Bob Dylan Used to Pick Up Hitchhikers to Talk About Religion

At the tail end of the 1970s, Bob Dylan shocked fans when the focus of his music shifted to religion. Dylan was a born-again Christian, and his music made that clear. He released three explicitly Christian albums and spoke about his faith with audiences. On a much more private, personal level, though, Dylan enjoyed talking about religion with strangers. According to another musician, Dylan liked to pick up hitchhikers and speak with them about Jesus.

Bob Dylan embraced religion in the late 1970s

In 1979, Dylan released Slow Train Coming, an album with explicit references to Christianity. Dylan was raised Jewish but embraced Christianity in the 1970s. According to Dylan, he made this shift in 1978.

“Jesus put his hand on me. It was a physical thing. I felt it. I felt it all over me,” he said, per the Independent, adding, “I felt my whole body tremble. The glory of the Lord knocked me down and picked me up.”

He studied Christianity and was reportedly baptized, and his music began to reflect his change of faith. Not all of his fans liked this. During one show, the audience called out for Dylan’s better known songs, not his new music. 

“If you want rock’n’roll, you can go see Kiss and rock’n’roll all the way down to the pit!” he snapped back, per Vulture.

Bob Dylan used to pick up hitchhikers to talk to them about religion

If his audiences weren’t receptive, Dylan hoped that at least his car passengers would be. According to Christian musician Melody Green, Dylan liked picking up hitchhikers and speaking with them about God. 

“Although he was one of the most well known musicians in the world, he was also the same as anyone who wanted to know more about God — full of eager questions and fresh excitement about his spiritual discoveries. He told us that he loved to pick up hitchhikers and tell them about Jesus,” she wrote in the book No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green. “They never recognized him because they drove a beat-up old car and wore a knit ski hat over his famous curls.”

The musician said he didn’t belong to a specific church

Dylan expounded on his religious beliefs in a 1984 interview with Rolling Stone. 

“Well, I don’t think that this is it, you know — this life ain’t nothin’,” he said. “There’s no way you’re gonna convince me this is all there is to it. I never, ever believed that. I believe in the Book of Revelation.”

Despite this, he said he did not belong to any specific church.

“Not really,” he said. “Uh, the Church of the Poison Mind [laughs].”

He explained that he thought he could find points of agreement with most religions. He also said that he would start a religion if he thought it was necessary.

“If I thought the world needed a new religion, I would start one,” he said. “But there are a lot of other religions, too. There’s those Indian religions, Eastern religions, Buddhism, you know. They’re happening, too.”