This new edition of "Behind the Shades" has been completely rewritten and substantially enlarged to take account not only of the last decade, but of ten more years of original research by the author. The result is a fully comprehensive and highly illuminating biography. This text follows Bob Dylan along one of the most extraordinary paths taken by any artist in the 20th century: from his Jewish upbringing in Minnesota to the writing of his youthful "protest" masterpieces in New York; from the amazingly creative drug-fuelled mid-60s to the subsequent retreat to Woodstock with his family; from the break-up of his marriage (and the masterly "Blood on the Tracks" that came out of it) to the flirtation with fundamentalist Christianity; and finally to the recent restless years of endless touring. In virtually all areas of Dylan's life - his immigrant antecedents, his business dealings, his various addictions and his romantic attachments - Heylin is able to provide information about the man who changed the whole course of popular music in the 1960s and, over 30 years later, won three Grammys, including best album of 1997. As before, Heylin has given full weight to Dylan's own words and to those of his closest associates. Over 250 people are quoted in the book, and many of them were interviewed especially for this new edition. They help to provide an intricate portrait of a great and complex figure who, for too long has been the subject of myth-making rather than true biography.