Bob Dylan and Tom Petty's Farm Aid Rehearsals

1985-09-19, Universal Studios, Los Angeles, CA

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Thirty-eight years ago today, Bob Dylan played with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the first time in front of an audience. The audience, though, was just a couple ABC News cameras. The occasion was a rehearsal for their first show together, at the inaugural Farm Aid 1985 (Bob more or less had to show up after his Live Aid comments inspired the whole thing). The Farm Aid appearance was supposed to be a one-off. The Heartbreakers’ Benmont Tench told me how it came out:

When we did Shot of Love, Debbie Gold was Bob's assistant. She was a character, but she was smart. She and I hit it off. Then Mike came in; that was [producer] Chuck Plotkin's idea.

Debbie told me that she had said to Bob, "Well, if you like Ben and Mike, you should try playing with some of the other Heartbreakers." So then when Empire Burlesque came around, the four of us were on parts of that record. So he already knew us.

Anyway, by Farm Aid, Elliot [Roberts] was representing us along with Tony Dimitriades. My understanding is that it's Elliot that finally connected all of the dots. Tom had probably met Bob at some point, but I don't think he had recorded with him. He wasn't on Empire Burlesque like the rest of us. So Elliot or whoever it was, said, "Why don't you do this one-off with Bob?"

Of course, the Dylan-Heartbreakers collaboration did not turn out to be a one-off. We just explored two amazing new 1986 tour tapes over the summer (here and here). Then they did another run in 1987.

But before all that, before even their first proper show together, they rehearsed.

As I mentioned, cameras were rolling. A few clips aired on a 20/20 TV segment the following month. The host sets the scene saying, “Dylan was on an empty motion picture soundstage for a rehearsal that at times turned into a kind of jam session with a popular rock band called Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.”

“A popular rock band”? How out-of-touch was the 20/20 audience that he needed to explain who Tom Petty was? It’s 1985, Petty’s already had “The Waiting” and “Refugee” and “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and “American Girl” etc.

But the cameras captured much more footage than the couple minutes used in that TV special. And it eventually leaked out! The 20 or so minutes of rehearsal footage is extremely fun to watch, and features Bob playing a bunch of covers he never performed on stage alongside a handful of originals.

The full thing (or most of it) is on YouTube, but I broke it up into the individual songs below. Most are partial clips, either because the camera cuts in/out of a song or the band does.

One bit I found that’s not part of that linked YouTube video is the opening instrumental. The uploader probably edited it out because Dylan’s not even playing. But us here, we’re the sort of nuts who will absolutely watch 39 seconds of Bob Dylan smoking and chatting up the Queens of Rhythm (one of them his soon-to-be-wife Carolyn Dennis) while Petty and the Heartbreakers jam behind him.