Rob Stoner Talks Rolling Thunder '76

1976-05-03, The Warehouse, New Orleans, LA

Photo courtesy Rob Stoner

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

Today, our second interview, and another one pegged to a New Orleans show. Appropriate, as this would have been the second weekend of Jazzfest (WWOZ is streaming Jazzfest sets past all weekend). Unlike Dickie Landry, who last week told a killer story of playing with Bob for one night only in 2003, today’s subject played with Bob for years.

Rob Stoner was Dylan’s bandleader and bassist for both the ‘75 and ‘76 legs of the Rolling Thunder Revue and the first leg of ’78. He played on Desire and helped put together Bob’s touring bands, which became known as “Guam” in the Rolling Thunder years. He even made the setlists each night; that photo up top is of him running one by Bob before a ‘75 show.

The ‘75 Rolling Thunder tour was explored exhaustively last year; Rob did great interviews about it and the Scorsese doc at Aquarium Drunkard and his local paper. And he had a hell of a career before and after Bob (Link Wray! “American Pie!”); The Vinyl Press has a good interview on all that that’s worth checking out too.

But us, we’re focusing on the half of Rolling Thunder that hasn’t gotten as much attention of late: 1976.

Well, mostly. We couldn’t start without the story of how he entered Bob’s orbit in the first place, and we touch on ’78 briefly at the end.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed. But not much. I figure anyone subscribing to a Dylan-concerts newsletter is as interested in the details as I am. And if you don’t subscribe yet, here’s the button, these will arrive in your inbox every week or so:

You met Bob several years before Rolling Thunder. Tell me about it.

I was working with John Herald, who was the lead singer of the Greenbriar Boys. Bob Dylan used to be the Greenbriar Boys' opening act when he first came to New York in the early '60s [including at the ’61 show Robert Shelton famously reviewed for the Times]. The Greenbriar Boys were maybe the most successful and well-regarded of the urban bluegrass groups. I was kind of a well-known bass player and singer in Manhattan. John had hired me as one of his sidemen.

We played a gig in LA in ‘71 or ’72, and Dylan came to the gig to see how the band he had been the opening act for was doing. In the show, John Herald would allow the individual members to each do a little solo segment. Dylan took note of this and saw that I was also a competent lead singer. 

After the show, we went back to Kris Kristofferson's hotel room at the Chateau Marmont. Every so often, Dylan and I would pick up guitars, and he would try to stump me regarding obscure bluegrass tunes, since he'd seen me play with this bluegrass group. Bob, being a student of these kind of tunes, would say, “Hey, you know this one?” thinking that he could find one I didn't know. But I knew all these tunes, 'cause I loved them too. Not only did I know the [music], but I knew the words, so I could harmonize with him. 

I knew at that time, this guy's auditioning for some future thing. A guy of Bob Dylan's stature would not sit around and jam with an unknown person for hours and hours unless they were checking 'em out to add to their book of potential future hires. I found out subsequently that Bob was in the habit of doing this. He knew the guys in The Band were not going to be working with him forever, and he needed to have a nice group of musicians that he could choose from. So we stayed up 'til dawn jamming on these obscure tunes.

At the conclusion of our initial meeting, Dylan had said, hey man, we're going to do something together some day. At the time, I took that as just one of those platitudes that people always say. "Oh yeah, we'll get together and jam." I just took it as loose talk. But he actually made good on his word.