Don't call him "the next Dylan" anymore.

In the wake of the multi-million selling success of Wallflowers' secondalbum, Bringing Down the Horse, Jakob Dylan -- Bob's youngest son and thereported inspiration for the song "Forever Young" -- has his own story totell.

There are hit singles ("6th Avenue Heartache," "One Headlight," "TheDifference"). Non-stop videos on MTV. Grammy nominations. Screaming girls atthe gigs and rumors of celebrity liaisons in the gossip press (even thoughhe's married and has a young son). The cover of a Rolling Stone.Dylan, 27, takes to this level of fame like it's the next incurableinfectious disease; he's particularly reticent to talk about life as BobDylan's son, and he'd much rather converse about music than anything else. Atthe same time, he's justifiably proud, and a little relieved, that theWallflowers are finally blooming after the bust that was its first album in1993.

Simply put, this is one Dylan who's less "Tangled Up Blue" and more"Knockin' on Heaven's Door."

JAMTV: You went through some tough times between Wallflowers' first album and"Bringing Down the Horse". What happened?

Jakob Dylan: We had personnel changes...and we lost our record deal with VirginRecords. We weren't let go; it was mutual. We weren't getting a lot ofsupport there. They weren't excited about the group, so we kind of asked tobe released.

And then the band started to disintegrate on you.

It's hard to keep a group together as it is; under the circumstances, itgot harder. The drummer had an offer to play with Natalie Merchant's group.With the bass player, it was more of a personality thing. And Tobi Miller,the guitar player, moved on to producing other things, including a bandcalled Maypole for Sony.

So how tough was all that?

It was kind of a drag, especially when Tobi left. He was who I'doriginally started the group with: Rami (Jaffee, Wallflowers' keyboardist)was the last person to join the original group. When (Miller) left, itchanged the center point of the group for me a little bit. We actuallyconsidered changing the name because it's not the same group anymore. But Ididn't want to let go of anything I'd gained from the first record, eventhough it wasn't that much.

Where did the Wallflowers name come from in the first place?

I have no idea (laughs). It's a very simple name that doesn't seem tooffend anybody. It's right in middle of the road.

Did you considering naming the band after yourself? The Dylan name onalbum cover would have been a plus.

Possibly, but I don't think it would have. I still am cautious about allthat. When People magazine wanted to do an interview with me (after the firstalbum), it had nothing to do with my record. They wanted a personalityprofile, which wasn't going to do me any good or the group any good. I don'tfind it especially interesting, anyhow. I don't think anybody, if they hadthe choice, would want to go through that.

Do you feel any pressure because you're Bob Dylan's son?

Not at all. I never considered it, really. I don't think anybody wouldoperate on a healthy level if they did. We're not talking about an artist whocan be compared to anybody, you know?

Do the other guys in the group hit you up for free tickets to your dad'sshow?

Of course. (laughs) Actually, I don't think (Dylan) comes up that often --during interview, maybe, or at a show, someone yells something -- just random(Bob Dylan) song titles. It's always a drunk buffoon.

Do you ever honor the request?

No, I don't.

The new album has a much harder edge than your first album.

I wasn't really conscious of it; I don't think I made a decision at anypoint. I like all kinds of music -- upbeat, down. The last record we made,the majority of us were 21 years old. With the years in between, hopefullyeverybody's become a better player and understands more how to do that typeof thing. For the first album, here were maybe 12 songs on it, and I had onlywritten a total of 20 songs in my life. Since then I've done it a lot longer,worked a lot harder, so hopefully it gets better.

"Bringing Down the Horse" makes use of some pretty hot guitar players --Fred Tackett from Little Feat, Mike Campbell from the Heartbreakers, GaryLouris from the Jayhawks. What was that like?

The guitar player situation was not worked out by the time we started therecord. Whichever guitar player was around on a given day, we got him to workon the song we were doing at the time. If he was right, great. If he didn'twork out, we'd try somebody else. We really didn't have certain songs setaside for certain people. Mike Campbell happened at the very end. He's on twoof the songs, and he really made "6th Avenue Heartache."

"6th Avenue Heartache" scored two Grammy nominations, too. What's thestory behind that song?

That's a real literal story. I spent some time living in New York City,and every morning when I woke up, this homeless guy would be on the steps ofthe building across the street from mine. He lived there, and he'd wake upevery day and play his songs on his guitar. I woke up every day hearing himsing. After two months or so, he wasn't there anymore. All his stuff wasstill there, but he had disappeared. Pretty soon people started taking hisstuff, and he never came back.

I related to him in some way. He liked doing the same thing I liked doing,even though we came from two drastically different worlds. He moved on and Imoved on, but in some way I felt a connection to him.

How did you start writing songs?

I played guitar for high school bands, and I started thinking about what asongwriter was. It was something to try. And on some level, I could put songstogether. I didn't know if they'd be good songs or not, but I knew I could doit, somehow. I thought that if I wasn't going to do it, I wasn't gong to havesatisfaction as a musician.

Who are your songwriting influences?

That was everybody from the Clash to Van Morrison to Dr. John and theReplacements, a wide range of stuff. Allan Touissaint was a big writer I usedto like.

So what do you get out of it?

I don't know. I like to write a song and hear the band play it --sometimes I don't have expectations beyond that.

GARY GRAFF