Her maiden name was Shirley Noznitsky...wealthy Jewish princess from Delaware. Bob and Shirley were actually a very traditional Jewish couple. They married young and had 4 kids in rapid succession. Both are pro-Israel. Dylan wanted no part of the hippie scene that tried to make him into a god. He recorded country albums like Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait during the height of psychedelia.
You happened onto one of my expert subjects-—I really have no excuse now that I’m retired to actually write and submit a book I’ve been researching on Bob Dylan. Last time I counted I had 110 books on him and many on related topics. That started with the first 2 books on him in the early 1970s. I of course do not agree with his spokesman of the left early days and neither does he.
I probably could bore anyone into tears and then peaceful slumber talking about the subject. Sort of like my usual posts on politics here on FR.
My favorite Bob Dylan quotes: (after lovingly describing his early guns, 2 Colt pistols and a Winchester rifle) in 1981 he said on gun control: “I don’t think gun control is making any difference at all. It just makes it harder for the people who need to be protected.”
When told my the local sheriff that the crazed druggies who actually broke into his house several times and one threatened his wife when home alone, and two others had just had sex when discovered in his bed, the Sheriff said if Bob Dylan did anything to the intruders he would be arrested—he reassured everyone but the sheriff: “If anybody tries anything again I am ready for them.”
He took it seriously that George Harrison and his wife were almost killed by a knife attacker. One woman Bob Dylan stalker eluded police for months and managed to come up into his recording studio by a rear freight elevator and had to be tackled.