Bob Dylan Reveals Details About Upcoming Album, "Tempest"

Columbia RecordsBob Dylan admits that his upcoming studio effort, Tempest, isn't the album he intended to make when he began the project.

"I wanted to make something more religious," he reveals in a new Rolling Stone interview. "I just didn't have enough [religious songs]."

He adds that he wanted Tempest to be made up of "intentionally, specifically religious songs," while lamenting that it "takes a lot more concentration to pull that off…than it does with a record like I ended up with."

The folk-rock legend tells the magazine that what he ended up with is an album where "anything goes and you just gotta believe it will make sense."

Dylan and his touring band recorded Tempest at Jackson Browne's Los Angeles studios with help from Los Lobos' David Hidalgo, who contributed his guitar, accordion and violin talents.

Among the interesting tunes on the 10-song effort is the title track, a 13-plus-minute opus inspired by the Titanic, and influenced by a Carter Family number about the nautical tragedy. Dylan even incorporated Leonardo DiCaprio into the narrative of "Tempest," noting, "I don't think the song would be the same without him. Or the movie."

The album comes to a close with "Roll On, John," which is a tribute to John Lennon.

Tempest will be released on September 11.