\u2018Sun City\u2019 (1985)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"American](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-sun-city.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Dave Hogan\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tJust a few months after \u201cWe Are The World,\u201d Steve Van Zandt assembled another large crew of famous musicians for a song. Their task this time wasn\u2019t raising money, but convincing musicians to stop playing concerts at the South African resort Sun City. This should have been a no-brainer since this was the peak of apartheid, but everyone from Queen and Elton John to Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, and Cher had appeared there in recent years. The song and video features cameos from Lou Reed, Bono, Hall & Oates, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Herbie Hancock, Pete Townshend, Clarence Clemons, Bob Dylan, and many, many others. Dylan\u2019s appearance comes at the halfway point when he walks down the street with Jackson Browne and sing a few lines of the song with him. It would have been great to see him interact with the Fat Boys, Afrika Bambaataa, and Kurtis Blow, but we\u2019ll take what we can get.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
\nKurtis Blow\u2019s \u2018Street Rock\u2019 (1986)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"American](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
![\"American](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-kurtis-blow.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Vinnie Zuffante\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIf you wanted Bob Dylan to do something strange and out of character, the mid-1980s was the best time to ask. For whatever reason, this was a time when he was willing to do lots of interviews, even on television, guest on charity singles, do a choreographed dance move in one of his music videos, or star in a truly awful Rupert Everett movie. He also recorded this rapid-fire rap at the kickoff to Kurt Blow\u2019s 1987 single \u201cStreet Rock.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve indulged in higher knowledge,\u201d he raps, \u201ctook scan of encyclopedia\/Keeping constant research of our reports in news media\/Kids starve in Ethiopia and we are gettin\u2019 greedier\/The rich are gettin\u2019 richer and the needy\u2019s gettin\u2019 needier.\u201d He agreed to do it because he borrowed some of Blow\u2019s backup singers for a recording session. And in Chronicles, Volume 1<\/em>, Dylan said Blow made him a fan of N.W.A., Run DMC, and Public Enemy. \u201cThese guys weren\u2019t standing around bullshitting,\u201d said Dylan. \u201cThey were beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs. They were all poets and knew what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nThe 25th Anniversary Chabad Telethon (1989)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"American](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-chabad.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Gary Gershoff\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tAccording to the typical narrative, Bob Dylan walked away from Judaism forever in the late Seventies when he embraced Jesus Christ and became a passionate Born Again Christian The truth is significantly more complicated, and the exact timeline is unknown, but he definitely returned to his Jewish roots in the early Eighties. If you need any visual proof of this, check out the numerous appearances he made on Chabad telethons in the Eighties and early Nineties. The 1989 one is especially memorable since he sings \u201cHava Nagila\u201d with actor Harry Dean Stanton and folk singer Peter Himmelman, who happens to be his son-in-law. It\u2019s so weird it almost looks like an AI video, but it\u2019s real. This happened. (And what are Dylan\u2019s religious beliefs today? Nobody knows, but it\u2019s likely some unique fusion of Judaism and Christianity.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
\nDennis Hopper\u2019s \u2018Catchfire\u2019 (1990)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Dennis](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-catchfire.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tBy nearly any standard, the 1990 Dennis Hopper\/Jodie Foster movie Catchfire<\/em> is terrible. The thin plot revolves around a visual artist (Foster) who witnesses a mob hit and has to flee for her life. The only thing even remotely notable about it \u2013 beyond the fact that Foster\u2019s next movie was Silence of the Lambs<\/em> and Joe Pesci shot a quick scene the same year he made Goodfellas<\/em> \u2013 is the fact that Hopper talked his longtime buddy Bob Dylan into filming a cameo. He\u2019s creating a chainsaw statue during his brief scene, and his speaking voice is so mumbly that he\u2019s essentially incoherent. (It makes renditions of \u201cDesolation Row\u201d circa 2013 clear and lucid by comparison.) The whole movie is so abysmal it makes Masked and Anonymous<\/em> look like Casablanca<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nWyclef Jean\u2019s \u2018Gone till November\u2019 video (1997)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Wyclef](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-wyclef.