Bob Dylan
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Like a Western hero, he has given up the sedentary life and chosen the difficult path of his own ideals, made real by noble isolation. "I think you really have to be a Texan to appreciate the vastness of it and the emptiness of it," Dylan says. "But I'm an honorary Texan."
What do you mean?
"Well, George Bush, when he was governor, gave me a proclamation that says I'm an honorary Texan [holds hand up in pledge, laughs]. As if anybody needed proof. It's no small thing. I take it as a high honour."
While Dylan has praised Obama and rhapsodised about Obama's memoir, Dreams from My Father, he's been uncritical of the Bush administration. Almost every American artist has taken a pinata swipe at Bush's legacy, but Dylan refuses. He instead looks at the Bush years as just another unsurprising incident of dawn-of-man folly. "I read history books just like you do," Dylan says. "None of those guys are immune to the laws of history. They're going to go up or down, and they're going to take their people with them. None of us really knew what was happening in the economy. It changed so quickly into a true nightmare of horror. In another day and age, heads would roll. That's what would happen. The rot would be cut out. As far as blaming everything on the last president, think of it this way: the same folks who had held him in such high regard came to despise him. Isn't it funny that they're the very same people who who once loved him?  People are fickle.  Their loyalty can turn at the drop of a hat."--Sunday Times magazine 24.5.2009