Bob Dylan seems to be one of the only people who is thriving during the pandemic right now — he has released three songs and gotten his first No. 1 hit, along with announcing his first album in 17 years, all since we started quarantining. But in a rare new interview, he told the New York Times about one of the reasons he wishes he could still go out into the world: Girl From the North Country, Conor McPherson’s Broadway musical that uses the folk legend’s music. “I’ve seen it and it affected me,†he said, adding that he went “as an anonymous spectator.†“The play had me crying at the end. I can’t even say why,†he continued. “When the curtain came down, I was stunned. I really was. Too bad Broadway shut down because I wanted to see it again.â€
If that’s what the man wants, we hope Dylan can make it out to New York again when this is all over. Currently quarantined at his California home, he’s also thinking about the pandemic, death, and the end of the world. On the coronavirus, he calls it “a forerunner of something else to come,†adding, “Maybe we are on the eve of destruction.†That’s coming from the man who sings the line, “I ain’t no false prophet†in his last song. We’ll see if there are more prophecies on his new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, when it comes out on June 19.