Bettye LaVette has branded Bob Dylan a “motherf*****”.

Bettye LaVette has branded Bob Dylan a ‘motherf*****’

Bettye LaVette has branded Bob Dylan a ‘motherf*****’

The ‘Let me Down Easy’ soul singer, 77, recorded an album of Dylan covers called ‘Things have Changed’ in 2018, which received rave reviews, but she is furious the folk-rock icon “never took the time to say how good it is” despite giving her an unwelcome kiss a few years before it came out.

She raged in an interview with The Daily Telegraph about how he didn’t join the praise for her record: “When you're as big as he is, that can make a huge difference to sales.”

Bettye added his silence over her album was even more infuriating after she ran into him in Spain a few years before its release when he acted as if he worshipped her.

She said about how he kissed her after he was told who she was: “He ran over to me. He put my face in his hands and kissed me square in the mouth.

“I didn’t offer Bob Dylan a kiss and I’m not a f****** fan. I was not looking to be kissed.

“If he thinks I’m good enough to put his mouth on then he should have opened it to say just one good word about my record.”

Bettye is considered one of soul music’s most underappreciated talents.

She was signed to Atlantic Records aged 16, but struggles with the label meant her career stalled while those of her contemporaries Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross took off.

Despite her scoring a hit with ‘Let me Down Easy’ in 1965, Bettye was left fearing she was going to “die in obscurity”.

She said an “aggressive” new manager and three critically acclaimed albums in the 2000s revitalised her career.

It led to her performing at Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009, and in 2012 The New York Times said she was up there with Aretha as her “generation’s most vital” soul singer.

Bettye added about she has few regrets in her left except not having had “Ray Charles’ career”.

The singer, who has just bought out the new album ‘LaVette!’ said: “I’d like to give five, well-attended, highly priced concerts a year. I’d like everyone to be really quiet while I sing for two hours.

“Then I’d like to go home and watch TV.”

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