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tWhen Wyclef Jean was lining up possible cameos for the video to his 1997 song \u201cGone till November,\u201d he thought about reaching out to Bob Dylan. \u201cNo one really thought he would come,\u201d Jean told the Herald-Tribune<\/em> in 2018.<\/a> \u201cI remember people chastising me like, \u201cMan, he don\u2019t even show up for his son\u2019s videos, so he\u2019s definitely not coming to your video.’\u201d But he showed up for a 15-second cameo seated next to Jean in an airport as Wyclef sings \u201cI\u2019m knockin\u2019 on heaven\u2019s door like I\u2019m Bob Dylan.\u201d \u201cThe only person he\u2019d talk to on the set was me,\u201d said Wyclef, \u2018and he said, \u201cMan, you\u2019re such a cool cat, you remind me of my bass player that I played with.\u2019 And it\u2019s so funny he said that because one of my first instruments is bass, so it\u2019s just crazy to me, like certain things that happen are just cosmic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Dharma and Greg\u2019 (1999)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"UNSPECIFIED](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-dharma-and-greg.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Keith Baugh\/Redferns\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIn the world of Nineties sitcoms, Dharma & Greg<\/em> is about as unmemorable as Caroline In The City<\/em>, Veronica\u2019s Closet<\/em>, and Wings<\/em>. Millions of people watched it back then since there wasn\u2019t much else on TV, but we\u2019d be willing to bet only a fraction of them could recall even the most premise today. (It starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as a two polar opposites who impulsively married each other on their first date. There were 119 episodes across five seasons.) Its greatest claim to fame today is the October 12, 1999, episode Play Lady Play<\/em> where Dharma plays drums in a friend\u2019s teenage garage band. At the end, Bob Dylan appears out out nowhere to jam with her alongside T-Bone Burnett and other veteran musicians. It\u2019s fantastically surreal, and it likely only happened because Dylan\u2019s longtime buddy Eddie Gorodetsky was one of the writers. Friends<\/em> and Seinfeld<\/em> are watched and referenced roughly ten zillion more times today than Dharma and Greg<\/em>. But then again, neither of those shows has a Bob Dylan cameo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nA Victoria\u2019s Secret Commercial (2004)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"LONDON](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-VS-2004.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Dave Hogan\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIt\u2019s tough being Bob Dylan. Sometimes you have to fly to Venice, hang out with Victoria\u2019s Secret model Adriana Lima as she showcases the store\u2019s newest underwear collection, and then accept millions of dollars for the inconvenience. Some fans were stunned when Dylan appeared in this ad, even though he allowed a Canadian bank to use \u201cThe Times They Are a-Changin’\u201d in a 1996 commercial. But he telegraphed the move back in 1965 when he joked to a reporter that he\u2019d let his music appear in an ad for \u201cladies garments.\u201d It took 39 years, but the prophecy came true. And when Rolling Stone<\/em> questioned Dylan about the move in December 2004, he was typically flippant. \u201cWas I not supposed to do that?\u201d he asked. \u201cI wish I would have seen it. Maybe I\u2019d have something to say about it. I don\u2019t see that kind of stuff. That\u2019s all for other people to see and make up what they will.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nGene Simmons\u2019 \u2018Waiting for the Morning Light\u2019 (2004)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"NEW](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-gene-simmons.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Matthew Peyton\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tAt some point in nearly every interview with Gene Simmons, he mentions that he wrote a song with Bob Dylan. It sounds like a braggadocios fantasy, but this actually took place in 1991. It started with the KISS frontman simply calling Dylan\u2019s manager and asking if there was any chance he\u2019d be down for a songwriting collaboration. \u201cAnd all of a sudden within two days, an unmarked van shows up at my house,\u201d Simmons said, \u201cand Bob gets out with an acoustic guitar in his hand, and tells his driver, \u2018I\u2019ll see you at the end of the day,\u2019 comes up, and we start strumming. I mean, it was just like that.\u201d Simmons broke down how they worked together in an interview with Billboard<\/em>.<\/a> \u201cBob came up with the chords, most of them, and then I took it and wrote lyrics, melody, the rest of it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe understood each other right away. He picked up an acoustic guitar, and we just tossed it back and forth, \u2018How \u2019bout this, how \u2019bout that?\u2019\u2019 They called their song \u201cWaiting for the Morning Light,\u201d and it finally came out in 2004 on Simmon\u2019s solo LP Asshole.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Pawn Stars\u2019 (2010)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Pawn](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-pawn-stars.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIn the real world, getting anywhere near Bob Dylan when he comes to town is simply impossible. In the magical world of Pawn Stars,<\/em> all it takes is walking up to his bus tour with a vinyl copy of Self Portrait<\/em> and asking for an autograph. Our bullshit detector went into overdrive when Pawn Stars<\/em> star Chumlee pulled off this feat on the History Channel program. And when we called Chumlee up later that week,<\/a> he stuck to the official story. \u201cI found out he didn\u2019t do that, so I scouted the grounds for about four hours,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was shocked, but he signed the album for me. We talked for a minute and I told him I was a big fan of his work and my boss Rick would be really psyched if I got his autograph.\u201d This was almost certainly a setup, especially since Rick appraises an unsigned Self Portrait <\/em>at $50 when it\u2019s worth a fraction of that. But staged or not, Dylan did indeed appear on an episode of Pawn Stars.<\/em> (We await the day that Chumlee reveals the real story of how this happened.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nCommercials for the Cadillac Escalade and Chrysler (2007, 2014)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"Cadillac](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/bob-dylan-chrysler.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tAn underwear commercial with Adriana Lima was one thing. But a vocal contigent of Dylan fans flinched when he appeared in a 2007 commercial for the Cadillac Escalade,<\/a> and then flinched again in 2014 when he shot another one for Chrysler. In both ads, he provided the narration (\u201cYou can\u2019t import original. You can\u2019t fake true cool\u2026What\u2019s life without the occasional detour?\u201d) and even drove the car around. The Escalade commercial doubled as an ad for Dylan\u2019s Theme Time Radio Hour on XM, and the Chrysler one emphasized creating jobs in America, but it wasn\u2019t like Dylan did them for free. He was surely paid several million dollars. There may have been a stigma on such a thing years ago, but it\u2019s almost totally gone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\n\tJust a few months after \u201cWe Are The World,\u201d Steve Van Zandt assembled another large crew of famous musicians for a song. Their task this time wasn\u2019t raising money, but convincing musicians to stop playing concerts at the South African resort Sun City. This should have been a no-brainer since this was the peak of apartheid, but everyone from Queen and Elton John to Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, and Cher had appeared there in recent years. The song and video features cameos from Lou Reed, Bono, Hall & Oates, Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Herbie Hancock, Pete Townshend, Clarence Clemons, Bob Dylan, and many, many others. Dylan\u2019s appearance comes at the halfway point when he walks down the street with Jackson Browne and sing a few lines of the song with him. It would have been great to see him interact with the Fat Boys, Afrika Bambaataa, and Kurtis Blow, but we\u2019ll take what we can get.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
Kurtis Blow\u2019s \u2018Street Rock\u2019 (1986)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Vinnie Zuffante\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIf you wanted Bob Dylan to do something strange and out of character, the mid-1980s was the best time to ask. For whatever reason, this was a time when he was willing to do lots of interviews, even on television, guest on charity singles, do a choreographed dance move in one of his music videos, or star in a truly awful Rupert Everett movie. He also recorded this rapid-fire rap at the kickoff to Kurt Blow\u2019s 1987 single \u201cStreet Rock.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve indulged in higher knowledge,\u201d he raps, \u201ctook scan of encyclopedia\/Keeping constant research of our reports in news media\/Kids starve in Ethiopia and we are gettin\u2019 greedier\/The rich are gettin\u2019 richer and the needy\u2019s gettin\u2019 needier.