Dylan Says Slavery Still Stains United States

September 12, 2012, 1:00 pm

By PATRICIA COHEN

In a new interview in Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan spoke out about the continuing taint of slavery on the United States, according to The Associated Press. America was “founded on the back of slaves,” Mr. Dylan said. “If slavery had had been given up in a more peaceful way, America would be far ahead today.”

He did not sound optimistic about the current state of race relations in the country, saying people are “at each other's throats just because they are of a different color,” adding that “it will hold any nation back.” Blacks know that some whites “didn't want to give up slavery,” he said.

Asked whether President Obama was improving relations between blacks and white, Mr. Dylan replied: “I don't have any opinion on that. You have to change your heart if you want to change.”

Apparently not in the most cheerful mood, when the interviewer, Mikal Gilmore, asked Mr. Dylan, whose new album, “Tempest,” was released on Tuesday, to respond to people who have criticized him for failing to cite the sources for some of his lyrics, he replied that they “can rot in hell.”