Excellent chalmers! 
In the early 1960s Bob Dylan visited Woody Guthrie - he was suffering from Huntington's Disease, a genetic disorder - in the Brooklyn State Hospital. Dylan idolized Guthrie, calling him his hero. Soon after learning of Guthrie's whereabouts, many new, young folk singers regularly visited him during the final years of his life, playing his own songs for him as well as their originals. Guthrie died of complications of Huntington's disease in 1967. By the time of his death, his work had been discovered by a new audience, introduced to them in part through Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, his ex-wife Marjorie and other new members of the folk revival, and his son Arlo Guthrie.
Woody Guthrie was the biggest influence on Dylan's early performances. He would later say of Guthrie's work, "You could listen to his songs and actually learn how to live."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie

"Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord ..." L.Cohen