Regina McCrary Talks About Singing Gospel with Bob Dylan

1979-11-01, Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA

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Update June 2023: This interview will be included along with 50+ others in my forthcoming book ‘Pledging My Time: Conversations with Bob Dylan Band Members.’ Buy it now in hardcover, paperback, or ebook!

In the three years from 1979-1981 when Bob Dylan was performing Christian music, he recorded and toured with a variety of backing singers. But only one singer remained by his side for every single show on every single tour: Regina McCrary.

McCrary has gospel music in her DNA, having grown up singing alongside her father, Reverend Sam McCrary, the leader of gospel pioneers The Fairfield Four. All these years later, she continues to perform with her family, singing with her three sisters Ann, Deborah, and Alfreda in the aptly-named McCrary Sisters. In addition to their own releases (the latest single, combining “Amazing Grace” with “The House of the Rising Sun,” is here), they have recorded with everyone from Carrie Underwood to The Black Keys.

Exactly 42 years ago today, November 1st, 1979, Bob Dylan performed his first gospel-era show, at San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre. So I called McCrary up to tell me about touring and recording with Bob Dylan during his gospel years.

via Long and Wasted Year

How did you first get involved with that band and with Dylan?

I got a phone call from one of my friends who was singing with him. He was looking for another singer. My friend asked me, was I interested? I said yes. I went to [the hotel where he was staying,] in Nashville on Broadway, and I auditioned.

I knew certain songs: “Lay Lady Lay,” “Blowin’ In The Wind,” stuff like that. I did not know who Bob Dylan was if he was standing next to me on the bus stop. Other than a few songs, I never really knew who he was.

I sang three songs. The first song, I don't think moved him. The second song made him look, and the third song he jumped up and said, "That's what I want."

Do you remember what the songs were?

Yes, the first song was “Everything Must Change,” the second song was “Precious Lord Take My Hand,” and the third song was “Amazing Grace.”

What happened next? Did you leave that day knowing that you had the job?

Well, after I finished singing “Amazing Grace,” he jumped up, and he said, "Yes, that's what I’d like!" The young lady who called me about the audition, Carolyn Dennis, she started harmonizing with me on “Amazing Grace.” He jumped up, he said, "Yes, that's the sound I want. That's what I want." We sang it again, and he recorded it on his boom box. Then he said, "You got your job," and I said, "Okay."

He said he wanted me to get my hair braided. I said, "All right, you gonna pay for it?" He laughed and said yes. Then he said, "I want you to see my show."

He wanted me to come to a show on December the 3rd, which happened to be my mother's birthday. I said okay. He said, "Well, how many tickets do you need?" I told him 17. He's like, "what?" I said, "Yes. I got four brothers, I got three sisters. I have a husband. I have my little boy, myself…" He said, "Don't go no further. You'll have 17 tickets in your name."

My family and I all saw his show. When the show was over, we all came backstage, and he met my whole entire family. Then everybody left but my father and I. My dad looked at Bob Dylan and said, "You taking my little girl out on the road?" Bob Dylan said, "Yes.” My dad put his hand in Bob's hand and pulled Bob into him ever so gently, and said, "Don't make her cry." Bob said, "I promise."

It was about two months later I get a phone call that we're going to record a record [Slow Train Coming]. I caught a plane and went to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. When I got there, I'm telling you, we stayed at a big old house. Bob Dylan would go with the band in the studio and record, and then they would come back to the house that we were staying in. They would let [the singers] listen to the music. We would create background parts for the song, and then we would go in the studio and lay down background parts.

McCrary in black shirt to Bob’s right. Photo courtesy Dick Cooper.

When did you find out that he had become born again? In December 1978, when you saw that show, it certainly wasn't public knowledge. Did you know when you went to Muscle Shoals that these are going to be gospel-influenced songs?

I knew something, because right before we went into studio to record, there was a big article that came out in Nashville, Tennessee, that said "Bob Dylan confessed to be born again." It didn't matter at the time. Being a professional singer, I was going to do my job. But when I realized what it was I was about to sing, it just made me realize that God always keeps me close to what it is He's called me to do.

