Bob Dylan on the Age of Majority

In Bob Dylan’s recent autobiography, he wrote about his contract with Columbia Records:

[Al] Grossman was the biggest manager around Greenwhich Village. He had seen me around before but had paid melittle mind. After my first record on Columbiahad been released, there was a noticeable shift on his part to representme. I welcomed the opportunity becauseGrossman had a stable of clients and was getting all of them work. When he began to represent me, the firstthing he wanted to do was get me out of my Columbia Records contract. I thought that this was screwingaround. Grossman informed me that I hadbeen under twenty-one when I’d signed the contract, therefore I had been a minor,making the contract null and void . . . that I should go up to the Columbiaoffices and talk to John Hammond and tell him that my contract was illegal andthat Grossman would be coming up to negotiate another one. Sure. I went up to see Mr. Hammond, but I had no intention of doing that. Not if I had been offered a fortune would Ihave done it. Hammond had believed in meand had backed up his belief, had given me my first start on the world’s stage,and no one, not even Grossman had anything to do with that.

Chronicles, Vol. 1, at 289 (Simon & Schuster 2004).

[Meredith R. Miller]