you know what’s not on his list of accomplishments? Playing bass in Bob Dylan’s band.
He tried, though. In 1988, Crenshaw was invited to join what would become the first backing band of the Never Ending Tour. He rehearsed with Bob and the other musicians for three days. I’m grouping this as an “audition,” but, technically, he was actually briefly hired—his name even appeared in newspaper ads as one of Dylan’s new band members (see above). But he was almost immediately fired, before he played a single concert.
Note: This interview first ran last year in my book Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members. So if you read that book, you’ve already read this. Feel free to scroll past to the other two interviews, which are both new.
Tell me how you got involved.
What happened was, I was sitting in my kitchen in Nashville on a Saturday afternoon. At that point, I’d been in Nashville for maybe five months. Some friends and business associates were whispering in my ear the idea of moving there. A lot of music business types from LA and other places were moving to Nashville during this period.
I decided I didn’t want to live there. It got a little rough between me and my wife during that time, so she split about a month before I could leave. I’m sitting in my kitchen on this Saturday afternoon, like literally staring out into space, in a really bleak frame of mind. The phone rang, up on the kitchen wall. It was G.E. Smith. At that time, I hadn’t really spoken to him in maybe four years or so. The call was really out of left field.
How did you know him from four years prior?
I first met him when I was on tour with Daryl Hall and John Oates. I went all over North America with them as an opening act on an arena tour. The guys in the band were really nice people, and we just bonded with them.
Anyhow, he called me up out of the blue. Again, I’m in a shit mood and shit frame of mind. I don’t know whether to kill myself or go bowling. We’re talking for a second. He knew that I played bass on some of my own records, and he complimented me on that, then he said, “Would you be interested in going on a tour as a bass player with Bob Dylan?” And I just said, “Yeah, sure, fine.” You know, like that. That’s all I had the energy to say.
Then he gave me the backstory. What he told me was that one night Bob Dylan was sitting at home watching Saturday Night Live. The show goes to a commercial break, and he sees [SNL bandmembers] G.E. and T-Bone Wolk and Chris Parker up there playing into the commercial. He just picked up the phone to his manager and said, “Get me those guys.”
T-Bone Wolk, the bass player, I guess that he first said yes, but then changed his mind. So G.E. was looking for somebody to fill in. He just thought it would be cool, a different approach I guess, to bring me into it.
The thing is, G.E. and other people I know, they know Bob Dylan’s body of work like jot for jot. Like G.E. went to school on every album as they came out in turn. And I’d never done that really. I loved Bob Dylan, but at the time that I talked to G.E. on the phone, I’m going to say that maybe I knew 20 of his songs.
But I wanted to try and make it work. I was flattered that G.E. asked me. So I called a friend of mine at Columbia Records, asked her to help me out and send me all of Bob Dylan’s albums. She did. They came in these big boxes. I think I had three weeks to try and cram Bob Dylan’s whole catalog into my brain.
Had you ever done anything like this? Instead of fronting your own band, you go out as the bass player for someone else?
No, I never had. If I’m playing bass on one of my own things, I can make it work, but I don’t really have the comfort level on the instrument that a bass player would have. I don’t have a sound on the instrument just normally. And again, it’s like this massive body of work. The scale of it and the scope of it is just overwhelming.
Then I hear from G.E. again. Again, this is sketchy information, but he said, “The plan right now is for the band to rehearse for three days, then we’re going to go do the first gig and Bob will just meet us on stage. It’s going to be like a Chuck Berry gig.” I said, “Wow, that sounds crazy.”
Another few days go by, and I hear from G.E. again. “Okay, change of plans. The band is going to rehearse at this place in New York for five days, then Bob’s going to come on the sixth day.”
Of course, it’s one of those famous Bob Dylan curveballs that we’ve all read about: He shows up on either the first day or the second day. I’m nervous, to say the least. I have a bad feeling about the whole thing.
We played for a couple of days, but I’m sure that Bob could see the flop sweat and smell the fear on me. Anyhow, I did the best I could.
What do those days look like musically? Are you running down Dylan’s songs, or are you just kind of jamming?
I think we did play songs of his. I have to say that I’m standing next to his amplifier, and a lot of times I just really couldn’t fathom what was coming out of the amp. Like maybe G.E. would take a solo and then Bob would start to mimic the solo, and I’m supposed to be the one that’s holding the whole thing together. It’s not working at all.
Anyhow, after three days or so I was given the news that I was going to be replaced. I felt bad because I really was hopeful about the whole thing, but part of me was relieved.
