Bob Dylan Loved Elvis So Much That He Allegedly Once Kissed A Floor
For over half a century, folk titan Bob Dylan has harvested an incalculable slew of super fans. People have fallen so madly in love with his music and the message at its core, that they're liable to kiss the very ground that he walks on. Having said that, even somebody with an army of super fans is still somebody else's super fan. Bob Dylan proved that much about himself when he quite literally fell to his knees and kissed the ground that his hero once walked upon.
"When I first heard Elvis' voice I just knew that I wasn't going to work for anybody; and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail," Dylan once stated about the late King of rock 'n' roll (via Thought Co.). According to Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Dylan's iconic gesture took place at the legendary Sun Records where Elvis Presley first recorded "That's All Right," which some still consider the first-ever rock 'n' roll song, as Mental Floss notes.
X marks the spot
Sun Studio, located in Memphis, Tennessee (also home to Graceland, as most Elvis aficionados already know) has been called the birthplace of rock 'n' roll. In 1954, Presley strutted into the small studio space for the first time with nothing more than a slick shock of black hair atop his head and an aimless dream of becoming famous inside of it. He stepped up to the microphone and laid down his first-ever track that would go down in history. Years later, by means of commemorating the physical source of his unparalleled legacy, a black X was placed on the floor where the King stood before the microphone on that fateful day in Memphis (per Desert News).
Later on, when Bob Dylan visited Sun Studio and beheld the space where his beloved muse began his career, he was so taken by the spectacle of the room and its history involving Elvis, that he dropped to his knees before the massive X as though it signified something even more precious than buried treasure and pressed his grateful lips directly into the center of it. According to The Austin Chronicle, tours are regularly held at Sun Studio. At the end, when visitors are brought before the fabled X, they're invited to do the same if they please.
Dylan didn't speak for a week after Elvis died
There seemed to be something unquestionably sacred at the core of Bob Dylan's supreme veneration for Elvis Presley. So, you can probably imagine how flabbergasted he was after Elvis covered two of his most iconic songs, "Tomorrow is a Long Time" and "Blowin' in the Wind." In fact, Elvis and Dylan had planned at one point in time to create something together musically, but collaborative efforts fell through at the last minute and the team-up never ended up happening. Sadly, the proper opportunity to reschedule never came, as Elvis Presley died in 1977 before he and Dylan ever had the chance to co-write, according to Far Out.
Naturally, Bob Dylan didn't take well to the news of the King's tragic passing. "I went over my whole life. I went over my whole childhood. I didn't talk to anyone for a week after Elvis died. If it wasn't for Elvis and Hank Williams, I couldn't be doing what I do today," he shared years later. An entire week of stark silence and personal reflection followed in the wake of it all, but Dylan eventually came around and conceded his grief to remembrance and homage for his late idol.