The Detroit News has an interview today with singer Mavis Staples about the time a young Bob Dylan proposed marriage to her.
According the interview, Staples said she met Dylan when they were both teenagers and were often together when the Staple Singers were doing folk festivals. When they weren't together, she said, they would write each other letters and talk on the phone.
“One day after Bobby and I had just met,” she told the newspaper, “my father and I were standing in line to get lunch, and from way in the back of the line, Bobby yelled, "Pops, I want to marry Mavis." And Pops yelled back, "Don't tell me, tell Mavis.
“We went on into our 20s, and it was my fault that it stopped. I was so young I thought Dr. King might not like that, me marrying a white man. Later on, Pops told me that was foolish. He said, "Haven't you been listening to what that Dylan kid is saying — 'How many roads must a man walk down ...' Don't you see all the white people marching with us?
I often wonder if we'd gotten together and had some kids ... they'd be some poetry-writing, singing kids, wouldn't they?”
Staples, who turned 71 last week, performed on the Dylan album, Gotta Serve Somebody—The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan.
Mavis Staples photos by Frank Beacham
(Thanks to examiner.com)
