You're Bob Dylan? NJ police want to see some ID

Aug 14, 8:49 PM (ET)

By WAYNE PARRY

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.

Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.

A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.

"I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work," Woolley said.

The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.

The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the singer replied.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.

The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.

The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

How did it feel? A Dylan publicist did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Friday.


First Cop: "What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

Dylan: "Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

First Cop: "Do you have any identification to that effect?"

Dylan: "Right here."

First Cop: "Hmm ... it says here: 'Robert Alan Zimmerman.'"

Dylan: "Bob Dylan is my public name; Zimmerman is my birth name."

First Cop: "Right. Better call this one in."

Second Cop: "We'll do."

First Cop: "OK, what are you doing here?"

Dylan: "I'm on tour."

First Cop: "Tour? What kind of tour? This is New Jersey?"

Dylan: "A music tour. Rock and folk. A bit of blues and country western. I'm playing at the baseball stadium in Lakewood with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp."

First Cop: "Right."

Dylan: "It's part of my Never Ending Tour."

First Cop: "Right. Never Ending. You travel around a lot. Something of a drifter, are you?"

Second Cop: "Got it. Yes, he's Bob Dylan, alias Robert Zimmerman ... "

First Cop: "Alias?"

Second Cop: "... alias Elmer Johnson, alias Robert Milkwood Thomas, alias Tedham Porterhouse, alias Elston Gunnn [three "Ns"], Blind Boy Grunt, Lucky Wilbury/Boo Wilbury, Sergei Petrov, Jack Frost, Jack Fate, Willow Scarlet, Arthur Rimbaud, Robbie Clark, Billy the Kid, Woody Guthrie, Jude Quinn, Jack Rollins, and alias Pastor John."

First Cop: "Woody Guthrie? Do you have a son named Arlo?"

Dylan: "No."

First Cop: "Have you ever been to Great Barrington, Massachusetts?"

Dylan: "Possibly."

Second Cop: "I think we better take him in for questioning, Officer Obie."

First Cop: "Agreed."