Suze Rotolo Was Bob Dylan's First Big Muse

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s legacy and engimatic persona is the subject of James Mangold’s biopic, A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob himself. However, another character named Sylvia Russo, portrayed by Elle Fanning, becomes a significant part of Bob’s early years. Throughout the film, Bob reckons with his relationship with Sylvie. In reality, however, there is no Sylvie; but there is a Suze Rotolo.

Suze Rotolo was the real name of the woman who inspired Sylvie’s character, and her reputation was tied to Bob’s persona before she died in 2011. While Suze spent nearly her entire life trying to leave the shadow of Bob’s fame, she was able to live a seemingly pleasant and private life after her relationship with Bob.

Perhaps three years isn’t considered a short relationship in 2024, but for how significant Bob’s relationship with Suze was to Bob’s artistry and legacy, it’s surprising that it didn’t last longer. It could be due to their youth when they met — Suze was just 18 years old while Bob was 20. After Suze’s dad unexpectedly died in 1958, her mother took up drinking, and Suze started spending more and more time in the artists' scene of Greenwich Village.

Suze’s sister, Carla, was working as an assistant to folklorist Alan Lomax and actually introduced Suze to Bob at a Riverside Church folk concert in July 1961. Immediately, Bob was taken with Suze, who he wrote about fondly in his memoir, Chronicles, Volume One: “Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blood Italian.

“The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard ... Meeting her was like stepping into the tales of 1001 Arabian Nights. She had a smile that could light up a street full of people and was extremely lively, had a kind of voluptuousness—a Rodin sculpture come to life.”

The couple quickly moved in together in 1962, much to the chagrin of Suze’s family, who encouraged her to explore her own path. This led Suze to travel to her ancestral homeland of Italy for six months to study art at the University of Perugia. While she left New York to focus on herself, she was, in part, also looking to distance herself from Bob’s growing fame.

“Bob was charismatic: he was a beacon, a lighthouse, he was also a black hole,” Suze wrote in her memoir, A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties. “He required committed backup and protection I was unable to provide consistently, probably because I needed them myself ... I could no longer cope with all the pressure, gossip, truth and lies that living with Bob entailed. I was unable to find solid ground. I was on quicksand and very vulnerable.”

Even still, their on-again-off-again relationship was considered one of Bob’s greatest inspirations. Suze introduced him to the leftiest politics he’s so well-known for in his lyrics, in addition to writers like Bertolt Brecht and Arthur Rimbaud. She was also the muse for some of his greatest love songs, such as “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” and “Boots of Spanish Leather.”

Most famously, perhaps, she’s the woman on Bob’s iconic 1963 album cover for "The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan," the same album that catapulted him to stardom. But their intense love affair couldn’t last forever, as both Bob and Suze were strong-willed people who needed their own support systems. Suze got pregnant in 1963, but had an abortion. After Bob’s affair with Joan Baez, they officially ended things in 1964.

While the whole world knows about Bob’s relationship with Suze, her real identity is replaced with a character named Sylvie Russo. Many have speculated why the filmmakers made the change, with some suggesting that Suze’s family didn’t consent to her true identity being used. Throughout Suze’s life, she has respected her and Bob’s privacy, interviewing rarely, and proving her own artistic and literary prowess separate from Bob. It’s possible her family wanted to respect that.

Alternatively, while Sylvie has the most in common with Suze, she could be a composite of several of Bob’s relationships in his early years. But whatever the reason, not even a film can capture the explosive love affair between Bob and Suze.