On Sunday, September 24, music lovers clicking onto Twitter-X woke up to a happy gift, discovering that the legendary Bob Dylan appeared the night before for a surprise set with his late friend Tom Petty’s band The Heartbreakers. The setting was Farm Aid 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana, where they tore through three of Dylan’s monumental classics in a searing 16-minute set.
With Dylan centerstage on guitar–which he’s rarely played live for the better part of a decade–and in fine voice, the band appropriately opened with a swampy Creedence-esque version of his classic “Maggie’s Farm,” then followed with a killer version of “Positively 4th Street” and the eerie sonic tapestry “Ballad of a Thin Man.” These songs are themselves treats for us all, as Dylan hasn’t performed them much on his Neverending Tour in recent years.
And the firsts keep coming. The Farm Aid appearance marks the first time Dylan’s appeared with the Heartbreakers since 1986’s True Confessions tour, and also the first time the Heartbreakers have played together as a band since Tom Petty’s tragic death in 2017.
It really doesn’t get any better.
You can watch the entire historic set at the top of the page.
