Patti Smith in the House

It’s no longer a normal workday when Patti Smith stops by the office. The singer-songwriter, visual artist, poet, and best-selling scribe was here today to shoot an interview about Dont Look Back, D. A. Pennebaker’s legendary Bob Dylan documentary, which we’re releasing in November. Smith told us about the huge impact Dylan had on her, even crediting him with teaching her, by example, how to walk and carry herself. Ever since first seeing him perform, with Joan Baez in 1963, Smith says, she’s felt a visceral connection. She also revealed how Dylan’s tour manager Bob Neuwirth, whom she met in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel in 1970, was a crucial figure in her life, championing and encouraging her work and calling her “The Poet.”

On her way out, Smith told us she knows Dont Look Back backward and forward. In an anecdote not captured on camera, she said that once, while in Manchester on tour, she went to the guitar shop featured in the film. In tribute, she bought a guitar there.