Pop sensation Madonna has shared the song which makes her “cry” every time she listens to it.
The Hung Up and Material Girl singer has been influenced by an unlikely musician, who in turn had high praise for Madonna.
Madonna, 67, says she would “cry all the time” listening to the hit song, which is considered by fans of Bob Dylan to be one of his very best songs.
Dylan would praise Madonna for the “sacrifice” she made in making it as a pop sensation, while the Like a Virgin hitmaker would credit Dylan as an inspiration during her adolescence.
Despite crying at Lay, Lady, Lay, Madonna insists it’s “not a sad song”. However, it still had her weeping every time she listened.
She said: “I used to listen to ‘Lay Lady Lay’ in my brother’s bedroom in the basement of our house. I’d lie on the bed and play that song and cry all the time.
“I was going through adolescence, I had hormones raging through my body. Don’t ask me why I was crying, it’s not a sad song. But that’s the only record of [Dylan’s] that I really listened to.”
Dylan, too, would praise Madonna for her work as a performer. The Queen of Pop, who turned 67 on August 16, was praised by Dylan in an interview in the 1990s.
He said at the time: “Madonna’s good, she’s talented, she puts all kinds of stuff together, she’s learned her thing. But it’s the kind of thing which just takes years and years out of your life to be able to do. You gotta sacrifice a whole lot to do that.”
Dylan would even refer to Madonna during a live show in 2013, with the Mr. Tambourine Man hitmaker sharing his fondness for two pop superstars.
During a performance in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dylan said: “I lived here a while back. And since that time, I’ve played all over the world, with all kinds of people – everybody from Mick Jagger to Madonna.”
A separate post to the r/BobDylan subreddit saw fans share their love for both artists, calling them two of the most important in American music history.
One user wrote: “Hard to find more important and influential american musical artists than these two.”