I read your son played a role in that record too. Can you tell me that story?

Well, we were sitting at the house and Bob came back. He and [producers] Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett had been obviously in a big debate about a particular song that they didn’t know if it should go on the record. The debate went on so much between them that he brought the song back to the house for us to listen to it.

As he put it on, the song began to talk about, "I think I’ll call it a pig, I think I’ll call it a bear." At the time my son was about two, three years old, and when he said, “I think I’ll call it a pig,” Tony would just bend over and laugh so hard. "Mama! Mama! He said a pig! He said, I think I’ll call it a pig, Mama." Then they said, "I think I’ll call it a bear," and Tony would just fall over and laugh. “Mama, he said, I think I’ll call it a bear!" Bob starts looking at Tony. He just started watching him. Every time Bob would call out a name of an animal, Tony would just crack up laughing. Bob said, "That's it. We're going put the song on the record."

What happens after those sessions? Do you know that there's a tour coming?

When we had finished doing the record, I came home. We were told by his management company that they will get in touch with us. Then we went to Santa Monica. We rehearsed for a few weeks, then we went to New York to do Saturday Night Live.

What was that like?

It was awesome and amazing. I loved Saturday Night Live. I loved watching Gilda Radner and John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd and all of them. To go do Saturday Night Live and get to meet all of these guys that I every Saturday sit and watch and laughed was very exciting.

After that, I went back home for a few weeks, [then back to Santa Monica]. We were in rehearsal for almost three straight months before we went out on the road.

Wow, that's a lot of rehearsal.

Well, yeah. He done told the world he's a born-again Christian. He done told the world, "This Jewish man believes in Jesus Christ, and he believes in the Word of God” and everything. He is going to go out on the road and do something that, out of all these years, he hadn't done before… but then again, he had done. ‘Cause if you listen to the lyrics to a lot of his songs, he was speaking positive words of God and love and justice and togetherness and equality. He was speaking all of that in all his other songs. Now he has bodaciously told the world that he is a believer in Jesus Christ.

So we’re in rehearsals, working up this show, working up this ministry so that when he go forth, people don't think it's a gimmick. They know that he is real about what it is he's singing about.

Musically, in all those rehearsals, did the band and all the singers gel quickly?

It went well, but see, I'm an old school girl. I go in, I do what I need to do, and then I leave. There was only one person there that I had a tight relationship with, and that's because I've been known her since I was seven years old [Carolyn Dennis]. When rehearsal was over with, I go get me something to eat, go back, listen to the music, rehearse the songs, and then chill out and wake up the next day to go to rehearsal again.

Photo via BookwormNorm

What do you remember about those first shows? You did a whole lot of shows in one place, at the Warfield.

I felt great about it, and the reason why I felt great about it was because I was in my zone. We get to go out there and sing the Word of God and hope that the people that have paid their money to come and hear would receive it. When I get in the zone to walk out on stage, I listen and I look at the people…but I don't. I kind of channel spiritually into what it is I'm about to do.

From different articles I read, there were some people pissed off, mad, angry, and booing. Well, guess what Ray? I never heard any of it. I guess God blocked my hearing so that I wouldn't hear that. Because me walking out on that stage by myself, telling the story about an old woman getting on a train, if I had heard some of those people booing, like some of the news articles said they were doing, that would have devastated me. That would have messed my mind and my heart up. I truly have to say that God took all of that away from me. All I know was I went out there focused on what it was I was about to say, and what it was I was about to do. That's what I did.

How did it happen that you opened the show with that train story? [Regina began Dylan’s early gospel shows standing alone on stage, telling a spiritual story about a woman trying to get on a train - listen below]

We were at the theater, we had done soundcheck and everything. I saw Bob scratching his head, and I was like, okay, something ain't right. He's thinking hard. So I walked over to him and I said, "What's wrong?" He said, "Something is missing." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "This is a great show, but something is missing and I don't know what it is."

I am a jokester, I'm the seventh child out of eight. I come from a family that loves to play games and joke and act silly. I looked at him and I said, "Okay, I know what it is." He said, "What?" I said, "I'm going to walk out on stage, and I'm going to tell this story about this old woman who was crying…