What about Bob?

Before a 1978 concert in St. Paul, Bob Dylan offered a single interview with a single media outlet within Minnesota or neighboring states. Enter Pamela Coyle, then a 17-year-old living in Dylan’s hometown — who at the time worked for the Hibbing High Times.

The estimated 20-minute interview turned Coyle into more than a reporter. She became the story — a distinction that pops up even decades later. The Associated Press ran with the story of the high school student who interviewed Dylan, and eventually she was getting phone calls from media outlets and super fans who wanted to know more about her experience.

In 1998, Coyle revisited the experience with the News Tribune and recalled that she asked him basic questions and that he was very pleasant and offered short answers.

By Christa Lawler clawler@duluthnews.com

Editor’s note: A version of this story was originally published in the July 7, 2013, News Tribune.

Coyle voluntarily left journalism in 2007 after a career that included an internship at the News Tribune, a job at the New Haven (Conn.) Register, a fellowship at Yale Law School for a master’s degree in the study of law and more than 13 years at the TimesPicayune in New Orleans. She finished her career at The Tennessean in Nashville.

Bigger than her Dylan exclusive: The TimesPicayune’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Coyle was an assistant city editor in the role of acting city editor at the time.

Ten years later, then News Tribune staff writer Bob Ashenmacher interviewed Dylan before a concert at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

Ashenmacher found himself backstage before the concert while Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Dylan’s backing band, wandered around. The conversation was brief, Ashenmacher recalled.

As for Dylan:

“I have a very distinct memory of vivid blue eyes,” Ashenmacher said. He later reported that Dylan’s handshake was dry and his grasp was gentle. At first, the star avoided eye contact.

When asked about his willingness to talk to a Duluth newspaper, Dylan responded:

“Don’t you want me to? I can go, I really can. I mean, I got things to do. I thought you wanted to speak to me.”

When Dylan mentioned his old girlfriend, Echo Helstrom, Ashenmacher asked if he ever hears from her.

He smiled, Ashenmacher wrote, then the musician said, “I see her occasionally.”

The experience of interviewing Dylan was a highlight of Ashenmacher’s journalism career, but not the kind of memory he regularly revisits.

“As I look back, it was very meaningful,” he said. “I’m grateful to have been able to shake his hand. It sounds corny, but he’s a great American. To say ‘thank you’ to him was meaningful to me.” u