Bob Dylan has been spotted on a mission of mercy – visiting a local synagogue. The 69-year-old music legend had presumably gone to say prayers for his lost ‘soulmate’ and ex-girlfriend Suze Rotolo, who died at the end of last month.
An ashen-faced Dylan cut a frail figure as he was dropped off with his head buried inside a baseball cap and hooded sweatshirt. An onlooker said: ‘He looked pretty beaten down and depressed. He went in a back door and stayed inside for over an hour before being picked up again by his driver.’
It is not known how often Dylan visits the synagogue and until now his chosen religion has been a long-standing mystery. However he may well have just been saying a prayer for Miss Rotolo - his inspiration and young sweetheart who appeared with him arm in arm on the iconic cover of his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. The pair began dating in 1961 when Miss Rotolo was just 17 years old. They split after three years but remained close friends until she died of lung cancer in New York on February 25.
Dylan, who turns 70 in May, has been exceptionally undecided about religion during his life and on the rare occasion that he has spoken about his faith he has been quite cryptic. From being born Jewish as Robert Zimmerman in Minnesota he famously became a born-again Christian in the late 1970s.
His conversion to Christianity was very public when he released three Christian influenced gospel music albums – ‘Slow Train Coming’ in 1979, ‘Saved’ in 1980 and ‘Shot of Love’ in 1981. He has admitted struggling with his faith in the past telling Rolling Stone magazine in the 1980s: ‘I've never said I'm born again. That's just a media term. I don't think I've been an agnostic. I've always thought there's a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there's a world to come.’ When asked if he belonged to any church or synagogue in the same interview, he replied: ‘Not really. Uh, the Church of the Poison Mind.’
However since then he has been reported to attend Jewish religion events including the bar mitzvahs of his sons. These exclusive pictures are the first conclusive pieces of evidence that the folk music icon has come back to Judaism after the loss of his beloved ex-girlfriend.
Dylan fiercely guards his privacy and goes out of his way to avoid being photographed except when he is performing in concert. He lives a nomadic existence on his sprawling ramshackle farmhouse which overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Malibu.
An ashen-faced Dylan cut a frail figure as he was dropped off with his head buried inside a baseball cap and hooded sweatshirt. An onlooker said: ‘He looked pretty beaten down and depressed. He went in a back door and stayed inside for over an hour before being picked up again by his driver.’
It is not known how often Dylan visits the synagogue and until now his chosen religion has been a long-standing mystery. However he may well have just been saying a prayer for Miss Rotolo - his inspiration and young sweetheart who appeared with him arm in arm on the iconic cover of his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. The pair began dating in 1961 when Miss Rotolo was just 17 years old. They split after three years but remained close friends until she died of lung cancer in New York on February 25.
Dylan, who turns 70 in May, has been exceptionally undecided about religion during his life and on the rare occasion that he has spoken about his faith he has been quite cryptic. From being born Jewish as Robert Zimmerman in Minnesota he famously became a born-again Christian in the late 1970s.
His conversion to Christianity was very public when he released three Christian influenced gospel music albums – ‘Slow Train Coming’ in 1979, ‘Saved’ in 1980 and ‘Shot of Love’ in 1981. He has admitted struggling with his faith in the past telling Rolling Stone magazine in the 1980s: ‘I've never said I'm born again. That's just a media term. I don't think I've been an agnostic. I've always thought there's a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there's a world to come.’ When asked if he belonged to any church or synagogue in the same interview, he replied: ‘Not really. Uh, the Church of the Poison Mind.’
However since then he has been reported to attend Jewish religion events including the bar mitzvahs of his sons. These exclusive pictures are the first conclusive pieces of evidence that the folk music icon has come back to Judaism after the loss of his beloved ex-girlfriend.
Dylan fiercely guards his privacy and goes out of his way to avoid being photographed except when he is performing in concert. He lives a nomadic existence on his sprawling ramshackle farmhouse which overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Malibu.
