No Direction Home

The Inspiration of Bob Dylan on me.

Bob Dylan mural in Downtown Minneapolis, MN

Woke up in Minneapolis today. 5:30am, to be exact. There’s a morning chill outside that’s refreshing, as opposed to the kind of cold that makes your bones rattle, which is what I’ve typically felt in Minnesota when I’m on tour. It’s a welcomed change. I’m a person that enjoys sunrises, so today started off on the right foot checking out the view from my hotel room. Tonight, we’re playing The Fillmore down the road and I’m feeling rested after doing 3 shows in a row. Walked around Minneapolis yesterday with Matty and had some delicious coffee from Backstory Coffee Roasters.

While walking around yesterday, I came across a massive mural of Bob Dylan, who was born & raised in Minnesota, making him an inevitable staple of the state. As he should be. If you follow me on the internets elsewhere, my handle across most social media platforms (including this one) is “No Direction Casa”, which I first penned when Instagram launched in 2010. My initial intention was “No Direction Home”, but it was taken, so the Spanglish version it was. How nimble of me.

Back to Bob though. “No Direction Home” is a reference to him, more specifically a lyric in his song, Like A Rolling Stone:

How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be on your own, with no direction home
A complete unknown, like a rolling stone

When I turned 21, I decided to get my first tattoo.. which ended up being a full sleeve 2 months later¹. I got hooked real quick, guys. But, the first words I ever got tattooed on me during those sessions was “No Direction Home” on my forearm. Growing up, Bob Dylan was played in my household quite a bit. My Dad’s record collection introduced & opened my world up to folk music, amongst many other genres like rock, classical, & Motown. I remember how soothing, yet equally mind blowing it was listening to Dylan songs like Blowin’ In The Wind and The Times They Are A-Changin’. Even at an extremely young age, it was prophetic to me.

But, the song that truly blew the door down for me was Like A Rolling Stone. The opening crack of the snare drum with the organ playing still gets me every time. The excerpt of lyrics above have always spoken to me. An only child, starting a band in high school, a complete unknown, painfully shy, entering this unknown world of music, not knowing a damn thing about what to do or how to do it, just rolling with it and figuring it all out as I go. How does it feel? It was every single fucking emotion you can think of wrapped into one.

The Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan was also entitled “No Direction Home”. It’s hands down my favorite music documentary ever done, which I highly suggest to any & everyone. It came out in 2005, a time in my life where the films’ inspiration would change my whole life.

The story of how this song was written/recorded and how it was received by audiences is a whole story in of itself. A session guitar player in the studio who wasn’t even supposed to play had snuck behind the organ during the recording even though he was told not to. The producer allowed him to give it a go, even though he didn’t even play organ! When Bob was listening back, he told the engineer to turn up the organ in the mix because he loved it so much. The organ is such a seminal, backbone part of that song that you could never imagine the song without it.

This song was also Dylan’s first departure from playing acoustic folk songs up until that point in his career. He was venturing into rock music with electric guitars and a full band in 1965. The first time he played this live, he was booed and heckled. In the documentary, you can hear someone in the audience yell “Judas!” at him. People viewed what he was doing as a betrayal to folk music. But, the coolest, most punk rock thing happened in that moment, which is also caught on film — Bob hears this person from the audience amongst all the other noise coming from them, then turns around to his band and says “play it fucking loud!” And they just rip into an incredible, legendary performance of Like A Rolling Stone.

To this day, it is considered one of the most influential rock songs ever created. It’s been listed as the No. 1 “Greatest Song of All-Time” by Rolling Stone twice. In 2014, the handwritten lyrics to this song were auctioned off for $2 million, which was also a world record for an item as such.

I was fortunate to come across that mural yesterday and have a moment to reflect. Pay homage to the ones who paved the way, but also reflect on my own personal journey and give myself a pat on the back. Giving myself credit for just doing what I loved even though I had no clue what I was doing exactly.

Following my heart.

Playing it fucking loud.

1. *Note to any young readers, I’m so glad I waited until I was 21 to finally get tattooed. If I would’ve gotten my skin drilled into at 17 or 18 years old, I would have tattoos I regret. The amount of inner growth, changing of interests, & life you experience between 17 to 21 is vast. Be wise.