The Iconic Musical Moment Bob Dylan Brainstormed Over a Game of Pickup Ball With Roger McGuinn

No matter how fantastical or massive a musical moment might become, each one starts as an inkling of an idea. Those ideas can strike at any time—even a game of pickup basketball between Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn. The Byrds founder recalled the singer-songwriter mulling over the idea that would eventually turn into the Rolling Thunder Revue during an unassuming day at McGuinn’s Malibu house. According to McGuinn, Dylan loved McGuinn’s house so much that he wouldn’t know “if he wanted to see me or the house,” he joked to Guitar Player in 2025.

For the house or McGuinn or otherwise, Dylan visited the guitarist’s home often to play pool, shoot the breeze, and, after Dylan noticed McGuinn’s house had a basketball hoop, play pickup ball games. “We were playing basketball in the back by the carport, and he said, ‘I want to do something different,’” McGuinn recalled. “I said, ‘What do you mean, man?’ He said, ‘I don’t know…like a circus.’ And that’s what the Rolling Thunder Revue was. I got to New York, and I saw him again, and he invited me on the Rolling Thunder tour, and that was how that worked.”

What started as a small idea in the back of Dylan’s mind eventually evolved into the 1975-76 concert tour that featured contemporary stars like McGuinn, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, Stephen Stills, Stevie Wonder, and Dr. John, among many others.

Bob Dylan Often Shared Musings Like That With Roger McGuinn

When Bob Dylan first told Roger McGuinn that he wanted to do “something different” while playing basketball in Malibu, he wasn’t necessarily asking McGuinn for his input. He was more or less using the musician as a soundboard for a project he was already in the process of developing, which was par for the course for Dylan. According to The Byrds founder, “He’s out there. He thinks in abstractions. And social graces are different. He doesn’t really have a conversation with you. He talks in abstractions a lot. I love the guy like a brother. But he’s a little challenging to have a friendship with.”

“He likes me at times,” McGuinn continued. “He liked me when we were hanging out together in Malibu, he liked me on the Rolling Thunder tour, he liked me when I did the 30th anniversary thing at Madison Square Garden with him—he was happy about my performance at that. I remember he told Tom Petty and George Harrison, ‘Wow, Roger really stole the show!’ He was very positive about that. So, I know he’s liked me at times. I love the guy, and I loved performing with him.”

Clearly, the feeling was mutual for Dylan (even if part of his motivation to hang out with McGuinn so much is because he wanted The Byrds’ guitarist’s Malibu home).

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