Joan Osborne Kicks Off Tour, Sings Dylan in Saratoga Springs April 10

Exclusive Interview: Osborne Talks Dylan, Dala Lama, The Who and ‘God’ Song 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Joan Osborne’s performing life in Saratoga Springs dates back more than 30 years and includes onstage appearances at everywhere from The Metro to Caffe Lena, and SPAC to the Saratoga Springs City Center. 

On April 10, Osborne will kick-off her new U.S. tour at Universal Preservation Hall, performing the songs of Bob Dylan with her three-piece band.  

“I’ve been to Saratoga a number of times,” Osborne said, during a telephone interview in advance of the start of her tour. “It’s an interesting place because you have the seasonal character – people coming up for the races, to visit the springs – but there’s also this old upstate New York character as well – the beautiful architecture. It’s always an interesting place to go.” 

The songs to be performed at UPH likely will include reimagined works honoring one of America’s greatest musical poets issued in Osborne’s 2017 collection “Songs of Bob Dylan,” some newly reinterpreted tunes slated to drop in late April titled “Dylanology Live,” and potentially some original surprises as well. 

With Dylan’s songs specifically, Osborne says, there is a lot of thought that goes into her reimagination of the works.  “When I cover someone else’s song, I never try to repeat what they did because A – it’s impossible, and B – it’s a waste of time,” she says. “What I’m always looking for is trying to find the place where that song and my voice can come together in a way that some aspect of the song can be new, refreshed, where this song can live through me in a way that’s unique.”  

During her career, Osborne served as co-headliner for the Lilith Fair tour, performed for The Dalai Lama at his monastery in India, played in support of The Who during a multi-night run at Madison Square Garden, and appeared before a massive crowd of 100,000 at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. She has been a featured partner in duets with the likes of many – Luciano Pavarotti, Patti Smith, and Bob Dylan himself, among them.  

Her launch into the mainstream began 30 years ago, nearly to the day, with the release of her major label debut album ‘Relish,’ and more specifically with a song written by Eric Bazilian of the Hooters which gained Osborne worldwide attention.  

The song begins opens an a cappella fragment descending from 1930s Appalachia, followed by seven sultry guitar notes kept time-steady by the tapping of a closed high-hat. The full band then breaks in, celebrating the eruption of a new dawn, followed by Osborne’s haunting voice: 

“If God had a name/ What would it be and/ Would you call it to His face/ If you were faced with Him in/ All His glory/ What would you ask if you had: Just. One Question…” 

The song (What If God Was) “One of Us” fueled the popularity of her debut album ‘Relish’ and secured a multitude of Grammy Award nominations in record, album, vocal and new artist bests. The song asks: What would you do if you came face-to-face with a God living in your everyday? It remains a well-known entity, 30 years later. 

“I feel that if it’s one thing that I’ve got to be known for in the larger world, the song ‘One Of Us’ is a pretty good thing. It’s a pop song, but it’s also talking about matters of faith, so it’s a little bit of a Trojan Horse – you have this pop song with deeper messages in it,” Osborne says. “I’ve felt really good singing it over the years, and that people connect with it. I have gotten letters and emails from church people who talked about using that song to engage the youth in their congregation and to open up discussions. So, I feel it’s been a real blessing to me – if that’s the right word.”   

Some more of our discussion with Joan Osborne, presented in Q&A Format:

Can you talk about performing a special concert in India for The Dalai Lama?

“Dharmasala. That was a pretty crazy episode, and I was incredibly honored to be asked. I traveled to India where we flew on this tiny little plane. Then we were driven way, way up in the mountains, and got out of this rickety bus, stepped into the street and… it was like another world. Everywhere you looked were monks and nuns, burgundy robes and identical shaved heads. It was like stepping into an alternate universe. The show we did was in the monastery that the Dalai Lama had in Dharamsala, the mass majority of people at the concert being the monks and nuns who were in the monastery. The Dalai Lama himself sat cross-legged on this little dais. He’s got this very genial sort of happy demeanor. He sat, just smiling and rocking his body back-and-forth, enjoying the show. Yeah, there was definitely a moment where I was: Is this really happening? It was so out-of-the-realm of what I expected. I got to meet with him the next day and had a very brief audience with him. It was wonderful, to just sit in his presence and talk with him a little bit.”

You also opened for The Who at Madison Square Garden?

“That was pretty awesome, too. They were doing a multi-night stand there, and we did two or three nights. Pete Townshend was a fan of the ‘Relish’ album and came backstage and knocked on the dressing room door. I remember having a conversation with him where we were talking about mechanical noise and how you can sometimes hear music within that mechanical noise. I was talking about a refrigerator I had in my apartment, how the hum of the refrigerator would come on in certain moments and how I would intuit these musical patterns within that. And he was like: ‘Oh yes, that happened to me when I was very young. I was on a boat with my parents and the boat had a motor. I was lying down in the boat looking up at the sky and I could hear all these melodies, this music in the sound of the motor. When we got to the point where we were going, my parents turned the motor off. I jumped up and said: No! Turn it back on! Turn it back on!’ 

This was the conversation I was having with Pete Townshend. Hearing music in the white noise of these mechanical noises.”         

You attended NYU Film School for a while – did seeing things from a visual pe4rspective in that way help you as a songwriter – do the arts all come together for you in that way? 

“I do think that influenced me a lot. The notion of telling a story visually. Especially learning about film editing and the order in which things happen really dictates a lot of the meaning. I think I took a perspective in that for writing lyrics and presenting visual images and taking care in the order in which I presented them as lyrics.” 

How has the landscape changed for the touring Artist since the 1990’s?   

“The landscape of how people listen to music is very, very different since when I started out. My major label record ‘Relish’ came out 30 years ago. Most artists are in the position of having to tour to make a living, and I’m certainly one of those people, but I’m very fortunate, I really enjoy touring and that was my first love – performing live. I started out singing in small clubs in New York City on the Lower East Side and in The Village, so that was my first love, and I still really enjoy it. I feel fortunate and grateful for the audience I have and for the career that I’ve had and that this is how I’m able to make a living, but it’s definitely not a secure position.” 

You meet many different people with many different points of view during your travels across the globe. What is your sense about the state of the country in 2025? 

“I don’t have some overarching philosophy. I can only see it through the lens of my work and my life. I do think that music has an important position, an important job to do in the world right now. The most dangerous thing about that’s happening in our country is the way that we have lost sight of each other as fellow citizens. The way we have demonized each other and been separated and divided into Us vs. Them. I think one of the things that allows us to lay that aside and come together in a physical space within our communities is live music. Everybody’s there just for the enjoyment of this basic human need: hearing the music. I’m not saying that it’s going to change the world, but I do think it’s valuable for us to step out of this Us vs. Them mentality, embrace these moments as a community, and to try and maintain those connections if we can because there are so many trying to destroy them.”       

Joan Osborne: The Music of Bob Dylan will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 10 at Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. For tickets and more information, go to: atuph.org.