It was the moment when folk and rock collided and Dylan was called ‘Judas’. Ahead of her show at the Royal Albert Hall, Chan Marshall, AKA Cat Power, explains the uncanny ways the musician has shaped her life
Recently, Chan Marshall was driving to a rehearsal studio in Los Angeles. It was days before she was heading to Europe for a run of dates that includes a night at the Royal Albert Hall, recreating Bob Dylan’s infamous 1966 show: the one where he played electric and a crowd member yelled: “Judas!” As she drove, she listened to the setlist: Visions of Johanna, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, Desolation Row.
Close to the studio, Marshall – AKA Cat Power – glanced in her rear-view mirror and saw her ex-boyfriend in the same line of traffic. “A lane over, two or three cars back, in a fancy car, on his phone,” she says now. It was years since their acrimonious breakup and she had long felt an absence of closure. That day, though, driving in the sunshine, listening to Dylan, she was struck by how little animosity she felt. “I had love and kindness in my heart for this person, which is a really good feeling to have after so long carrying around this ugly shit.”
