_Will Blochinger_

In the wake of Bob Dylan’s historic Nobel Prize win that made him the first songwriter to win the award and first American honoree since 1993, many have expressed their admiration for the legendary folk musician, and Bruce Springsteen has added his voice to the chorus, sharing an excerpt from his recent autobiography, Born to Run, where he discusses Dylan’s impact on his life and music.

“Bob Dylan is the father of my country,” Springsteen starts off, saying that Dylan’s music was “the first time I can remember being exposed to a truthful vision of the place I lived…He put his boot on the stultifying politeness and daily routine that covered corruption and decay.”

Springsteen went on to recount the time he sang Dylan’s “The Times They are A-Changing” for Dylan’s Kennedy Center Honors in 1997: “We were alone together for a brief moment walking down a back stairwell when he thanked me for being there and said, ‘If there’s anything I can ever do for you…’ I thought, ‘Are you kidding me?’ and answered, ‘It’s already been done.’”

Watch that performance and read the full excerpt below.

Bob Dylan is the father of my country. Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home were not only great records, but they were the first time I can remember being exposed to a truthful vision of the place I lived. The darkness and light were all there, the veil of illusion and deception ripped aside. He put his boot on the stultifying politeness and daily routine that covered corruption and decay. The world he described was all on view, in my little town, and spread out over the television that beamed into our isolated homes, but it went uncommented on and silently tolerated. He inspired me and gave me hope. He asked the questions everyone else was too frightened to ask, especially to a fifteen-year-old: “How does it feel… to be on your own?” A seismic gap had opened up between generations and you suddenly felt orphaned, abandoned amid the flow of history, your compass spinning, internally homeless. Bob pointed true north and served as a beacon to assist you in making your way through the new wilderness America had become. He planted a flag, wrote the songs, sang the words that were essential to the times, to the emotional and spiritual survival of so many young Americans at that moment.

I had the opportunity to sing “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” for Bob when he received the Kennedy Center Honors. We were alone together for a brief moment walking down a back stairwell when he thanked me for being there and said, “If there’s anything I can ever do for you…” I thought, “Are you kidding me?” and answered, “It’s already been done.”