The truth about Bob Dylan's reclusive life revealed

London, (ANI): Even though American singer Bob Dylan is very well known as a music legend, and for being one of the most influential songwriters, not much is known about his life behind the scenes. Dylan, 67, who has just become the oldest musician to have a No. 1 album in the UK, when his 'Together Through Life' was released last week, still manages to intrigue many, and following are some of the quirks that made the man.

When on tour, Dylan never stayed at luxury hotel suites and preferred budget accommodation like Travelodges, and his entourage would strip the beds of all linen in the morning, in case his dirty sheets appeared on eBay for sale. Dylan married Sara Lownds in secret on November 1965 in front of just two witnesses. Wanting to keep his life private, he denied being married and was reported to have bundled her into a walk-in wardrobe backstage in Vancouver after hearing two radio announcers were nearby.

He later married his back-up singer Carol Dennis in 1986, but the marriage was kept a secret until 2001, nine years after they divorced. During a show in Belfast in 1991, he ignored the car sent by the promoter and waited at a bus stop instead, and his arrival was captured by the local evening news. In the 90s, when he spoke to fellow songwriter Marshall Crenshaw about joining his band, Dylan advised him to eat chilli peppers every day.

When on tour, Dylan would be cycling around the towns he was playing, and he also revealed that he lived to tour. "A lot of people can't stand touring, but to me it's like breathing. I do it because I'm driven to do it," the Mirror quoted him as having said once.

In 2000, head honchos from Sony Records had been promised a meet-and-greet with Dylan. It kept getting cancelled until the last night of the UK tour at Wembley when he was found in the car park lying under a tour van with his head on a pillow. When reminded he had the meet-and-greet, he replied simply: "Yeah. Why do you think I'm lying here?"

During the 70s and 80s, Dylan's mastiff hounds travelled with him everywhere. When he recently wandered into the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri, unannounced and alone, the curator spotted him and asked if it was really "him". "I guess I am," Dylan said before disappearing. "Being noticed can be a burden," he later said. "Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot," he added.