He was a folk singer from New York via the Iron Range whose songs became an integral part of the civil rights movement. She was a gospel singer from Chicago with Mississippi roots who was already singing her way down the freedom highway.
Bob Dylan's and Mavis Staples' paths first crossed 55 years ago, and if he'd gotten his way they might have been tied in marriage. The two Rock and Roll Hall of Famers have been circling back ever since, with a joint tour coming to Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday.
Dylan, 76, and Staples, 78, once "courted," as Mavis put it in a 2005 Star Tribune profile, when she also talked about working with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Prince, gospel legend Mahalia Jackson and George Clinton (suffice it to say it's one of this writer's favorite interviews ever).
"Oh, man, it's out now," she said with a hearty laugh. "It was on the internet that we had courted, so when I was asked, I didn't deny it. I don't want to put Bobby's business on the street. But it was before he was married. Bobby doesn't mind. We're older now. We had our time. That was the great love I lost, I think."
While she may have been a personal pick by "Bobby," Staples is a shrewd choice as opening act. Her popularity has enjoyed a revival over the past decade, thanks in part to Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who produced two prior albums and co-helmed her latest, "If All I Was Was Black," due Nov. 17. Still, Tweedy has a long way to go before he shares as much history with Staples as "Bobby" does. Here's a recap:
Late 1950s: Dylan first heard the Staple Singers while listening to Southern radio under his bedcovers at night in Hibbing. In a 2001 interview featured in the HBO documentary "Mavis!" he recalled her father, Pops, having a "kind of a gentle voice. But then this other voice came on, which I found out was Mavis. One of the first songs I heard that made my hair stand up on end was called 'Sit Down Servant.' That just made me stay up for a week after I heard that song."
Sept. 7-8, 1962: Dylan meets the Staples family at a gospel concert in New York. "We were just shocked this little white boy — and he was little — knew our stuff. And then we'd hear him sing and Pops would say, 'Wait a minute, y'all, listen to what the kid is saying,' " Mavis told Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot in his first-rate Staples biography "I'll Take You There."
March 1963: Dylan and the Staples tape a Westinghouse TV special with other folk acts, ending with them singing "This Land Is Your Land" together.
