Bob Dylan’s Road Manager Shared the Many Difficulties of Working for the Musician: ‘He’ll Smell Like a F***ing Hog’
Early in Bob Dylan’s time in New York, he met Victor Maymudes, the man who would become his road manager. The two worked together for years before a hostile argument shattered their friendship. Even before this fight, Maymudes noted that working for Dylan wasn’t always easy. He was broody, prone to anger, and, Maymudes complained, didn’t smell great. Dylan’s longtime road manager shared the challenges of working for the musician.
1. Bob Dylan’s manager said the musician rarely speaks
Dylan is a notoriously private celebrity and actively avoids interactions with fans. Maymudes said that he was the only person Dylan spoke to at times. Often, Dylan wouldn’t even talk to him, even when it was necessary.
“I would have questions, decisions to make about what we were doing,” Maymudes said, per the book Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan by Howard Sounes. “Do we meet these government officials? Do we do this, or whatnot? There would be hundreds of whatnots. I would have to go talk to him and tell him, ‘I can’t make these decisions until I talk to you.’ And many times, he wasn’t ready to talk, and I would just sit there .…”
Dylan often sat in silence, thinking, or would quietly play chess with Maymudes. According to Sounes, Maymudes realized he had to be psychic to work for the Musician.
He sometimes flew into a rage
Maymudes said that while he believed Dylan sought compassion, it was something he had a hard time giving.
“His driving force isn’t to have fun, it’s to think and internalize things in his life,” Maymudes wrote in the book Another Side of Bob Dylan: A Personal History on the Road and Off the Tracks. “What drives Bob is looking for compassion, understanding and sympathy from others. I believe it’s three things he has a hard time giving to anybody. Bob would torture me; on occasion he was very hard on me.”
He recalled a time that he ate birthday cake with Dylan’s family and, afterward, Dylan screamed at him for not staying in the car. This wasn’t a flaw that resolved itself over time, either.
“He’s crankier now by far,” Maymudes said ahead of Dylan’s 60th birthday. “No, he’s miserable. He’s miserable as f***.”
He had to deal with an angry Beatle
Maymudes also had to face the wrath of a Beatle while working for Dylan. Dylan’s 30th-anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden featured a number of artists, all of whom played for free. They believed, incorrectly, that it was a charity concert. Many of the performers were irritated because they were led to believe they were playing in a charity show.
George Harrison, who was typically a huge fan of Dylan, was particularly upset.
“George Harrison was so angry about it being a for-profit show, he made T-shirts with dollar signs on them and sent them to me and Bob,” Maymudes wrote.
Maymudes also found himself in the middle of an argument between Harrison and his wife, Olivia, when she learned he’d been with another woman after the concert.
Bob Dylan’s manager complained about the Musician’s hygiene
Maymudes complained that some of Dylan’s habits, like lighting a cigarette and blowing smoke directly into someone else’s face, were incredibly rude. He also had a problem with Dylan’s hygiene.
“He doesn’t take his clothes off when he goes to sleep and the guy doesn’t clean his teeth,” Maymudes said. “He’ll smell like a f***ing hog. Horrible breath.”
Joni Mitchell shared a similar sentiment, noting that she hated singing into the same microphone as Dylan because of his smell.
Bob Dylan insulted his family
Dylan’s final argument with Maymudes occurred because of a coffee shop. Maymudes helped found the business, which Dylan owned, and installed his daughter, Aerie, as the manager. The café did not perform well financially, sending Dylan into a rage.
“Bob went into a furious rage that precipitated an explosive and violent firing of Aerie, which Bob personally attended to in full view of my father,” Maymudes’ son Jake explained. “My father fought back in defense of Aerie’s unjust treatment, not out of denial of the facts but because of Bob’s sheer abandonment of respect for her. Her removal from management of the café may have been warranted, but the way it was done was unforgivable.”
The argument marked the end of Dylan and Maymudes’ relationship. Though Jake believes they would have mended things, Maymudes died before they could.
