Why didn’t Bob Dylan marry Mavis Staples? Here’s the reason his proposal was turned down, she regretted it later
American singer-songwriter, author, and visual artist Bob Dylan turned 80. Dylan has led an extraordinary life and has had several highly famous romantic relationships. His partners included artist Suze Rotolo, singer, and activist Joan Baez, actress and model Sara Lownds, and singer Carolyn Dennis.
A name that does not often make it to the list is American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress, and civil rights activist Mavis Staples. And that’s surprising because the two almost got married.
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Why did Bob Dylan never marry Mavis Staples?
As per a 2019 Telegraph feature, when Dylan first listened to the Staples’ 1961 recording of ‘Uncloudy Day’, he declared it “the most mysterious thing I’d ever heard”. After listening to the song for a second time, he found himself unable to sleep. “That singer,” he said, was “pulling things out of my soul that I never knew were there.”
As per the feature, Dylan and Staples first got together during the Newport Folk Festival, possibly in 1963 -- though the year was not mentioned. The festival was held annually from 1959 to 1969, barring two years of inactivity in 1961 and 1962. In a 2016 Guardian interview, Staples said, “We would write letters back and forth because we wouldn’t see each other until we were on a festival together. And we’d smooch!”
As per a Paste magazine feature, on March 3, 1963, Dylan proposed to Staples during the rehearsals for a Westinghouse TV special, ‘Folk Songs and More Folk Songs’. She turned him down, though he continued to pursue her for several years. She reportedly turned him down, because she felt that she was too young at the time.
In recent interviews, she’s admitted wishing she had married Bob Dylan when he proposed in the sixties. In the Guardian interview in 2016, Staples said, “I often think about what would have happened if I’d married Bobby, though. If we’d had some little plum-crushers, how our lives would be. The kids would be singing now, and Bobby and I would be holding each other up.”
But Dylan and Staples have remained on good terms. She sang on his 1979 album, ‘Slow Train Coming’, and they toured together in 2016. She said in the 2019 interview that they both keep fit by boxing, and said: “He’s so little, I could knock him out with one punch!”
Dylan first married Sara Lownds in November 1965. The couple eventually divorced in June 1977. He then married his backup singer Carolyn Dennis in June 1986 but divorced in October 1992. With his first wife Lownds, Dylan had four children together: Jesse Byron Dylan, Anna Lea, Samuel Isaac Abram, and Jakob Luke. He also adopted Lownds's daughter from a previous marriage, Maria Lownds. With his second wife Carolyn Dennis, he had a daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, who was born in 1986.
