James Damiano Interview

James Damiano Interview

The interviewer requested to remain anonymous therefore he used a fictitious name Steve

Steve: This is such an amazing situation between you and Bob Dylan?

James: Yeah, to say the least.

Steve: So you filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Bob Dylan?

James: Yes I did.

Steve: It must have been an enormous decision to make. Dylan's a pretty influential person. It seems to me that he would have an enormous amount of clout with the media as well as the court. In fact oh and please don't forget that I requested to remain anonymous since reporting is my livelihood.

James: Yes no I won't forget

Steve: The thing is that I really couldn't resist interviewing you because it's such a fascinating story but I do have to protect myself.

James: Yes of course.

Steve: I sense that you're a man of your word, so I'm not worried.

James: Yes I give you my word that I will not tell or publish your name unless you give me your permission.

Steve: So let's start in the beginning. It's fascinating to me that you actually filed. Like, well being a writer, myself. I can't imagine having the guts to file a copyright infringement suit against Bob Dylan. I mean we're talking about Bob Dylan, the world's most respected songwriter. Seems to me I read somewhere that Springsteen said he idolized Dylan when he was young.

James: Yeah I guess it's safe to say he's the most respected and I did a lot of research to find out if he really was the most respected.

Steve: Oh and what did you find in your research?

James: Well I came across a video of the Beatles who said well Paul said "He was our idol" and Ringo agreed then George said "we played his records constantly over and over again" and Ringo made some reference to John. I think he said that it was John who wanted him to listen to Dylan. So that kind of put everything in perspective for me, and I was comfortable with the definition.

Steve: Of the most respected?

James: Yeah yes, but I was more elaborate in my research of Dylan because I was coming from a different perspective.

Steve: What perspective was that?

James: Well I was coming from a more inside position. I knew things about Dylan that most people didn't know.

Steve: Like what?

James: Like well after working with his entourage for eleven years I knew he had stopped writing. And I knew he needed songs.

Steve: How did you know he needed songs?

James: Well I don't like to say things unless I can prove I said them. I will say that not long after I started working with Dylan's producers did I realized that it was material they needed. Songs.

Steve: What makes you say that.

James: I sensed it. Dylan's producers were the biggest and most influential. The most historic. John Hammond Sr. was influential in the careers so many legendary artists like, well Bruce Springsteen who was signed to Columbia on the recommendation of Mr. Hammond and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Count Basie, and Duke Ellington, Pete Seeger, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Billie Holiday and the list just goes on and on and on.

Steve: So you worked with John Hammond Sr?

James Yes.

Steve: How did you get to work with John Hammond.

James Senior not Junior.

Steve: Yes of course John Hammond Sr. How did you get to work with him?

James: Well I would love to tell you about that but could we stick to where we agreed to start at. I know your asking for a background into the original story which I know you read but there is a much more sinister story here that I'd like to talk about before we go into the original story.

Steve: Sure if you feel more comfortable. What story are you talking about?

James: I'd like to stick on how influential and revered Dylan is. I think there is something to learn there. It's bigger than me working with Dylan. Things I've learned through being involved in a law-suit with Dylan.

Steve: Okay shoot

James: Well I filed the law-suit twenty Four years ago and do you know how many newspapers picked up on the story?

Steve: No, how many?

James: Three. One large newspaper The Daily Register in North Jersey and two small local newspapers. None of them followed up on the story. Don't you find that a little unusual?

Steve: Yes very. Extremely unusual. Bizarre in fact.

James: I had thirty-five hours of video-taped depositions that incriminated Dylan , a musicologist from Harvard supporting the fact that Bob Dylan's Song "Dignity" and my song "Steel Guitars bore the same exact melodic arc, blatant admissions of guilt from Dylan's own witness's, eleven years of correspondence through certified and substantiated documents, letters and certified mail receipts. Dylan had none as in not one piece of evidence he could defend himself with not one. You know you read the book did he have one piece of evidence that he could defend himself with? 

Steve: No not one it was evident he had nothing, and he never contested any of your facts. He never contested you worked with Hammond, he never contested you went backstage to meet with him, he never contested you worked with his producers, He never contested you auditioned for Mr Hammond, in fact his managers testified he gave your material to him.

