I'm Starting A Bob Dylan Podcast

It's called "Never Ending Stories," it's about the Never Ending Tour, it's with my pals the Jokermen, and it starts next month

About six months ago I got a call from my manager. “Be at this rehearsal space at 10 p.m. tomorrow night. These guys wanna podcast with you.” So, I show up with my microphone turned on and ready to amplify at five minutes to 10. The room is almost all dark. I wait but the guys don’t show up. I wait another 45 minutes. Finally, two figures emerge from the blackness. They’re wearing hoodies and gloves with the fingers cut off. I go to shake their hands and their hands are limp. Dead fish.

We start podcasting. It’s not going well. The conversation is okay but it’s a little herky-jerky.

They ask, “Do you know ‘Pretty Peggy O’?”

“I do,” I say.

“You do?”

“I am the guy who knows ‘Pretty Peggy O,’” I say. “I know ‘Pretty Peggy O’?” After that, I can see that they’re happy. They have asked other co-hosts “Do you know ‘Pretty Peggy O’?” and none of them did. We talk for hours without stopping.

And that is how I came to join the upcoming podcast Never Ending Stories with Ian and Evan from the Jokermen show. (Listen to the trailer here.) After a period of decline in which personal decadence and artistic indifference nearly destroyed their podcasting careers, they decided to approach me, their G.E. Smith figure, for a reboot. And now we are set to produce a show that will delve deep into Bob’s “Never Ending Tour” i.e. the run of shows he’s embarked upon annually (for the most part) since 1988.

Bob Dylan is my favorite artist ever, so I’m excited to commence this tour with my new bandmates. Some things to note about the journey ahead.

• We will not be discussing the tour in chronological order. We will dart throughout the tour’s history, Biograph style, based on our own personal whims and desires.

• Each episode will likely focus on an individual show, though there might also be theme episodes about a particular song, NET musician, venue, or whatever.

• We will sometimes talk about shows/tours from before the Never Ending Tour.

• This show will be funny and smart, like Bob himself.

• Occasionally, like Bob himself, our motives will not make sense.

• For instance, I will refer to Clinton Heylin only as “The Dark Prince.”

• There will be a Patreon option.

• We will have celebrity guests, including (I hope) members of Bob’s bands over the years.

• My role on the show is to play the adorably cranky and witty older brother who gets mad at the younger generation’s opinions about The Basement Tapes and David Kemper.

• We will sometimes talk about artists who are not Bob Dylan.

• All of this is subject to change.

That about does it for now. More details as they emerge!