Yes, it's true, according to Mavis Staples: Many years ago, Bob Dylan asked the iconic gospel singer's father for her hand in marriage. Sort of. The way she tells the story, it happened when they were lined up for lunch during a television taping.
"We were in the front of the line and Dylan was at the back," Staples said in a recent interview. "Suddenly we hear, 'Pops, I wanna marry Mavis!' So Pops looks back and says, 'Don't tell me, tell Mavis!' Everybody laughed. But we started talking and we courted for a good while, four or five years. We'd write letters, talk on the phone -- I tried to keep those letters but they got lost when we moved -- and we'd meet at folk festivals. We were childhood sweethearts. He was real cute with his curly hair and I was kinda cute, too. I often wondered what it would be like if we'd gotten married. There'd be a lot of little Dylans and Staples. We'd have us a nice little group going now, yes indeed."