Dylan, Petty, and Knopfler Rock 'Em Dead
1986-02-10, Entertainment Center, Sydney, Australia
After two shaky shows in New Zealand—and a few days off to record the newly-written “Band of the Hand,” the Dylan/Petty tour begins its lengthy run in Australia.
The afternoon of opening night, Dylan went to artist Brett Whiteley’s studio to hold a press conference. The event was rich with insight:
That seems harsh. You can watch a video of it on YouTube. Dylan’s answers are short, but he does answer, and mostly without the combative tone of the infamous mid-’60s press conferences. He laughs about how awkward he looks in music videos, dodges political questions, and claims he doesn’t remember recording “We Are the World.” He jokes (maybe) that he only came to Australia “because of the money,” and, when asked what Bob Dylan thinks about Bob Dylan, responds, “Bob Dylan doesn’t ever think about Bob Dylan.”
In a meta moment, he even addresses those hostile ’60s press interviews directly:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Flagging Down the Double E's to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.