By the mid-1960s, songwriter and musician Bob Dylan was interested in performing electric rock music and asked the Hawks to be his backing band. Disheartened by fans' negative response to Dylan's new sound, Helm left the group in the autumn of 1965 for what turned out to be a two-year layoff, being replaced by a range of touring drummers (most notably Mickey Jones) and Manuel, who began to double on the instrument. Following time with his family in Arkansas and subsequent sojourns in Los Angeles (where he experimented with LSD and performed with Bobby Keys), Memphis and New Orleans (exemplified by work on a nearby oil platform), the eventual result was his return to the group in the autumn of 1967.