Jakob Dylan on Wallflowers’ Breakthrough LP: ‘It Wasn’t Easy’
It would be logical to assume that music-industry success came easy for Jakob Dylan. Truth be told, however, at the start of his career, little was promised for the musician and frontman of the Wallflowers – not least because he was attempting to follow in the footsteps of his father, arguably the most influential songwriter of his generation. “I was hungry. I wanted more,” Dylan tells Rolling Stone, looking back on the tumultuous months and years leading up to the Wallflowers‘ breakout smash of a second album, 1996’s Bringing Down the Horse. With hit singles in “One Headlight,” “6th Avenue Heartbreak” and “Three Marlenas,” the Grammy-winning LP would go on to sell more than 4 million copies and make Dylan an overnight star in his own right.
Even now, with the album being reissued for the first time on two-disc vinyl on May 13th in honor of its 20th anniversary, Dylan is unsure exactly how or why Bringing Down the Horse struck such a chord with listeners. The musician, 46, admits feeling at the time he’d made a great record, but says the T Bone Burnett-produced LP’s success was as much a product of good timing and record-label support as quality songs. “It could have been me or it could have been someone else. The pieces were just in place,” Dylan says during a candid chat with RS, in which he reflected on Bringing Down the Horse, explained how he feels the music industry has changed since his band’s career-defining album and revealed plans for his forthcoming covers album of duets with the likes of Neil Young and Beck.
Thanks for taking the time to chat, Jakob. I’m thinking you don’t often reflect on an album you recorded two decades ago.
It has been a while. I haven’t thought about it much, but I remember a lot.
The Wallflowers were dropped by Virgin Records after your self-titled 1992 debut album was a commercial disappointment. Was there a sense that the band’s second LP was make-or-break?
I don’t think there was a make-or break-feeling at all. I learned a lot after that first record about making records and about what I wanted to be doing. I don’t know, though, if I felt after our first record that was the way I wanted the band to keep going. I didn’t think everybody in the group was on the same page and was as focused as others. After Virgin Records [dropped us] we were playing shows and trying to get another record contract. And you have to remember this is when that stuff really mattered. It doesn’t matter today, having record labels and all, but back then it did matter. I wouldn’t say I was desperate. I just wanted to make another record. I wanted my band to be better. I didn’t see any pressure though. I just wanted things to step up and get grander.