Jakob Dylan The very talented Jakob Dylan is known as the lead singer, frontman, and songwriter for the popular rock band The Wallflowers—which currently includes band members Rami Jaffee, Fred Eltringham, and Greg Richling. He’s also known for being the son of legendary musician Bob Dylan and Bob’s ex-wife Sara Dylan, who used to be a fashion model and Playboy bunny. Jakob Dylan was born in New York City on December 9, 1969, the youngest of four children born to Bob Dylan and Sara. Jesse Dylan, Jakob’s older brother, is a noted film director, whose credits include American Pie (2003), starring Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, and Eugene Levy; and Kicking & Screaming (2005), starring Will Ferrell and Robert Duvall.
Jakob got started with The Wallflowers, which hails from Los Angeles, California, in the early 1990s, when he was in his early twenties. In its beginnings, the band signed on with Virgin Records, through which it released its self-titled debut album in 1992, which fared poorly. Consequently, they lost their contract with Virgin and had to regroup. After some band member transitions—although Dylan has fronted the band since its inception—and a major tour with famous bands The Spin Doctors, 10,000 Maniacs, Cracker, and Toad The Wet Sprocket, Dylan and The Wallflowers signed on with Interscope, which led to the release of their follow-up album in 1996, Bringing Down the Horse, produced by T-Bone Burnett, and with the help of Michael Penn, Adam Duritz, Mike Campbell, and Sam Phillips. This album did much better, selling millions of copies and winning two Grammy Awards. The Wallflowers’ subsequent album releases are (Breach), in 2000, Red Letter Days in 2002, and Rebel, Sweetheart in 2005. Former Wallflower band members include Mario Calire, Barrie Maguire, Peter Yanowitz, Tobi Miller, and Michael Ward. The future of The Wallflowers is actually currently up in the air, since their contract with Interscope ended in 2005. Dylan, however, recently signed a recording contract with Columbia Records for himself.
In 1992, the same year The Wallflowers released their debut album, Dylan married actress Paige Dylan (formerly Nicole Paige Denny), with whom he has three sons, born in 1994, 1998, and 2000. Dylan is also notorious for requesting no mention of famous dad Bob Dylan during interviews for reasons that reportedly have nothing to do with family relations but everything to do with Dylan’s desire to make his own way in music and show business without relying on daddy’s namesake. The pair—Jakob Dylan and Bob Dylan—have so far only performed together once, at a gig for Applied Materials, the world’s largest semiconductor supplier company. YUDDY |