James: Right on top of all that Dylan never contested any of my facts or evidence, never showed up for any of his subpoenas, never took a deposition, never produced an affidavit of denial and never filed a counter suit civil or criminal against me. Oh, one other thing he also was granted a gag order designating all discovery materials confidential.

Steve: I can't believe only three papers picked up on the story.

James: Well there were a few online articles written, one by Jonny Whiteside and published by the Hollywood Reporter which is distributed by Brietbart News Network.

Steve: Brietbart is a big network.

James: Yeah and that article is archived on Joni Mitchell's website. It's titled Folk Lies. But let me tell you how influential Dylan is. First of all, I emailed every law professor at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School, Georgetown Law School, I mean I emailed them all with the subject line  James Damiano vs. Bob Dylan for Copyright Infringement.

Steve: Wow, and so did any of them contact you?

James: Yeah as a matter of fact some of them did. The ones that did were fascinated with the story and I guess they just wanted to hear the story from the horse's mouth. Actually when you think about it, I've actually talked to some of the most highly respected attorney's in the country. It was funny one of them said to me "look at it this way. 'Have you ever watched a Baseball game on tv'"? I said "yeah" Then he said "Have you ever seen an umpire make, a bad call"? I said "yaeh" Then he said "well think of it as your judge just made a bad call".  I said "yeah right"

Steve: That's hilarious. He wasn't serious was he?

James: I never gave it much thought after that. To me what Dylan did was no different than walking into my house and stealing my guitar. Actually what he did was worse. The songs were worth a million times more than what my guitars were worth.

Steve: Of course. That’s another way of looking at it for sure.

James: Talking about breaking into houses do you want to hear something really bizarre?

Steve: Sure.

James: I had a friend who was an attorney. I was painting his house when one day another friend of mine who was familiar with my songs called me and said "stop what you're doing right now and go get Dylan's new album, your songs are on it" So I ran to the record shop, bought the cassette and popped it into my car stereo. Sure enough my songs were on it. So I called the lawyer who's house I was painting and told him that I have the copyright registrations that I can show him. When he compared the copyrights to Dylan's album he asked “So how did Dylan get them?” I explained that I was and still am working with his producers in New York, Leonia and Beverly Hills. Then he says "You talk to these people? I said "yeah all all the time three or four times a week". He was shocked. and said "you talk to Bob Dylan's producers three times a week?" I said "Yeah" again. So he pauses for a while with this confusing look on his face and then he pulls out this recorder and plugs in a little suction cup microphone and says "okay call one of them". So I did. Then he says to me, “From now on record all your calls with these people.” And that went on for years.

I was in the middle of discovery and I had to make up three copies of recorded telephone conversations between me and people in Dylan's entourage. One tape was for the court, one tape for the Judge, and one tape for the defendants (Dylan's Law Firm). There were eighty telephone conversations so I had to make three hundred and twenty four tapes. I was actually on a deadline and made as many as I could every night but I had a suspicion that things might get a little unscrupulous. Well so I went to work and parked my car in the parking lot and when I went to get back into my car to drive home I realized my car had been broken into. They broke in on the driver side door. I immediately got out and checked the trunk and sure enough the trunk was broken into also. Well what made me realize it was Dylan’s people was it wasn’t just one car it was two. They broke into both of my cars. 

Steve: Come on. Are you kidding?

James: Swear to God. But it doesn’t end there.

Steve: There’s more?

James: Yeah. When I got home I went to unlock the door with my key as I always did and I knew my lock. It was always hard to turn the key. Well that night it was just as easy as could be. Almost like it was a new lock. I didn’t think too much about it at first because I was starving and wanted to eat dinner. After dinner I went over to where the cassette recorder was to make up some more tapes and I realized that the piles of tapes that I had stacked up next to the recorder were gone. I asked my wife “did you put the tapes somewhere”? She replied “No” I put two and two together and sure enough they had broken into my house looking for the originals. 

Steve: Wow. That’s crazy

James: It gets a lot more crazy than that. Believe me.

It was no walk in the park.