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 always worth reading and checking out NOW!
The first interview in years . . . . . .
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