Folk rock singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota. Dylan was inspired by the influences of early rock stars like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. According to the unknown author of the “Bob Dylan“ Biography page for poetry foundation .org states that “Bob Dylan would imitate Little Richard and other rock and roll influences on the piano at high school dances”(poetryfoundation.org).The young Dylan would often form his own bands, including The Golden Chords as well as a group he fronted under the false name Elston Gunn. While attending the University of Minnesota, Dylan began performing folk and country songs at local cafés to pay tuition. It was at this time of his life would permanently take the name "Bob Dylan," after the late Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
In 1960, Dylan dropped out of college and moved to New York where his idol, the legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie was hospitalized with a rare hereditary disease of the nervous system. According to the Unknown author for the “Bob Dylan” biography page for Columbia grangers.org “Dylan visited with Guthrie regularly in his hospital room” (coloumbiagrangers.org). Also Dylan would also became a regular in the folk clubs and coffeehouses of Greenwich Village. This is where Dylan would meet a host of other musicians and began writing songs at an astonishing pace. Of these songs produced in this time, Dylan would create "Song to Woody," a tribute to his ailing hero.
In 1974, Dylan began his first full-scale tour since his motorcycling accident, embarking on a sold-out nationwide tour with his longtime backup band. In addition of the popularity of his live shows, an album he recorded with the same band titled, Planet Waves, became his first No. 1 album ever. He followed these successes with the celebrated 1975 album Blood on the Tracks and Desire (1976), each of which hit No. 1 as well. Desire included the song "Hurricane," written by Dylan about the boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, then serving life in prison after what many felt was an wrongful conviction of triple homicide in 1967. Dylan was one of many prominent public figures who helped popularize Carter's cause, leading to a retrial in 1976, when he was again convicted.
After a painful split with his wife, Sara Lowndes Dylan would produce the song "Sara" on the album Desire. According to the unknown author for the “Bob Dylan” Biography page for Poets.org states that the song “was Dylan's plaintive but unsuccessful attempt to win Lowndes back” (poets.org). This would prompt Dylan again to reinvent himself, declaring in 1979 that he was a born-again Christian. The song titled “Slow Train Coming” was a commercial hit, and won Dylan his first Grammy Award. The tour and albums that followed were less successful, however, and Dylan's religious leanings soon became less overt in his music.Dylan and Lowndes, who married in 1965 and divorced in 1977, had four children together: Jesse, Anna, Samuel and Jacob. Dylan also adopted Lowndes's daughter, Maria, from a previous marriage. Dylan’s youngest child being influenced by his father, Jacob Dylan is now the lead singer of a popular rock band today called the Wallflowers.
