The Revealing Truth About Bob Dylan

These days, Bob Dylan enjoys the kind of stature that not very many musicians can lay claim to but this icon has had plenty of ups and downs over the course of his long career. From his beginnings on the New York folk scene in the '50s and '60s to his rise as a legendary singer, songwriter, poet and actor, here's the untold truth of Bob Dylan.

Not only was the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in August 1969 the iconic cultural event of the Baby Boomer Generation, but it also marked one of the most remarkable gatherings of musical talent in human history. Among the acts who played the farm that magical weekend were The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker... and pretty much every other notable act from your dad's record collection with the notable exception of Bob Dylan.

But that wasn't for lack of trying on the part of Woodstock's organizers. They actually wanted Dylan, and got him to agree to perform. They'd even started to draw up a contract and were finalizing the details when Dylan backed out, just before Woodstock was scheduled to begin. As it turned out, Dylan lived near the site where the concert was scheduled to go down, saw the hordes of hippies amassing there, and promptly canceled. At the time, he claimed his son was sick.

In the late 1980s, "it band" of the era Guns N' Roses brought Bob Dylan's music to a whole new audience with their live cover of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." The song was a big hit and a big deal for Guns N' Roses, because the band didn't often do covers, preferring to instead record their own songs. It actually took the band some persuasion to record Dylan's song, and that push came from Dylan himself. At a 2009 concert, Axl Rose told the crowd:

"Bob asked me, 'When you gonna record 'Heaven's Door'? And I said, 'I don't know, but we really love that song.' Keep watching the video to see the revealing truth about Bob Dylan!

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Snubbing Woodstock | 0:20
Sincere flattery | 1:09
Credentials | 1:59
The Catcher in the Rye | 2:56
Kicked out | 3:58
Down in the Groove | 4:52
The marrying kind | 6:09
Stealing songs | 7:29
What's in a name? | 8:37
Losing faith | 9:56
Renaldo and Clara | 11:14

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