Q&A: Why A's Outfielder Mark Canha Uses Bob Dylan as Walk-up Song

If you've seen Mark Canha hit in Oakland this season, you probably already know that his walk-up song is the Bob Dylan classic, "Like A Rolling Stone."

Canha recently took to Twitter to defend that song choice against criticism from a fan, as NBC Sports California chronicled.

But we decided that wasn't enough to truly get to the bottom of this hard-hitting story. So we went to the source himself to get some background information.

NBC Sports California: So we saw you had to deal with a little walk-up song criticism recently on Twitter. How long have you had "Like A Rolling Stone" as your walk-up song and what went into that decision?

Mark Canha: (Laughing) Just this year. Typically when I pick a walk-up song, it's lasting the whole year. Unless I'm playing horribly. This year has gone pretty well for me, so I'm sticking to it. That was my message to that person. I do get those tweets from time to time of people saying, "Oh I hate Canha's walk-up song," or on the other side, "I love it!" I've gotten a lot of positive reviews and a lot of negative ones as well.

NBC: How can you hate Dylan?

Canha: I know, right? I don't get it. A lot of people want this music that's going to fire them up, and that's not me. Sometimes it is, but when I go up to hit, I want something that's going to get me in the zone and kind of be a background music as opposed to something that's going to make me real excitable.

NBC: Have you always been a Dylan fan?

Canha: Not always. Ever since college. I took a Bob Dylan class in college, an elective course where we basically went in and watched documentaries about Bob Dylan once a week. It was cool. I learned a lot about his life and discovered that I admire this guy a lot. I learned a lot about his career and his personal life. I just thought he was the coolest guy. I think his music is amazing. It's transcendent. It will always be relevant. He's probably the greatest songwriter of all time.

NBC: Do you remember any of your previous walk-up songs from past seasons?

Canha: I had this exact same song my first year in pro ball in Class A Greensboro. That was probably the best season statistically that I've ever had. Probably should've never veered from it! The past few years it's been Beyoncé, it's been G-Eazy -- I'm kind of all over the map. I had Billy Squier one year, "The Stroke." It crosses over all kinds of genres. That's kind of who I am. I like a little bit of everything. It just depends what kind of mood I'm in. I like all kinds of music.