\u201d He agreed to do it because he borrowed some of Blow\u2019s backup singers for a recording session. And in Chronicles, Volume 1<\/em>, Dylan said Blow made him a fan of N.W.A., Run DMC, and Public Enemy. \u201cThese guys weren\u2019t standing around bullshitting,\u201d said Dylan. \u201cThey were beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs. They were all poets and knew what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nThe 25th Anniversary Chabad Telethon (1989)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Gary Gershoff\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tAccording to the typical narrative, Bob Dylan walked away from Judaism forever in the late Seventies when he embraced Jesus Christ and became a passionate Born Again Christian The truth is significantly more complicated, and the exact timeline is unknown, but he definitely returned to his Jewish roots in the early Eighties. If you need any visual proof of this, check out the numerous appearances he made on Chabad telethons in the Eighties and early Nineties. The 1989 one is especially memorable since he sings \u201cHava Nagila\u201d with actor Harry Dean Stanton and folk singer Peter Himmelman, who happens to be his son-in-law. It\u2019s so weird it almost looks like an AI video, but it\u2019s real. This happened. (And what are Dylan\u2019s religious beliefs today? Nobody knows, but it\u2019s likely some unique fusion of Judaism and Christianity.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
- \n
\nDennis Hopper\u2019s \u2018Catchfire\u2019 (1990)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tBy nearly any standard, the 1990 Dennis Hopper\/Jodie Foster movie Catchfire<\/em> is terrible. The thin plot revolves around a visual artist (Foster) who witnesses a mob hit and has to flee for her life. The only thing even remotely notable about it \u2013 beyond the fact that Foster\u2019s next movie was Silence of the Lambs<\/em> and Joe Pesci shot a quick scene the same year he made Goodfellas<\/em> \u2013 is the fact that Hopper talked his longtime buddy Bob Dylan into filming a cameo. He\u2019s creating a chainsaw statue during his brief scene, and his speaking voice is so mumbly that he\u2019s essentially incoherent. (It makes renditions of \u201cDesolation Row\u201d circa 2013 clear and lucid by comparison.) The whole movie is so abysmal it makes Masked and Anonymous<\/em> look like Casablanca<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nWyclef Jean\u2019s \u2018Gone till November\u2019 video (1997)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tWhen Wyclef Jean was lining up possible cameos for the video to his 1997 song \u201cGone till November,\u201d he thought about reaching out to Bob Dylan. \u201cNo one really thought he would come,\u201d Jean told the Herald-Tribune<\/em> in 2018.<\/a> \u201cI remember people chastising me like, \u201cMan, he don\u2019t even show up for his son\u2019s videos, so he\u2019s definitely not coming to your video.’\u201d But he showed up for a 15-second cameo seated next to Jean in an airport as Wyclef sings \u201cI\u2019m knockin\u2019 on heaven\u2019s door like I\u2019m Bob Dylan.\u201d \u201cThe only person he\u2019d talk to on the set was me,\u201d said Wyclef, \u2018and he said, \u201cMan, you\u2019re such a cool cat, you remind me of my bass player that I played with.\u2019 And it\u2019s so funny he said that because one of my first instruments is bass, so it\u2019s just crazy to me, like certain things that happen are just cosmic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Dharma and Greg\u2019 (1999)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Keith Baugh\/Redferns\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIn the world of Nineties sitcoms, Dharma & Greg<\/em> is about as unmemorable as Caroline In The City<\/em>, Veronica\u2019s Closet<\/em>, and Wings<\/em>. Millions of people watched it back then since there wasn\u2019t much else on TV, but we\u2019d be willing to bet only a fraction of them could recall even the most premise today. (It starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as a two polar opposites who impulsively married each other on their first date. There were 119 episodes across five seasons.) Its greatest claim to fame today is the October 12, 1999, episode Play Lady Play<\/em> where Dharma plays drums in a friend\u2019s teenage garage band. At the end, Bob Dylan appears out out nowhere to jam with her alongside T-Bone Burnett and other veteran musicians. It\u2019s fantastically surreal, and it likely only happened because Dylan\u2019s longtime buddy Eddie Gorodetsky was one of the writers. Friends<\/em> and Seinfeld<\/em> are watched and referenced roughly ten zillion more times today than Dharma and Greg<\/em>. But then again, neither of those shows has a Bob Dylan cameo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nA Victoria\u2019s Secret Commercial (2004)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Dave Hogan\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIt\u2019s tough being Bob Dylan. Sometimes you have to fly to Venice, hang out with Victoria\u2019s Secret model Adriana Lima as she showcases the store\u2019s newest underwear collection, and then accept millions of dollars for the inconvenience. Some fans were stunned when Dylan appeared in this ad, even though he allowed a Canadian bank to use \u201cThe Times They Are a-Changin’\u201d in a 1996 commercial. But he telegraphed the move back in 1965 when he joked to a reporter that he\u2019d let his music appear in an ad for \u201cladies garments.