Ronee Blakley Talks Rolling Thunder, Joni Mitchell, and Performing at a Prison

1975-12-07, Correctional Institute, Clinton, NJ

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Ken Regan, via The Guardian

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 in hardcover, paperback, or ebook here!

Well, folks, we’re nearing the end. Only two more shows of our look back at Rolling Thunder ‘75. And, as I mentioned in the last one, we’re ending with a trio of interviews. We already heard from the tour’s producer Louie Kemp, and today Ronee Blakley looks back at her time on Rolling Thunder.

In fall of 1975, Blakley was riding high on her success in Robert Altman’s movie Nashville, which had just been released a few months prior (she’d be nominated for an Academy Award shortly after Rolling Thunder ended). So she posed a double threat to the tour: Not only a singer who’d already released a couple albums, but the only professional actress of the bunch - perfect given that Bob was attempting to make a movie on the tour. She got on the phone a couple weeks ago to tell me all about it.

How did you first get connected with Bob?

I got connected with Bob because I went down to The Other End to hear David Blue's show. Paul Colby, the club owner, had shut down the club to the public and the show had emptied out, and musicians and friends were coming in. I was introduced to Bob by Bobby Neuwirth. Then we started jamming. Bob got up on stage and started playing the piano and singing. I got up on stage with him. I don't remember anybody else being on stage at that point, but I got up there and we started singing and playing four-handed piano.

Ken Regan, via Rolling Stone

After the Other End jam, everybody went back to the Gramercy Park Hotel to party and hang out. He asked me to join the tour, and I told him I could not go. They all said, "Nobody says no to Bob Dylan!" [laughs] But I had a flight to catch the next morning to Muscle Shoals to meet with my band because my second album, Welcome, had just come out and I was doing a tour to support the record. Some of the Muscle Shoals guys were going on the road with me, so I was going to Huntsville.

[After the party,] I went back to my hotel by myself and packed up. I think I had the top floor at the Sherry-Netherland at that moment in time, like Elizabeth Taylor or something. Me and my little suitcase. I went out to the airport and called my producer, Jerry Wexler, who told me not to go. He said it's much more important to stay there and work with Dylan. I told him I'd promised the boys, and so I got on the plane and I went. I rented a car, drove from Huntsville to Muscle Shoals, went to the studio, met with the band and I told them. They said, "Well, you got to go with Dylan. That's much more important."

Your own band said that?

Yes. The band members said, "This will be good for all of us. We'll do [our tour] afterward." I went back to my motel and called New York. Amazingly, I called Information, and Information gave me the number of Bob’s hotel. I called the hotel and Dylan got on the phone. I said, “The boys said I can come." He said, "Stay right there. I'll have somebody call you and we'll fly you back." Lou Kemp called me and said, "Go back and get on a plane. There will be a ticket there for you. We'll have a limousine pick you up and bring you to the studio."

I went back to Huntsville, got back on the plane, flew back to New York, was picked up, driven to the studio, and recorded “Hurricane” that night.

Tell me about that session.

It was incredibly exciting. It's hard to put it into words. I'd never heard it before. I was sharing the mic with Bob, we were face-to-face, nose-to-nose, off one set of lyrics. It was like seven pages of lyrics or something.  When we finished one page, I would drop the page to the floor. I still have those papers.

Was it pretty quick, or were you there for hours, doing take after take?

Well, we were there for hours, but it seemed quick. I mean, a few hours is quick for an eight-minute song.

While we’re on the subject of “Hurricane,” let's fast way forward to the present and your new version of the song. Why did you decide to record it again all these years later?

Fora few reasons. I wanted to pay tribute to Bob. The Martin Scorsese movie was coming out, so it seemed appropriate, and our social situation is still almost as grim as it was then. We've been facing some very, very difficult situations, and it's been very difficult to achieve the equality that we have fought for for so long.

What sort of sound were you going for?

It's a fairly rocky version. Dave Alvin has that edge, whether you call it folk-rock, whether you call it cowpunk, whatever name you put to it. When you hear it, you know it. My piano playing places a difference into the piece as well, and I did it a little faster.

Nothing can top Bob Dylan. No one and nothing, so there's no thought of that. It's a tribute to him, and a tribute to Hurricane, and a tribute to all of us on the Rolling Thunder Revue. All the decades that we've put in trying to achieve change since we were on that magical mystery tour. I did it on stage with Bob at least 30 times, so it has deep, personal meaning for me. Hopefully that comes across.

Let's rewind again back to 1975. I know you knew Joni Mitchell who joined later, but did you know any of the initial group of people before the tour?