Bob Dylan was influenced by Leonardo Dicaprio on his new 14-minute epic about the Titanic.

The 'Blowin' in the Wind' singer draws from a wide range of influences for the title track of his new album ,'Tempest' - including the 1997 film starring Leonardo.

Bob told Rolling Stone magazine: ''Yeah, Leo. I don't think the song would be the same without him. Or the movie.''

Speaking about the song, he added: ''People are going to say, 'Well, it's not very truthful.' 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.''

The singer recorded his 'Tempest' album with his live band and Los Lobos' musician David Hidalgo, with the final result much different to how he had planned.

He said: ''I wanted to make something more religious. 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.''

Bob, 71, also denied the album will be his last, as speculated by some fans who pointed out Shakespeare's last play was called 'The Tempest'.

He added: ''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.''