\u201d It took 39 years, but the prophecy came true. And when Rolling Stone<\/em> questioned Dylan about the move in December 2004, he was typically flippant. \u201cWas I not supposed to do that?\u201d he asked. \u201cI wish I would have seen it. Maybe I\u2019d have something to say about it. I don\u2019t see that kind of stuff. That\u2019s all for other people to see and make up what they will.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nGene Simmons\u2019 \u2018Waiting for the Morning Light\u2019 (2004)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Matthew Peyton\/Getty Images\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tAt some point in nearly every interview with Gene Simmons, he mentions that he wrote a song with Bob Dylan. It sounds like a braggadocios fantasy, but this actually took place in 1991. It started with the KISS frontman simply calling Dylan\u2019s manager and asking if there was any chance he\u2019d be down for a songwriting collaboration. \u201cAnd all of a sudden within two days, an unmarked van shows up at my house,\u201d Simmons said, \u201cand Bob gets out with an acoustic guitar in his hand, and tells his driver, \u2018I\u2019ll see you at the end of the day,\u2019 comes up, and we start strumming. I mean, it was just like that.\u201d Simmons broke down how they worked together in an interview with Billboard<\/em>.<\/a> \u201cBob came up with the chords, most of them, and then I took it and wrote lyrics, melody, the rest of it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe understood each other right away. He picked up an acoustic guitar, and we just tossed it back and forth, \u2018How \u2019bout this, how \u2019bout that?\u2019\u2019 They called their song \u201cWaiting for the Morning Light,\u201d and it finally came out in 2004 on Simmon\u2019s solo LP Asshole.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Pawn Stars\u2019 (2010)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tIn the real world, getting anywhere near Bob Dylan when he comes to town is simply impossible. In the magical world of Pawn Stars,<\/em> all it takes is walking up to his bus tour with a vinyl copy of Self Portrait<\/em> and asking for an autograph. Our bullshit detector went into overdrive when Pawn Stars<\/em> star Chumlee pulled off this feat on the History Channel program. And when we called Chumlee up later that week,<\/a> he stuck to the official story. \u201cI found out he didn\u2019t do that, so I scouted the grounds for about four hours,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was shocked, but he signed the album for me. We talked for a minute and I told him I was a big fan of his work and my boss Rick would be really psyched if I got his autograph.\u201d This was almost certainly a setup, especially since Rick appraises an unsigned Self Portrait <\/em>at $50 when it\u2019s worth a fraction of that. But staged or not, Dylan did indeed appear on an episode of Pawn Stars.<\/em> (We await the day that Chumlee reveals the real story of how this happened.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\nCommercials for the Cadillac Escalade and Chrysler (2007, 2014)<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tAn underwear commercial with Adriana Lima was one thing. But a vocal contigent of Dylan fans flinched when he appeared in a 2007 commercial for the Cadillac Escalade,<\/a> and then flinched again in 2014 when he shot another one for Chrysler. In both ads, he provided the narration (\u201cYou can\u2019t import original. You can\u2019t fake true cool\u2026What\u2019s life without the occasional detour?\u201d) and even drove the car around. The Escalade commercial doubled as an ad for Dylan\u2019s Theme Time Radio Hour on XM, and the Chrysler one emphasized creating jobs in America, but it wasn\u2019t like Dylan did them for free. He was surely paid several million dollars. There may have been a stigma on such a thing years ago, but it\u2019s almost totally gone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIf you wanted Bob Dylan to do something strange and out of character, the mid-1980s was the best time to ask. For whatever reason, this was a time when he was willing to do lots of interviews, even on television, guest on charity singles, do a choreographed dance move in one of his music videos, or star in a truly awful Rupert Everett movie. He also recorded this rapid-fire rap at the kickoff to Kurt Blow\u2019s 1987 single \u201cStreet Rock.