Bob Dylan at 85 — The Man, The Myth, The Cigarettes

What a milestone.

The living legend and Nobel Prize winner, Bob Dylan, celebrates his 85th birthday today — Sunday, 24th May 2026.

Bob Dylan, Earls Court, London. June 1978

I first photographed Bob Dylan at Earls Court in London in June 1978. A few weeks later, I met him for the first time backstage at his gig in Paris.

A couple of months later, in September 1978, I found myself touring America as his photographer.

This really was a magical time for me.

Firstly, I had spent most of my short life dreaming about America, and suddenly, there I was, sitting on my suitcase one sunny afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport, waiting to be collected. Secondly, I wasn’t just in America; I was just about to embark on a tour with one of the greatest artists the world has ever known, working as Bob Dylan’s personal photographer.

We started the tour in Augusta, Maine. After a week or two, we arrived in New York City and had a rare day off.

I was sitting in The Plaza Hotel overlooking Central Park with Bob’s legendary publicity guru, Paul Wasserman, when Bob came into the room and casually announced he was going to a club in Greenwich Village called The Bottom Line that evening. There was a singer performing there that he wanted to see. A lady called Joanne Mackell.

We agreed to meet there later that night at around 9 pm.

Now, being young, stupid, and from London’s rather lively East End, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to walk all the way from The Plaza Hotel down to Greenwich Village carrying my large shiny aluminium camera case (which I still have, somewhere).

Not my greatest decision.

New York in 1978 was very different from today. One block could look elegant and wealthy, and the next felt like you’d wandered into a completely different world. As I headed downtown, the atmosphere changed dramatically. Suddenly, there were gangs of young blokes hanging around outside stores and on street corners, all staring at me carrying this expensive-looking camera bag.

Their looks were clearly designed to intimidate me.

I just stared straight back.

I wasn’t remotely frightened. I was young, daft, and probably too stupid to realise I should have been.

Eventually, I arrived at The Bottom Line and met up with Bob and Paul. We watched the performance for an hour or so before heading back uptown together in a taxi.

One thing I vividly remember was how unbelievably rough New York’s roads were at the time. The potholes seemed about six feet deep. The city looked tired, gritty, and run-down.

And I absolutely loved it.

After all, it was my very first time in New York City.

One thing many people perhaps don’t realise about Bob is just how funny he is. He has a wonderfully dry, cheeky sense of humour and was constantly doing impressions or mimicking people.

On the taxi ride back uptown that night, he suddenly started speaking in a Liverpudlian accent for several minutes. I assumed he was doing some sort of Beatles-inspired comedy routine. Here is a photo that I took on Kodachrome with one of my Nikon F2As.

New York, in the late 1970s

Another thing Bob occasionally did on that 1978 tour was use me as a sort of “decoy Dylan.”

Now, I obviously wasn’t actually his double. But I did have long curly hair and, if I pulled my jacket collar up and wore sunglasses, there was apparently enough resemblance for confusion to last a few seconds. Here is a story from about 20 years ago, in Mojo Magazine, describing me as ‘Bob’s Double’.

Usually, there would be fans waiting outside venues or hotels. I’d suddenly run out of one doorway while Bob quietly disappeared through another entrance.

By the time people realised I wasn’t Bob Dylan, he was already safely inside.

If I remember correctly, it was tour manager Dick Curtis who first came up with the idea.

Looking back now, it all seems completely surreal and hilarious.

At the time, it would have been impossible to imagine that nearly four decades later Bob Dylan would become the first songwriter ever awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Mind you, if anyone was ever going to receive it, it was always going to be Bob.

Of course, in typical Dylan fashion, he took quite a while to actually acknowledge the award.

Another story that still makes me laugh happened years later during a meeting Bob had at HBO. One of the executives proudly showed Bob an original Woodstock ticket he had carefully saved for years.

Bob looked at it and simply replied:

“I didn’t play Woodstock.”

Apparently, he then spent most of the rest of the meeting staring out of the window.

Perfect.

The 1978 tour itself was enormous. Huge crews, endless trucks, mountains of equipment and an absolutely massive band.

Backstage, we had various things to keep ourselves entertained, including a table tennis setup. We all played — band members, crew, and occasionally Bob himself.

Something else I gradually discovered was Bob’s love of boxing.

In hindsight, I probably should have guessed, considering his friendships with people like Muhammad Ali and Rubin “Hurricane” Carter.

Bob wasn’t interested in fighting people, but he genuinely enjoyed boxing training and fitness work.

One thing I did notice, however, was that Bob was never very far away from a cigarette.

To be fair, reaching 85 while still touring, performing and looking remarkably good suggests he must have balanced things out somewhere along the line.

Whatever the secret is, it’s clearly working.

To still be active, creative and touring at 85 is extraordinary.

So, happy birthday to one of, if not the greatest, singer-songwriters and performers who has ever lived.

A true original.

A true living legend.

Happy 85th birthday, Bob.