Dylan Talks Leo Di Caprio Inspired New Song
The title track from his new album is an epic story of the Titanic
In a new interview with Rolling Stone Dylan reveals that his new album, Tempest, was supposed to be a religious record, but it didn't quite turn out that way.
"I wanted to make something more religious," he says. "I just didn't have enough religious songs. Intentionally, specifically religious songs is what I wanted to do. That takes a lot more concentration to pull that off 10 times with the same thread – than it does with a record like I ended up with."
Instead the album turned out to be a dark record containing big stories where "anything goes". And on the title track Dylan writes about the story of the Titanic, using both historical fact and cinematic fiction as inspiration.
"Yeah, Leo," says Dylan. "I don't think the song would be the same without him. Or the movie. People are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful. But a songwriter doesn't care about what's truthful. What he cares about is what should've happened, what could've happened. That's its own kind of truth. It's like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name."
The album is released on 10 September. You can hear an extended sample of the song 'Early Roman Kings' on the trailer for the new season of Cinemax's Strike Back, which airs in the US this month.