Rolling Stone Q & A with
Jakob Dylan
By: David Wild
How does it feel to be a complete unknown and then
find yourself selling 4 million albums, opening for a band
like Rolling Stones and being elected Sexiest Male in the
Readers Poll? Ask Jakob Dylan, the singer, songwriter and
much-remarked-upon face ofthe Wallflowers, a group that
seemed to own the airwaves in 1997. When Rolling Stone
first spoke with Dylan, in 1992, shortly before the
release of the Wallflowers' debut effort, he was jamming
at the Kibitz Room at Canter's Deli, in Los Angeles. That
record fizzled, but after considerable band rebuilding,
Dylan and Company are now playing considerably bigger
venues where one can't get a decent pastrami sandwich. As
the band prepares to start recording its next album this
year, Dylan took a little time to stare once again into
the media headlight.
Played any good delis lately?
You know, the whole deli thing is just not what it used
to be. The circuit's dying.
Now that you're experiencing fame firsthand
rather than secondhand, have you learned anything
new?
I certainly have issues with the fame thing that I
wrestle with, but I think anybody who gets into this these
days, who's making records for a major record company and
making videos and then acts like it's such an awful thing
is lying. It's like John Lyndon said: "The great thing
about fame is you can stop anythime you want."
And what was the high point of 1997 for
you?
Having a job. I don't mean to make it sound like that's
all that it is, but it's been a relief not to worry if 20
people are coming or not. Certainly we've done our time
playing to the bartender and the roadies.
Even though this is already your second record,
it's the first that most people have heard. Do you fear
the dreaded sophmore slump?
Well, we've got them on a technicality there. We'll be
juniors, so we don't have to deal with the sophmore-slump
issue. I will not let it be enforced upon us. I've been
writing a lot with Michael Ward, the guitar player.
Hopefully I can actually go home, and we can start
recording in February or March and get a record out
sometime in 1998.
How do you view the first album now?
It did what it was suppossed to do. I just wanted to
make a record, be in a group, go on tour. We sold 40,000
records-I don't know that many people, so I thought that
was pretty cool. It was other people who were let down.
They had a completely absurd idea that because of me being
in the group, it was going to sell no matter what. They
thought it could be a blank CD and sell a million copies.
But I wasn't disappointed. I'm proud of that
record.
What music were you listening to in the past
year?
As far as what came out last year, I thought the
Radiohead record was great. But I still listen to a lot the
Lefty Frizzell, George Jones, Tom Waits and X
records.
Did you happen to hear this excellent album
Time Out Of Mind by this very talented kid named Bob
Dylan?
Yes.
Think he has promise?
He's got a great future ahead of him. His future looks
bright.
Ever consider changing your name to something
more inconspicuous-like, say, Lennon, or Christ?
The last one is a good one. We played around with
"Jakob Seger" for a while. But, no, I never really thought
about it. I did for maybe half a split second, but it was
clear to me that if anything good happened to the group it
would be obvious anyway and I'd be stuck with a
pain-in-the-ass name. The truth is, I've never run from
anything. I'm proud of all of it. Dylan was my original
name, so I left it as exactly as it is.
Forgetting about your music for just a moment,
I've personally had Fiona Apple tell me that you're "fine"
and a lady friend call you "yummy." As one of the sexiest
men in rock, did you revel in your yumminess?
Well, you know, to be called yummy is a fantastic honor,
ad I appreciate it being given to me. I'm going to do
everything I can to continue to face up to that and not
let anyone down in the future.
How daunting was it to open for the
Stones?
Well, you see, there was a very blurry line there as to
who was opening for who [laughs]. We didn't mind that we
went on first or that we had to play a shorter set and that
we didn't get any backstage passes.
So you agreed not to play
"Satisfaction"?
We agreed we wouldn't do "Satisfaction" if they didn't
do "One Headlight."
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