Interview: Colin Linden and his Life with Legends
Some people just know what they want to do from a very young age – Colin Linden is one of those fellas. Born in 
Toronto, ON, in 1960, Linden began his career as a performing musician at the age of 12. During this time he took to coffeehouse and folk festival stages, and it took but three years from there to gain radio and television exposure.
Flash forward to now, and Linden is a celebrated, roots, rock, and blues singer/songwriter that plays a prominent role with the award-winning folk-rock trio Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. He’s also shared stages and recording spaces with some of music’s biggest figures.
Earlier this year, we spoke with Linden about BARK’s new album South, but also asked him about his experiences with the likes of Robert Plant, The Band, Bruce Cockburn, and Bob Dylan.
Here is what Linden had to say:
Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin)
“Well, I didn’t work with him very much, as I just played on a few songs [of his] on a record that didn’t come out. A follow-up was being made to the Robert Plant & Alison Krause album Raising Sand, but then was not taken any further. However, my favourite part about working with him was sitting in the lounge of the studio just playing the songs – me on guitar, and him singing. He’s an incredible singer. He’s really, truly one of the greatest, most unique voices you could ever imagine.”
The Band
“Those guys were like family to me. I loved their music so much when I was coming up – I always related to it so much because it had everything I love about blues, folk, country, rock n’ roll. The singing was so unique; the playing was so beautiful; and it was so rough and eloquent at the same time. When I met them, they treated me like family. I felt like I really was in a place where I belonged. I’m still in touch with Garth [Hudson], but I miss Rick [Danko], Levon Helm, and of course Richard Bell who played with them for the last nine years. He was one of my best friends, and played with Blackie and the Rodeo Kings too. They gave so much to us and [playing with them] was one of the two biggest honours of my musical life.”
Bruce Cockburn
“Bruce is as good as it gets. He’s someone I have known since I was a little kid…I used to go see him as a fan. It’s an unbelievable honour to have gotten to play with him and hopefully continue to work with him. He’s someone very dear to me as a friend; a spectacular guitarist; and really the quintessential artist. He’s never given up in terms of his own focus; his own intensity; and his own integrity. He continues to develop and get great. He’s really incomparable.”
Bob Dylan
“If you had asked me up until July 15 of 2013 what I want to do more than anything else in my musical life, it was to play with him. It was absolutely incredible to play with him, and he is the greatest artist of our lifetime…in my opinion. Every single night, he was incredibly musical and very, very focused on making the music good. He was engaged; and he was warm; and he’s great.
“The only thing I thought about when playing with him…was that he was completely incomparable, and in my imagination, I thought this is what it must’ve been like for people to play with Louis Armstrong. [Dylan’s] sense of musicality and his sense of phrasing…everybody knows that he created what we consider to be the modern singer/songwriter and that for over 50 years, you can take any small percentage of what he did, and adjudicate it on its own merit, and it’ll stand higher than everybody else.
“Completely aside from that, he’s a sensational musician and a sensational singer. Every second I was up there with him, I felt like I was playing with the greatest artist of my lifetime.”
-Adam Grant
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