Bob Dylan Terrified an Artist by Napping in Neil Young’s Hearse: ‘He Looked Like the Mummy’
Bob Dylan and Neil Young’s friendship allowed Dylan to take on a new role: terrifying specter. While visiting Young’s ranch, Dylan grew tired and decided to take a nap in the back of a hearse that Young owned. When another visitor began driving the hearse, he was stunned to find Dylan in the back. The shock of finding him there, coupled with his disconcerting appearance, frightened the driver.
Neil Young owned a hearse
Early in his career, Young purchased a hearse that he used to drive to shows. The vehicle had plenty of space, something that was necessary for touring. The 1948 Buick Roadmaster, which Young called Mortimer Hearseburg, grew on him, though. He even wrote the song “Long May You Run” about the vehicle after it broke down.
“I loved the hearse,” Young told Rolling Stone in 1975. “Six people could be getting high in the front and back and nobody would be able to see in because of the curtains. The heater was great. And the tray … the tray was dynamite. You open the side door and the tray whips right out onto the sidewalk.”
He explained that the hearse helped him make an impressive entrance at events.
“What could be cooler than that? What a way to make your entrance,” he said. “Pull up to a gig and just wheel out all your stuff on the tray.”
Bob Dylan once terrified artist Sandy Mazzeo by taking a nap in the hearse
When Dylan visited Young’s home, Mortimer Hearseburg was still kicking. As he wandered the property, he came across the vehicle and decided that, as he was tired, he would take a nap in the back.
Later, artist Sandy Mazzeo was driving the car into town when he heard some eerie noises from the back.
“I hear bam! bam! bam! on the divider and I’m thinkin’, ‘Oh my God, it’s a ghost,” Mazzeo said, per the book Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography by Jimmy McDonough.
Naturally, this would be a frightening sound to hear from the back of the hearse. Luckily, Mazzeo quickly discovered the source.
“I look in the rearview mirror and it’s Bob,” he explained.
Mazzeo explained that Dylan was wearing an unraveling turban.
“Dylan was in his turban stage, and he’d slept in his turban and it had come all undone,” he explained. “He looked like the mummy.”
Mazzeo explained that he offered Dylan a ride back, but the musician refused, preferring to hitchhike.
“Last I looked, he was straightening out his turban and getting ready to hitchhike back to his house,” Mazzeo said. “Those things happened in Malibu all the time.”
Bob Dylan hated Neil Young’s ‘Heart of Gold’
Though Dylan and Young were friends, Dylan resented the song “Heart of Gold.”
“I used to hate it when it came on the radio,” he told Spin in 1985. “I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to ‘Heart of Gold.’ I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I’d say, ‘S***, that’s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me.'”
He explained that he never fully got over the song’s existence.
“It seemed to me somebody else had taken my thing and had run away with it, you know, and I never got over it,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow.”
