Watch Bob Dylan Play Surprise Set With The Heartbreakers At Farm Aid
Bob Dylan played a surprise set at Farm Aid on Saturday night. Dylan took the stage a little after 10PM, accompanied by three members of former tourmates the Heartbreakers — Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, and Steve Ferrone — and members of the Dirty Knobs. Dylan, notably, played guitar — he almost always plays piano on-stage nowadays — and he ran through three tracks with the band: “Maggie’s Farm” (for the first time since 2009), “Positively 4th Street” (first time since 2013), and “Ballad Of A Thin Man.”
It was Dylan’s first in-person appearance at the benefit concert since its inaugural year in 1985. (Dylan joined via satellite link the following year, as well.) Dylan planted the seed for Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young to start Farm Aid after the comments he made during the 1985 Live Aid concert asking why someone couldn’t throw a similar event for farmers in the US.
Watch video of the Dylan set below.
Sturgill Simpson also made a surprise appearance, his second concert performance in two years, joining both Margo Price and Bob Weir And Wolf Bros with Lukas Nelson. He did his own “Life Of Sin,” Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” and two Margo Price songs with the former; “Truckin’” and “Dark Star” with the latter; and the Crickets’ “Not Fade Away” with both Weir and Price. Here’s video:
This year’s Farm Aid also had performances from Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds.