During this time, Dylan was already going through his divorce from his wife Sara. It was also not long after the suicide of Phil Ochs.
Dylan heard the news while he was at his farm in Minnesota, with his children and their art teacher, Faridi McFree. She was playing with the kids and planning a birthday party for Samuel Dylan’s 9th birthday. Dylan was writing songs for his next album, which turned out to be Street Legal.
When Dylan told McFree that Presley had died, she replied that she was not a fan of Presley’s music:
“That’s all I have to say – he didn’t talk to me for a week. . . He really took it bad . . . He was really grieving. He said that if it wasn’t for (Presley) he never would have gotten started. He opened the door. ”
Dylan said, “I went over my whole life. I went over my whole childhood. I didn’t talk to anyone for a week”.
In 1997, after recovering from a life-threatening illness, Dylan said he thought he was going to “meet Elvis”
Bob Dylan
When I first heard Elvis’ voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody; and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.
