Bob Dylan's Search for Inspiration

In 2009, the Long Branch, N.J., Police Department received a call from a homeowner claiming a hooded, eccentric old man was wandering through his yard.

"We got a call for a suspicious person,'' Officer Kristie Buble later said. "It was pouring rain outside, and I was right around the corner, so I responded. By that time, he was walking down the street. I asked him what he was doing in the neighborhood, and he said he was looking at a house for sale."

"I asked him what his name was, and he said, 'Bob Dylan,'“ Buble added. "Now, I've seen pictures of Bob Dylan from a long time ago, and he didn't look like Bob Dylan to me at all. He was wearing black sweatpants tucked into black rain boots and two raincoats with the hood pulled down over his head.

"So I said, 'O.K., Bob, what are you doing in Long Branch?' He said he was touring the country with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. So now I'm really a little fishy about his story. I did not know what to believe or where he was coming from, or even who he was.”

Buble made “Bob Dylan” get back into her car and drove him to a hotel so he could show her his identification.

Lo and behold, it was Dylan.

So why was Dylan walking in the pouring rain, looking at obscure homes?

Dylan was searching for inspiration, trying to flame his creative juices. The home in question once belonged to legendary singer Bruce Springsteen, who wrote the hit “Born to Run” from the location Dylan was trying to enter.

Dylan believed that being in a famously creative space would allow that creativity to be passed along to him.

It wasn’t the first time Dylan went searching. He had also visited the childhood homes of Neil Young and John Lennon, in both cases appearing without fanfare and barely identifying himself after he was recognized.

Winnipeg homeowner John Kiernan once told Sun Media's Simon Fuller that Dylan and a friend arrived unannounced in a taxi to his Grosvenor Avenue home, where Young grew up.

Dylan has been a creative genius his entire life, writing thousands of songs and recording over 39 albums. Why would he need to be in the home of Lennon, Young or Springsteen to rekindle his creative juices?

Because the “ever-creative” always search for more. They constantly want to fuel their ideas using any method possible.

Dylan was strengthening his creative muscle — never forgetting creativity needs exercise.

John Cleese, the famous Monty Python comedian, believes that for creativity to flourish, two things are needed: time and space. They allow for the subconscious to work its magic.

We must make the time to be creative and have a space to work. We carve out time to exercise and help our bodies — but do we spend time reading or working on our creativity?

We’re not advocating breaking into homes to draw inspiration, but we may want to spend part of our day trying to be more creative.