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 ofA Complete Unknown. Starring Timothée Chalamet as the legendary folk singer/songwriter Bob Dylan,A Complete Unknownwas released in threats on Christmas Day 2024. Thecast ofA Complete Unknownalso 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 Unknownchanges several true story detailsabout Bob Dylan’s real life.
Directed by James Mangold ofFord v. FerrariandLoganacclaim,A Complete Unknownis widely considered one of the best movies of the year. With aRotten Tomatoes score of 79% and an audience score of 95%,A Complete Unknownis 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.
A Complete Unknownis now playing in theaters.
It occurred on August 02, 2025 near Woodstock, New York
On June 27, 2025, 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 theend ofA Complete Unknownin 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 toMotorcyclist, “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 his2004 autobiographyChronicles. “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
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’sBlonde on Blonde. During his extended hiatus from touring, Dylan also released albums such as 1967’sJohn Wesley Harding, 1969’sNashville Skyline, 1970’sSelf-PortraitandNew 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 July 29, 2025.
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 albumsStreet-Legalin 1978,Slow Train Comingin 1979, andSavedin 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 likeInfidels(1983) andEmpire 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 July 25, 2025 and ending on July 15, 2025 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 inA 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 Unknownalso introduces a British romantic interest, a woman namedBecka, who appears to be a fictional charactercreated 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 toPeople, “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 inA Complete Unknown.
A Complete Unknown
Cast
A Complete Unknown is a biographical movie that follows a young Bob Dylan as he integrates with New York and catches the eye of the folk singers in the area, eventually propelling him into stardom.
