Larry Campbell Talks Touring With Bob Dylan & The Rolling Stones

Touring with Bob Dylan meant playing more than 200 nights a year. A South American run with The Rolling Stones also gave Larry Campbell a close look at Keith Richards' enduring curiosity about music. Campbell shared those stories and more in a new interview with Otis Gibbs.

Campbell recalled going to Richards’ hotel room after shows and finding him playing old blues and country songs on cassette. “He’s still like an 11-year-old kid with his passion,” Campbell said. Richards would urge him to listen: “Hey, you got to hear this.” Campbell said he couldn’t sense any jadedness in Richards about music.

He also remembered watching the interplay between Richards and Charlie Watts during Stones performances. Richards’ amplifier was near Watts’ hi-hat, Campbell said, and the two seemed to be listening and playing off each other. Campbell couldn’t tell whether the connection was deliberate or a natural occurrence.

The time on the road with Dylan was extensive. Asked how many nights a year he spent touring, Campbell answered, “In the 200s.” He recalled two crew buses, a band bus and Dylan’s own bus. After shows, the band would often head straight to the bus for an overnight drive to the next city.

Soundchecks could stretch into two-hour searches for musical ideas. “He’d come to the soundcheck and start playing and we’d follow him,” Campbell said. “He’d be just fishing for something, basically.” Before the band made Love And Theft, Dylan repeatedly played chord changes from a song he was writing, Campbell recalled, with “no singing, no lyrics.” The band’s monitor engineer, Jules Arts, recorded the run-throughs.

Campbell described his role in Dylan’s band as supporting the songs without crowding them. A full band backing Dylan was “substituting for his guitar,” he said. “Say something when it’s time to say something. Don’t say anything when it’s not.” The band always had a setlist, Campbell added, though performances sometimes diverged from it.

One unexpected interruption came during Dylan’s 1998 Grammy Awards performance of “Love Sick.” A dancer known as Soy Bomb removed his shirt and began dancing behind the band. Campbell initially assumed Dylan had planned it. Dylan turned to him and asked, “Who the hell is that?” Campbell replied, “I don’t know.” Dylan kept playing as stagehands removed Soy Bomb.

After about seven years, Campbell decided to leave the band to develop the music he was making with his wife, Teresa Williams. He told Dylan’s manager, Jeff Kramer, that he couldn’t commit to another tour. Kramer later told him Dylan’s response was, “Oh, just let him go.” Campbell said he hasn’t seen Dylan since, though Dylan sent a thoughtful email after Campbell’s mother died. Looking back, Campbell called the experience a roller coaster but said he was glad he moved on when the time was right.

Watch Campbell’s full conversation with Gibbs: