Most Musicians Dread Getting Pelted by Things From the Crowd, but It Ended up Saving Bob Dylan

Audiences throwing things onstage for performers is an old theatrical trope. Sometimes it’s rotten tomatoes. Other times, it’s long-stem roses. Multiple stories have sprung up over the years about artists getting whacked in the face with jewelry, clothing, and even cell phones, and every instance boils down to the same life lesson: Don’t do that. Artists don’t like it when you do that.

And while it would be reasonable to assume that Bob Dylan is among the camp of artists who believe audiences should respect a healthy distance between themselves and the performers, Dylan responded to one tossed trinket with a surprising amount of gratitude. The token thrown onstage by a loyal fan would go on to inspire one of Dylan’s most controversial professional periods: the saved years.

Bob Dylan Started His Christian Phase With a Small Cross

Between his poorly received album Street-Legal and an even more divisive pseudo-fictional film Renaldo And Clara, Bob Dylan wasn’t doing too hot in the late 1970s. A strenuous tour schedule, made even harder by a bad virus going around, pushed Dylan even further into the dumps. By the time he took the stage in November 1978 in San Diego, California, he looked, felt, and sounded worse for wear. One audience member decided to show their support by tossing a small piece of jewelry in Dylan’s direction.

“I think they could sense that,” Dylan said of his draining energy. “They threw a silver cross on the stage. Now usually, I don’t pick things up in front of the stage. Once in a while I do, but sometimes, most times, I don’t. But I looked down at that cross. I said, ‘I gotta pick that up.’ I picked up that cross, and I put it in my pocket. It was a silver cross, I think, maybe about so high. And I…brought it backstage with me.”

Dylan’s next tour stop was in Phoenix, Arizona, and the singer-songwriter recalled feeling even worse there than he did in San Diego. He knew he needed something to get him into performance shape, particularly something he “never really had before.” He continued, “I looked in my pocket, and I had this cross that someone threw before when I was in San Diego.”

The cross marked a pivotal shift in Dylan’s spirituality, eventually leading him down the path of Christianity, which would produce a divisive trilogy of “saved” albums including Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot Of Love.

Photo by Getty Images

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