An Interview with Bob Dylan's 1984 Drummer Colin Allen

1984-07-08, Slane Castle, Slane, Ireland

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Photo by Norbert Kohlhauer

Update June 2023: This interview is included along with 40+ others in my new book ‘Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members.’ Buy it as hardcover, paperback, or ebook here!

I’m back! First let me thank everyone who jumped in with guest newsletters while I was on my DIY paternity leave - Rob Mitchum on Dead/Dead 1986, Tyler Wilcox on Oslo 1995, Adam Selzer on Rome 1984, Tim Edgeworth on Capitol Theatre 2017, Sara Hester on Germany 1998, and James Adams on the very first show of the Never Ending Tour.

My first “regular” newsletter back will come Sunday, but today marks the 36th anniversary of the final date on Bob’s 1984 tour, so I couldn’t wait to run this interview with that tour’s drummer Colin Allen.

Before Bob, Allen already had quite a career as a blues drummer around town, lodging stints with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Focus, and a pre-Police Andy Summers. In addition to his own bands, he’s written songs for Paul McCartney’s Wings, Fleetwood Mac, and others. Most relevant to his time with Bob, he had done a lot of work with guitarist Mick Taylor, both before and after Mick’s stint in the Rolling Stones.

Allen’s memoir From Bournemouth to Beverly Hills: Tales of a Tub-Thumper came out a couple years ago and is available at Amazon. There’s also a great and exhaustive biography at the website Bournemouth Beat Boom.

Now, my conversation with Colin Allen, conducted over email last month:

How did you get involved in the band? Was Mick Taylor the connection?

Yes, it was exactly that. Generally in the music biz, it’s who you know, not what you know, just as long as you are considered good enough to do the gig. Since playing together with John Mayall in ‘68/‘69, Mick and I never really lost touch and from time to time I found myself involved in various projects with him.

In ’82, I was living in Los Angeles, which had led to my playing that year and the following one with Mick and Mayall again in the Bluesbreakers Reunion band. When the Dylan European tour band was being planned, there I was in LA and relatively fresh in Mick’s memory, so he called to say Bob was checking out drummers and would I like to try out for the gig. I did and got the job, mostly, I think, ‘cos I had Mick in my corner. 

Were you a fan of Bob's prior? When he suggested something relatively obscure like "When You Gonna Wake Up," would have you have known it?

Fan would be a little strong, I was never a fan of much music that was reminiscent of the US folk scene - two exceptions being Joni Mitchell and Tim Hardin - but I of course knew of Bob. You can’t escape his songs. He was always on the radio and in the newspaper for one reason or another. The tour was to promote the Infidels album and luckily my flatmate had a copy, so I listened to that and of course knew a lot of his more popular songs. Anything I didn’t know could soon be learnt - his songs aren’t really complicated. He gave each of the band members about four cassettes full of his songs to help us along.

Several months earlier, Bob had played Letterman backed by an LA punk trio called The Plugz. I gather some people wondered if he'd tour with them. Were you aware of that performance? Was it discussed at all?

Yeah, I heard about the Letterman thing, and saw it a bit later. Only Bob knows what all that was about.

It wasn’t discussed at all, although my first day of playing with Bob, Tony Marsico was there playing bass. We didn’t say a word to each other - guess he wanted his Plugz drum partner Charlie Quintana on drums. He’d also been trying out for the gig, as had my friend Ian Wallace, who had previously toured with Bob. The second day at Bob’s house, [bassist] Gregg Sutton was there and we immediately hit it off. Like myself, he had familiarized himself with the Infidels album, so any songs we played from that album sounded somewhat like the recordings, which may have been the reason we both got told the gig was ours.