I left, but I went back the next day. When I walked into the rehearsal space, people seemed shocked to see me. I just wanted to say to Bob that I understood his decision, that it made sense, and that I was really happy that I got to meet him. I wanted to be classy and pay my respect. He was very cool about it. On a personal level, he was cool the whole time, really, although it was no secret in the room that there was a problem, and I was the problem.
By the way, Chris Parker, I could be mistaken, but I don’t remember him saying a single word the whole time I was there. I never really got to know him, but it was cool that I played with him.
He talked to me about how he felt a little out of place at first.
We’re probably all nervous. G.E. was nervous too, I’m sure, but he’s got that real seasoned session musician brain, so he was keeping his cool.
Anyway, they brought in Kenny Aaronson to replace me, who’s definitely a real bass player. Then when they decided to get someone to replace him, they got Tony Garnier, who I’ve been friends with since about 1980. I feel like that was a really positive turning point for Bob, because ever since Tony came on board, he’s had quality bands consistently. Tony’s just one of those people that makes other people relaxed in his presence. I certainly wasn’t doing any of that when I was there, I can tell you for sure. Sometimes I joke with Tony and say, “Hey, man, you took my gig!”
Rick Ruskin
Remember when I mentioned Dylan’s gospel-era guitarist Fred Tackett up top? He got the job Rick Ruskin auditioned for, when Dylan was preparing to go on the road with his new Christian sound in 1979. Ruskin’s done just fine without the gig, first studying under his mentor Reverend Gary Davis and then working with everyone from Tanya Tucker to Olivia Newton-John, as well as a host of releases under his own name.
I know this is just a blip in a long career, but I'd love to hear the story, from when you got the call.
I had been working in Olivia Newton-John's live band. As I recall, one of the background singers, Donna Fein, called me up and said, "Call this number. Bob Dylan is looking for a guitar player and I think you'd be a good fit." I have no idea how she got the information.
So I called the number and I talked to somebody. They said, “To prepare for the audition, get the Slow Train Coming LP and learn the songs from it. That's what he will be auditioning you with." So that’s what I did. I prepared for probably about a week, listening to the album, charting it up. I’m figuring, I don't know if he wants me to play these exact parts or not, but at least I got the roadmap.
The audition was someplace in the LA area. It was me, Dylan and Jim Keltner. I had worked with Jim a few times before on some stuff for an actor/musician named Tim McIntire. He played the lead role in the movie American Hot Wax, about Alan Freed.
Dylan was the last one to show up. He was either stoned or hungover, and we did none of the tunes from the album.
Of course.
As a matter of fact, we did no tunes that he had actually written completely.
So what are you doing?
He just started playing stuff on the piano. There were no charts, no nothing. And I was just supposed to wing it.
He's playing actual songs, or just sort of instrumental jams?
He wasn't singing. He was just playing at the piano. And every time it would go from an A section to a B section back to an A section, it was never the same.
That sounds fairly difficult for a guitarist to come in and play along with.
I asked him a direct question. I said, “Look, it would be nice for me to know what it is you want to hear. Are you looking for a lead over this? Are you looking for just a little bit of color? You want some rhythm?” And he mumbled something that I couldn't even understand, to be quite honest.
At one point I believe I asked him, “Aren't we going to go through any of the stuff for the gig?” And he said, “What gig?” So by then I pretty much knew that the audition was over, no matter how much longer I stayed.
I felt like I'd been thrown into the deep end of a pool that had no water in it. The only nice thing that came out of it is Jim Keltner came up to me and he said, “Man, I really like the way you play and I hope you get the gig.” Which I thought was very kind of him, because I felt like I played like crap. I just didn't know what to do.
A mutual friend told me that Fred Tackett had gotten the gig. Tackett, according to my friend, basically said that whenever the group started to get really tight, Dylan would throw curves at them. While they were on stage, he changed keys, he changed feels. I mean, he obviously did not want a tight band. Either that, or he just was sadistic, and he wanted to see how much abuse the band would take in front of an audience. That's my conjecture on that one.
I've spoken to other people who played with them and, yeah, he throws curveballs often. In your case, it sounds almost like your audition was sort of cursed before you even walked in the door.
Yeah. I mean, I’ve not gotten gigs before. That's fine. It's not a fun thing to lose out on a job that you want, but when you're given certain information and it turns out to be a total waste of time, that left a pretty sour taste in my mouth.
How long were you there for? Is this like 10 minutes? Hours?
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