Bob Dylan Made a ‘Crass’ and ‘Stupid’ Comment to the Audience at Live Aid

In 1985, Bob Dylan joined a number of other musicians who played Live Aid. The benefit concert, organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, aimed to raise relief funds for famine in Ethiopia. In the middle of his set, though, Dylan made a comment that rubbed Geldof the wrong way. He described it as “crass,” but it inspired another benefit concert.  

Bob Dylan played Live Aid in 1985

Live Aid began in London and was continued in Philadelphia. The musicians in the superconcert included Elton John, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Madonna, David Bowie, and the Beach Boys. 

Dylan played the Philadelphia show with The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood. He broke a guitar string in the middle of the performance, and Wood gave Dylan his own guitar. 

“Fun? No, we couldn’t hear anything,” Dylan said after his performance, per Rolling Stone. “We had fun rehearsing.”

Bob Dylan made a comment that Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof did not like

Geldof had been looking forward to Dylan’s performance but found it lackluster.

“For me the biggest disappointment of the evening was Dylan,” Geldof wrote in his book Is That It?. “He sang three of his classics, including ‘Blowing in the Wind,’ which ought to have been one of the greatest moments of the concert. Unfortunately, the performance was catastrophic. He had met Keith Richard and Ronnie Wood in a night club in New York the night before and they had offered to back him. So, there they were — pop music’s seminal songwriter and the world’s greatest rhythm guitarist and his partner. But they were out of time, they couldn’t stay in tune and they seemed to treat the song with disdain.”

In the middle of his Live Aid performance, Dylan addressed the audience about the money raised by the event.

“I hope that some of the money … maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe … one or two million, maybe … and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms,” he said, per Rolling Stone.

Geldof was even more unhappy with Dylan’s comments to the crowd.

“Then he displayed a complete lack of understanding of the issues raised by Live Aid by saying unforgivably, ‘It would be nice if some of this money went to the American farmers.’ Something so simplistic and crowd-pleasing was beyond belief,” Geldof said. “Live Aid was about people losing their lives. There is a radical difference between losing your livelihood and losing your life. It did instigate Farm Aid, which was a good thing in itself, but it was a crass, stupid and nationalistic thing to say. It was to have been the finale, but thank God Ken Kragen had persuaded Lionel Ritchie to come and sing ‘We are the World.’ Dylan left the stage and as he walked by his manager, he just looked up at him and said ‘sorry.'”

He later performed at Farm Aid

Dylan’s comments didn’t land well at Live Aid, but they did inspire Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young to organize Farm Aid. The concert, in Champagne, Illinois, raised millions for American family farmers. 

Because Dylan’s comments inspired the concert, he played a set backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.