Legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan is 71 years old, but that doesn’t mean he plans to retire. The folk rock trailblazer will release a new album, ‘Tempest,’ in September and embark on a fall tour with Mark Knopfler, and he insists the upcoming record is not his last.

Dylan also tells Rolling Stone that ‘Tempest’ turned out very differently than he intended. “I wanted to make something more religious,” he says. “I just didn’t have enough [religious songs]. Intentionally, specifically religious songs is what I wanted to do. That takes a lot more concentration to pull that off 10 times with the same thread – than it does with a record like I ended up with.”

‘Tempest’ turned out to be a dark, brooding album with songs like ‘Tin Angel,’ about a man searching for his lost love, and ‘Pay in Blood,’ which features the cheery refrain, “I pay in blood, but not my own.” The record’s centerpiece is its title track, a 14-minute depiction of the Titanic disaster. Dylan admits the song, featuring references to Leonardo DiCaprio and the iconic ‘Titanic’ movie, isn’t necessarily true to historical fact. “But a songwriter doesn’t care about what’s truthful. What he cares about is what should’ve happened, what could’ve happened. That’s its own kind of truth. It’s like people who read Shakespeare plays, but they never see a Shakespeare play. I think they just use his name.”

Shakespeare titled his final work ‘The Tempest,’ leading Rolling Stone to ask Dylan if the title of his album is intended to signal his own swan song. The iconic musician brushed aside the suggestion, pointing out, “Shakespeare’s last play was called ‘The Tempest.’ It wasn’t called just plain ‘Tempest.’ The name of my record is just plain ‘Tempest.’ It’s two different titles.”

‘Tempest’ is slated for release on Sept. 11.

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