What Happened To Bob Dylan After A Complete Unknown

WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for A Complete Unknown.

Bob Dylan went on to create more music after a nearly decade-long break from touring following the events of A Complete Unknown. Starring Timothée Chalamet as the legendary folk singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown was released in threats on Christmas Day 2024. The cast of A Complete Unknown also features Elle Fanning, Edward Norton, Monica Barbaro, Dan Fogler, and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash. While the film is a biopic of the icon’s rise to fame, A Complete Unknown changes several true story details about Bob Dylan’s real life.

Directed by James Mangold of Ford v. Ferrari and Logan acclaim, A Complete Unknown is widely considered one of the best movies of the year. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 79% and an audience score of 95%, A Complete Unknown is already in the running for several awards, including three Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor for Chalamet, and Best Supporting Actor for Norton. The biopic follows Bob Dylan’s early years when he first arrives in New York and quickly becomes a local legend through the help of Pete Seeger. It also highlights Dylan’s relationship with Sylvie Russo and fellow singer/songwriter Joan Baez.

Bob Dylan Had A Motorcycle Accident & Stopped Touring For 8 Years

It occurred on July 29, 1966 near Woodstock, New York

On July 29, 1966, Bob Dylan got into a motorcycle accident, which led to him not touring for the better part of the next decade. It gives a new meaning to the end of A Complete Unknown in which Dylan is speeding away from the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. One year later, Dylan got into an accident while riding his motorcycle near Woodstock, New York, which occurred just two months after the conclusion of his 1966 World Tour. While the events of the motorcycle accident remain mysterious and uncertain, since Dylan didn’t go to the hospital, Dylan has revealed that he broke a few vertebrae in his neck.

According to Motorcyclist, “No hospital records have ever been procured relating to the incident, and no one remembers an ambulance carting off the Tambourine Man. At least one alleged witness has claimed that Dylan-apparently not very skilled behind the handlebars-had a simple, low-speed get-off that required a trip to the doctor’s office, nothing more.” Dylan commented on the mysterious motorcycle accident in his 2004 autobiography Chronicles. “I had been in a motorcycle accident and I’d been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race.”

Bob Dylan Returned To Touring In 1974 After Years Of Still Making Music

Dylan hit the road once again in 1974 with The Band

Following his motorcycle accident, Dylan remained largely out of the spotlight tour-wise but continued to make music and release albums. Dylan released what is arguably his most celebrated album, Highway 61 Revisited, in August 1965 before going on to release another instant classic, 1966’s Blonde on Blonde. During his extended hiatus from touring, Dylan also released albums such as 1967’s John Wesley Harding, 1969’s Nashville Skyline, 1970’s Self-Portrait and New Morning. Dylan hit the road once again in 1974 with the Bob Dylan and The Band Tour, which consisted of 40 shows from January 3 to February 14, 1974.

Bob Dylan Converted To Christianity & Made Gospel Music In The Late 1970s

He made a three album run of Christian music

After Dylan had gotten back in the touring saddle with 1975-76’s Rolling Thunder Revue Tour and 1978’s World Tour, his career and musical interests took a turn when he became interested in Christianity and gospel music. Dylan released the albums Street-Legal in 1978, Slow Train Coming in 1979, and Saved in 1980, which featured Chirstian-oriented songs such as “When He Returns” and “I Believe In You”. He took these albums on his Gospel Tour in ’79 and 1980, which did not receive a positive reception from critics and the majority of his fans. Dylan’s Christianity/gospel era was short-lived, as he returned to making rock throughout the 1980s with albums like Infidels (1983) and Empire Burlesque (1985).

Bob Dylan Was Elected Into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame In 1988

Bruce Springsteen inducted Dylan

After getting his start in the 1960s and controversially switching from a folk hero to a rock icon, Bob Dylan was finally inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988. Bruce Springsteen inducted Dylan at the ceremony by recalling his first experience listening to Bob Dylan and rushing to the local record store to grab a 45 vinyl of “Like A Rolling Stone.” Bruce recalled during his speech that, “I knew I was listening to the toughest voice I’d ever heard.” The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said this of Dylan: “Bob Dylan is one of the greatest songwriters of all time, a gifted wordsmith with a political conscience, incisive storytelling abilities and a poet-like acumen for meter and language.”

Bob Dylan Started The Never Ending Tour

It eventually did end in 2019

Dylan started the 1980s making Christian gospel records and was on tour with the Grateful Dead by 1987. He then kicked off his Never Ending Tour soon after with the first leg starting in 1988, the same year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since 1988, Dylan continued the Never Ending Tour until 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Never Ending Tour was scheduled to continue in 2020, beginning in Tokyo, Japan on April 1, 2020 and ending on July 14, 2020 in Rochester, New York, but was canceled for obvious reasons. Dylan went back on tour in 2024 with his Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways Worldwide Tour, which ran for a few weeks in March in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Who Bob Dylan Married

He was married and divorced twice

Dylan, who is currently 83 years old, was married and divorced twice in his life and is currently not married. Despite his passionate relationship with Sylvie Russo, played by Fanning in A Complete Unknown, and his love-hate-fueled fling with Joan Baez, played by Barbaro, he did not end up marrying either of them. A Complete Unknown also introduces a British romantic interest, a woman named Becka, who appears to be a fictional character created for the movie.

Dylan’s first wife was Sara Dylan, who was born Shirley Noznisky from Delaware. Sara and Bob married quietly in 1965 while Sara was already pregnant with her first child with Bob, Jesse. According to People, “Sara and Bob went on to welcome three more children together — Anna, Sam and Jakob — in four years, living a quiet life together in Woodstock, N.Y.” They divorced in 1977. Dylan got married to Carolyn Dennis in 1986 and had one child with her, Desiree Dennis-Dylan​​​​​​, before they divorced in 1992. Dylan and Sally Kirkland also dated briefly in the early 1970s, which is not portrayed in A Complete Unknown.