Bob Dylan’s Son Shared What the Musician Was Like as a Dad: ‘Maybe He Doesn’t Want People to Know That’
Bob Dylan’s son Jakob followed in his father’s footsteps and became a musician as well. With his success, he began giving interviews, and journalists were often curious about his father. For a while, Jakob Dylan avoided speaking about his relationship with his dad. Eventually, though, he spoke more about what Dylan was like as a father. While he is a reclusive, rather prickly celebrity, Jakob said he was a good dad.
The singer-songwriter has six children
After marrying his first wife, Sara Lownds, in 1965, Dylan became a father to five children. He adopted Lownds’ daughter Maria, and the couple also share Jesse, Anna, Sam, and Jakob.
After Dylan and Lownds’ divorce in 1977, he married Carolyn Dennis, his backup singer, in 1986. They kept the marriage quiet, and divorced in 1992.
Before their marriage, Dennis gave birth to Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, Dylan’s youngest child. Like the marriage between her parents, Dennis-Dylan’s existence wasn’t widely known. Most people had no idea she existed until years after her parents divorced.
Bob Dylan’s son shared what the reclusive celebrity was like as a father
Dylan’s personal life remains private, and his children don’t frequently speak about their relationship with him. Jakob is the most famous and often fields questions about his dad and what he was like as a parent. Dylan’s privacy and notoriously prickly nature have led many interviewers to ask Jakob whether or not his father was affectionate.
“Yes, he was affectionate,” Jakob told The New York Times in 2005. “When I was a kid, he was a god to me for all the right reasons. Other people have put that tag on him in some otherworldly sense. I say it as any kid who admired his dad and had a great relationship with him.”
As proof, he said that despite his busy touring schedule, his father never missed one of his childhood baseball games.
“He never missed a single Little League game I had. He’s collected every home-run ball I ever hit. And he’s still affectionate to me,” Jakob said. “Maybe he doesn’t want people to know that. But I’ll tell you, because it’s my interview.”
Bob Dylan’s son didn’t speak about his father for a long time
Before revealing that Dylan was a good, affectionate father, Jakob dodged questions about his relationship with his dad. He wanted to be a musician in his own right, outside of Dylan’s shadow. He also wanted to keep their relationship out of the public eye.
“If people want to talk about Bob Dylan, I can talk about that,” he said. “But my dad belongs to me and four other people exclusively. I’m very protective of that. And telling people whether he was affectionate is telling people a lot. It has so little to do with me. I come up against a wall.”
Eventually, though, he came to the realization that he would be dogged by questions about his dad for the rest of his life. It was easier to tackle them head-on.
