Like him or loathe him, you have to say Simon Cowell is at least honest.
Cowell was appearing on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast when he gave his thoughts on Bob Dylan – not an artist he seems to be all that familiar with.
“When I heard Bob Dylan’s version of that Adele song, Make You Feel My Love, I didn’t know he wrote the song,” said Cowell, referring to Dylan’s 1997 track that was later covered by Adele and countless X Factor wannabes.
“I think if he’d walked in and sang that version, I’m not gonna lie, I would’ve gone, ‘Forget it.’ Seriously. Because I didn’t even know he wrote the song, when I heard his version, I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I just don’t think that would have been a great audition.”
In autumn 1997, when Dylan released his acclaimed Time Out Of Mind album, which contains Make You Feel My Love, Cowell was probably busy plotting the imminent launch of the boyband Five. He had, undoubtedly, bigger and more important things to worry about than checking out a new album from a songwriter whose best work was three decades behind him.
He continued making his point: “Look, I’m not a fan of Bob Dylan, but if people like him, then they like him, and if you don’t, that’s what I learnt from my career. Everybody has different tastes, whether it’s food, entertainment, or whatever.”
“I’ve got to tell you, if I had ten Dylans in the final of American Idol, we would not be getting 30 million viewers a week,” Cowell added. “I don’t believe the Bob Dylans of this world would make American Idol a better show.”
The idea of Dylan, or someone like him, wandering into an audition for American Idol (or any of Cowell’s talent shows) is a mental image that will probably stay with you for the rest of the day now, is it not? Whether or not it would make it a better show is surely subjective, but it would at least be funny.
