Gossip Aren't Intimidated by Bob Dylan

Posted on Jul 23rd 2009 2:00PM by Steve Baltin
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The Gossip were in very heady waters while recording their major label debut 'Music for Men' with iconic producer Rick Rubin. But there was an even bigger pop culture shadow that cast its presence over the record. Recording at Malibu's famed Shangri-La studio, the Beth Ditto-fronted group wrote much of the album on a tour bus parked outside that once housed a Mr. Bob Dylan. Gossip's Nathan Howdeshell tells Spinner they definitely felt the history of the bus.

"Pretty much all the music for the whole record was written in there on my Garage Band and although I'm not the biggest Bob Dylan fan, there's something about being in a tour bus and it being Bob Dylan's," he says. "It's kind of an interesting connection to the past and music. There was something amazing about it for sure."

But with Howdeshell's admission that he's not a Dylan fanatic, isn't it a bit of a waste given there are a million musicians who would've killed for the same opportunity? "Yeah, totally," he admits. "I kept thinking about that. 'Oh, how unfortunate that I don't like Bob Dylan cause I get to have this amazing experience.'"

But after feeling the spirit of Dylan, Howdeshell does admire the bard. "I really respect him. And I think I'm gonna like him if I give him more of a chance," he says. "He was a hard-working musician. We tour all the time and there's something to me about a band that tours all the time that's really inspiring. You hear all those stories about like Dylan, Willie Nelson -- those guys tour for a year at a time. They're like soldiers."

Howdeshell and mates got to meet another rock icon when the Band's Robbie Robertson stopped by the studio to visit Rubin. So, let's recap: a band from Arkansas making their major label debut with Rick Rubin producing, writing on Dylan's tour bus, and people like Robbie Robertson stopping by -- perhaps it's best the Gossip weren't huge Dylan fans because another band might have been too starstruck to work. But Howdeshell says he and his mates just took it all in stride. "That's maybe what our philosophy is in a way," he says, "not to get overwhelmed by things."