The Last Individualist

Autorentext

Martin Keller is a veteran journalist, author, and publicist best known for his work covering arts, music, and popular culture. He has written for a wide range of national and regional publications, including Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Utne Reader, Twin Cities Reader, and City Pages. He is especially well-known in Minnesota media and cultural circles.

Klappentext

"In this first-hand story about the dogged, successful pursuit of an in-person interview, you will be knocked out... full of color and fascinating detail."— Peter Jesperson, author of Euphoric Recall and former manager of The Replacements

"This is the Bob Dylan book every Zimmy disciple has been waiting for."— Mary Lucia, legendary Twin Cities deejay

An illuminating memoir and portrait of Bob Dylan’s return to Minnesota after the making of Infidels, featuring a long-lost 1983 interview, rare photographs, and intimate insights.

Bob Dylan: The Last Individualist offers a vivid, behind-the-scenes look at a pivotal moment in Dylan’s career. With rare access and insight, music journalist Martin Keller chronicles Dylan’s retreat to his native Minnesota, where he would often recharge.

Drawing on a recently recovered interview from 1983, previously unpublished photographs, and firsthand reporting, this book offers a new look behind the scenes. Keller reveals how a more down-home tempo of life and the strength of enduring friendships sparked an invigorating new phase following Dylan’s polarizing religious period.

This intimate profile also illuminates Dylan’s fiercely independent spirit. Renowned for defying labels and reinventing himself on his own terms, he consistently rejected expectations—musical, cultural, or political—in favor of authenticity. His unwavering commitment to creative freedom and refusal to be defined by others underscore his musical legacy. For Dylan fans looking to go beyond the lyrics and get a true glimpse of one of music's most original and enduring voices.

LOST INTERVIEW: Recently recovered after decades out of circulation, Keller’s wide-ranging 1983 interview with Bob Dylan offers singular and revealing insights into the artist’s spiritual and philosophical views at another transformative moment in his career.

RARE PHOTOS: Two 8-page inserts–plus numerous other images about people and places in his orbit–help illustrate the atmosphere Dylan enjoyed with his lifelong friend Larry Kegan--and everybody else who was hanging out--during the rise of the torrid, 1980s Twin Cities music scene.

THE GREATER MINNESOTA MUSIC SCENE: Martin Keller talks about Dylan’s impact and interactions in that scene, along with mentions of the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Willie and the Bumblebees, '60s pop star Bobby Vee (who first hired him to play in Fargo), Pete Seeger and his Minnesota protégé Larry Long, and, of course, Prince.