Biography
Jakob Dylan first followed in his legendary singer-songwriter father Bob's footsteps as the frontman of '90s alt-rock staples The Wallflowers before forging a successful career as a solo artist. Born into rock royalty in New York City, NY in 1969, Jakob Dylan was largely raised by his model mother Sara in the wake of her divorce from America's most celebrated folk troubadour, Bob, in 1977. Inspired by the post-punk of The Clash far more than his father's output, Dylan began performing in bands such as Trash Matinee and The Bootheels while at high school and following a brief stint at New York's Parsons School of Design he returned to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career. In 1989 he joined forces with bassist Barrie Maguire, guitarist Tobi Miller and drummer Rami Jaffee to form The Wallflowers, with the band signing to Virgin Records shortly after. Their self-titled 1992 debut attracted critical acclaim but few sales and the group were essentially forced to start from scratch when they were dropped by their label. A much-changed Wallflowers eventually returned in 1996 with the Interscope-issued Bringing Down the Horse, which peaked at No.4 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the two-time Grammy-winning No.2 hit single, "One Headlight." Having previously avoided talk of his famous father, Dylan then embraced his parentage in 1997 when The Wallflowers supported Bob Dylan on tour, while three years later he addressed the subject on the group's third LP, Breach. Following the release of 2002's Red Letter Days and 2005's Rebel, Sweetheart, Dylan began performing as a solo artist, touring with T-Bone Burnett, recording the theme tune to TV drama "Six Degrees" (ABC, 2006-07) and contributing to various tribute albums. Produced by Rick Rubin, Dylan's 2008 first solo effort, Seeing Things, peaked at No. 24 in the US and was supported by a national tour in which he was backed by the Gold Mountain Rebels. Featuring backing vocals from Kelly Hogan and Neko Case, the more expansive-sounding follow-up Women + Country arrived two years later and gave Dylan his highest-charting album since the Wallflowers' sophomore. After recording songs for the "True Blood" (HBO, 2008-2014) and "A Little Help" (2010) soundtracks and a tribute to Hank Williams, Dylan reunited with The Wallflowers for 2012's Glad All Over, the group's first album to feature songwriting input from other members. Dylan went on to collaborate with Dave Matthews and Cat Power on various projects and worked with manager Andrew Slater on a feature-length documentary about the Laurel Canyon scene, "Echo in the Canyon" (2018).
