Bob Neuwirth • Interview, 2016
Interviews • 1h 35m
Bob Neuwirth—a singer, songwriter, and producer associated with artists including Joan Baez, T Bone Burnett, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, and Patti Smith—discusses his decades-long music career during an interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Held on May 7, 2016, in conjunction with the exhibition “Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City,” the event begins with Neuwirth performing two songs alongside David Mansfield, whom Neuwirth recruited for Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. Mansfield plays fiddle on “Private Eye,” then switches to mandolin for “Beautiful Day to Go to Heaven,” which Neuwirth dedicates to singer-songwriter Steve Young.
Neuwirth met Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, and the two embarked on a partnership that would span decades and include the memorable Rolling Thunder Revue and many talked-about scenes in the 1967 documentary “Don’t Look Back.”
Neuwirth also speaks movingly of Country Music Hall of Fame member Willie Nelson, whom he met at Nashville honky-tonk Tootsie’s on a boozy evening in the late 1960s, and of Hall of Fame member Kris Kristofferson, whom he met in Greenwich Village in 1970.
Neuwirth’s song credits include, among others, “Mercedes Benz,” written with Janis Joplin and poet Michael McClure, and “Rock & Roll Time,” composed with Kristofferson and Roger McGuinn.
In 2021, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum launched a version of “Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City,” designed for online audiences.
Explore that online exhibition on the Museum’s website: https://countrymusichalloffame.org/exhibit/dylan-cash-and-the-nashville-cats-a-new-music-city/
FOR MORE
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Learn about the Museum’s exhibitions: https://countrymusichalloffame.org/current-exhibits/
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