A Naked Director Made Bob Dylan Highly Uncomfortable on the Set of His 1st Film
In 1973, Bob Dylan made his onscreen debut in director Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Dylan accepted a small role in the movie and wrote music for it. When he met Peckinpah during pre-production, Dylan appeared shocked by the director’s appearance. He was in a bathtub, chatting with other members of the cast and crew. He also didn’t appear to know who Dylan was.
Bob Dylan didn’t know what to make of the director of ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’
When Dylan arrived on the set of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, he found Peckinpah in the bath.
“Peckinpah was in a hacienda outside Durango, Mexico,” film historian Peter Biskind wrote for The Hollywood Reporter. “It was a hot day, and he was in a tub, naked, holding forth before hangers-on when Dylan arrived. Actress Katy Jurado was pouring drinks.”
Peckinpah insisted Jurado get Dylan a drink, mispronouncing the musician’s name as he did so.
It seemed to me that Dylan didn’t like to be in company he didn’t know, or didn’t like,” the film’s editor, Roger Spottiswoode said. “But Sam wouldn’t let him go. … He said something like, ‘I hear you play a pretty mean guitar, right? And you write songs and things?’ Dylan says, ‘Uh, yeah, uh …’ ‘Well, Bobby, I’d love to hear a tune. Play us a tune.’ ‘I don’t really do that, Sam.’ ‘You don’t do that? You don’t have a guitar? … Katy, Katy, get him a guitar! There’s a mariachi band [playing] out there, the man needs a f***ing guitar.’”
Someone handed Dylan a guitar and he stood there with it, perplexed.
“Dylan doesn’t want it, he’s standing by the bath, looking at Sam’s d*** floating in the water,” Spottiswood recalled. “Sam’s smiling, drinking, and seems completely at home, and we’re all watching. … It seems like he just doesn’t know any better, but Sam knew a lot. There was someone on his turf, a bigger name. It was the best theater in the world.”
He wrote music for the film
Dylan wrote the song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” for the movie. This would go on to become one of his most covered songs. He made it clear to Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose that he liked when people covered the song.
“Bob asked me, ‘When you gonna record ‘Heaven’s Door’? And I said, ‘I don’t know, but we really love that song,’” Rose told a crowd in Taiwan, per Vulture. “And he said, ‘I don’t give a f***. I just want the money.’ True story!”
Guns N’ Roses recorded a version of the song in 1991.
Bob Dylan later clashed with a different director
In 1976, Dylan appeared in Martin Scorsese’s documentary The Last Waltz. The two men did not get along. During intermission, Dylan said he no longer wanted to appear in the movie. This was a problem as Warner Bros. only agreed to finance the film if Dylan appeared in it.
“Bob’s lawyer came out of Bob’s dressing room with an awful look on his face,” the Band’s drummer Levon Helm explained in the book This Wheel’s on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band. “Robbie [Robertson] was totally pale. They said, ‘Bob doesn’t want to be in the movie.’ Scorsese went nuts. Without Bob there would be no movie. It was all over. More than a million dollars were probably down the drain. Scorsese was beside himself. He demanded to know why Bob wouldn’t be filmed.”
Eventually, concert promoter Bill Graham convinced Dylan to appear in the movie.
