Bob Dylan Was Detained While Allegedly Trying to Find Bruce Springsteen’s House

In 2009, some believe that Bob Dylan was making a pilgrimage to the home where Bruce Springsteen wrote Born to Run. He’d traveled to the houses of his musical peers in the past, so the speculation doesn’t seem unfounded. Dylan never made it to Springsteen’s home, though. As he wandered the nearby streets, a police officer detained him for looking suspicious and worrying residents. 

The ‘Hurricane’ singer has visited other musicians’ early homes

For some music fans, visiting their favorite artist’s home can help them feel closer to the musician. For example, Dylan visited Neil Young and John Lennon’s childhood homes. It’s an easier excursion to Lennon’s home in England: the house is part of a tour with the National Trust.

“He took one of our general minibus tours. People on the minibus did not recognize him apparently,” a spokesperson told BBC in 2009. “He could have booked a private tour but he was happy to go on the bus with everyone else.”

Young’s home in Winnipeg is privately owned, but that didn’t stop Dylan from approaching the front door. The owners, John Kiernan and Patti Regan, found him on their doorstep when they got home from the grocery store.

“I’m looking around, and I realize, this guy having a tuque on has really great cowboy boots on,” Kiernan told Rolling Stone in 2008. “He was wearing really nice leather pants. And I realize I’m staring face-to-face with Bob Dylan.”

The couple gave Dylan a tour of the home, including Young’s bedroom.

Some believe police stopped Bob Dylan while he was looking for Bruce Springsteen’s home

In 2009, homeowners in Long Branch, New Jersey, called the police when they saw a bedraggled man standing in the rain outside their home. This was Dylan, who told responding officer Kristie Buble that he was just on a walk in the area. Buble didn’t believe that the man was actually Bob Dylan, so she insisted on detaining him until he could confirm his identity.

“He was really nice, though, and he said he understood why I had to verify his identity and why I couldn’t let him go,” Buble told ABC News. “He asked me if I could drive him back to the neighborhood when I verified who he was, which made me even more suspicious.

While Dylan didn’t give a specific reason as to why he was in the area, fans began to speculate that he was looking for Springsteen’s former home. The house where Springsteen wrote Born to Run was just a few blocks away from where Buble picked up Dylan. This, coupled with his recent excursions to Young and Lennon’s houses and his request to be dropped back off in the neighborhood, led many to believe that Dylan was on a thwarted mission to see Springsteen’s home. 

Bob Dylan praised Bruce Springsteen’s cover of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’

Even if he didn’t get a chance to see the home, Dylan met Springsteen himself on multiple occasions. He thought highly of the other artist’s work and praised his cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” 

“[Springsteen] did that song like the record, something I myself have never tried. I never even thought it was worth it,” Dylan said, per Rolling Stone. “Maybe never had the manpower in one band to pull it off. I don’t know, but I never thought about it. To tell you the truth, I’d forgotten how the song ought to go. Bruce pulled all the power and spirituality and beauty out of it like no one has ever done. He was faithful, truly faithful to the version on the record, obviously the only one he has to go by.”