Dylan's Secret Wife Talks

One of Bob Dylan's former back-up singers Carol Dennis released a statement on Tuesday confirming that she and Dylan were married from 1986 to 1992. The six-year marriage resulted in a daughter Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, now fifteen years old. The statement by Dennis was prompted by the just-released unauthorized biography on Dylan Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (Grove Press) by British writer Howard Sounes.

Dennis took particular offense to what she felt was Sounes' suggestion that Dylan has refused to acknowledge his daughter. The statement reads, "To portray Bob as 'hiding his daughter' is just malicious and ridiculous. That is something he would never do. Bob has been a wonderful, active father to Desiree."

Dennis also called Sounes' claim that Dylan had to tour extensively during the Nineties because of a large divorce settlement with Dennis "fictitious, irresponsible and hurtful."

Dennis explained that the couple had mutually agreed to keep their marriage a secret to protect their daughter. Under California law Dennis and Dylan were allowed to seal their marriage certificate to avoid media attention. Dennis also left Dylan's name off their daughter's birth certificate to ensure privacy.

Dylan has not yet commented on the book or on Dennis' statement. The singer, who recently won an Academy Award for the song "Things Have Changed" from the soundtrack to the motion picture The Wonder Boys, turns sixty next month. Dennis has worked as a gospel and rock vocalist and has sung back-ups for Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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