Ray Padgett Releases The Book Pledging My Time Conversations With Bob Dylan Band Members

Published: Sept. 8, 2023, 2 p.m.

Collecting around 50 original, in-depth interviews, Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members (out June 27 on EWP Press) is the first look at Bob Dylan’s career entirely from the perspective of the musicians standing a few feet away from him on stage – from his earliest days in the ‘60s all the way through the 21st century Never Ending Tour. With a few exceptions, these artists are not household names, but they have in many cases spent years making music with one of the most revered and mysterious artists in the world.

The world of Dylan’s bands and his road life has seemed fairly impenetrable for decades now. Many people in this book have never spoken before about their time with Dylan, or certainly not in as much depth. Interviewees span every era of Dylan’s career, from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Martin Carthy talking about the early folk scene up through Benmont Tench and Alan Pasqua talking about recording Rough and Rowdy Ways. This guest list guiding the backstage tour also includes one-off sit-ins, behind- the-scenes touring personnel, and even a notable Grammy Awards stage-crasher.

If Dylan is, as he famously put it back in 1965, a “song and dance man,” these are the people who have sung and danced alongside him.