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve indulged in higher knowledge,\u201d he raps, \u201ctook scan of encyclopedia\/Keeping constant research of our reports in news media\/Kids starve in Ethiopia and we are gettin\u2019 greedier\/The rich are gettin\u2019 richer and the needy\u2019s gettin\u2019 needier.\u201d He agreed to do it because he borrowed some of Blow\u2019s backup singers for a recording session. And in Chronicles, Volume 1<\/em>, Dylan said Blow made him a fan of N.W.A., Run DMC, and Public Enemy. \u201cThese guys weren\u2019t standing around bullshitting,\u201d said Dylan. \u201cThey were beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs. They were all poets and knew what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the typical narrative, Bob Dylan walked away from Judaism forever in the late Seventies when he embraced Jesus Christ and became a passionate Born Again Christian The truth is significantly more complicated, and the exact timeline is unknown, but he definitely returned to his Jewish roots in the early Eighties. If you need any visual proof of this, check out the numerous appearances he made on Chabad telethons in the Eighties and early Nineties. The 1989 one is especially memorable since he sings \u201cHava Nagila\u201d with actor Harry Dean Stanton and folk singer Peter Himmelman, who happens to be his son-in-law. It\u2019s so weird it almost looks like an AI video, but it\u2019s real. This happened. (And what are Dylan\u2019s religious beliefs today? Nobody knows, but it\u2019s likely some unique fusion of Judaism and Christianity.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tBy nearly any standard, the 1990 Dennis Hopper\/Jodie Foster movie Catchfire<\/em> is terrible. The thin plot revolves around a visual artist (Foster) who witnesses a mob hit and has to flee for her life. The only thing even remotely notable about it \u2013 beyond the fact that Foster\u2019s next movie was Silence of the Lambs<\/em> and Joe Pesci shot a quick scene the same year he made Goodfellas<\/em> \u2013 is the fact that Hopper talked his longtime buddy Bob Dylan into filming a cameo. He\u2019s creating a chainsaw statue during his brief scene, and his speaking voice is so mumbly that he\u2019s essentially incoherent. (It makes renditions of \u201cDesolation Row\u201d circa 2013 clear and lucid by comparison.) The whole movie is so abysmal it makes Masked and Anonymous<\/em> look like Casablanca<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Wyclef Jean was lining up possible cameos for the video to his 1997 song \u201cGone till November,\u201d he thought about reaching out to Bob Dylan. \u201cNo one really thought he would come,\u201d Jean told the Herald-Tribune<\/em> in 2018.<\/a> \u201cI remember people chastising me like, \u201cMan, he don\u2019t even show up for his son\u2019s videos, so he\u2019s definitely not coming to your video.’\u201d But he showed up for a 15-second cameo seated next to Jean in an airport as Wyclef sings \u201cI\u2019m knockin\u2019 on heaven\u2019s door like I\u2019m Bob Dylan.\u201d \u201cThe only person he\u2019d talk to on the set was me,\u201d said Wyclef, \u2018and he said, \u201cMan, you\u2019re such a cool cat, you remind me of my bass player that I played with.\u2019 And it\u2019s so funny he said that because one of my first instruments is bass, so it\u2019s just crazy to me, like certain things that happen are just cosmic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tIn the world of Nineties sitcoms, Dharma & Greg<\/em> is about as unmemorable as Caroline In The City<\/em>, Veronica\u2019s Closet<\/em>, and Wings<\/em>. Millions of people watched it back then since there wasn\u2019t much else on TV, but we\u2019d be willing to bet only a fraction of them could recall even the most premise today. (It starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as a two polar opposites who impulsively married each other on their first date. There were 119 episodes across five seasons.) Its greatest claim to fame today is the October 12, 1999, episode Play Lady Play<\/em> where Dharma plays drums in a friend\u2019s teenage garage band. At the end, Bob Dylan appears out out nowhere to jam with her alongside T-Bone Burnett and other veteran musicians. It\u2019s fantastically surreal, and it likely only happened because Dylan\u2019s longtime buddy Eddie Gorodetsky was one of the writers. Friends<\/em> and Seinfeld<\/em> are watched and referenced roughly ten zillion more times today than Dharma and Greg<\/em>. But then again, neither of those shows has a Bob Dylan cameo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s tough being Bob Dylan. Sometimes you have to fly to Venice, hang out with Victoria\u2019s Secret model Adriana Lima as she showcases the store\u2019s newest underwear collection, and then accept millions of dollars for the inconvenience. Some fans were stunned when Dylan appeared in this ad, even though he allowed a Canadian bank to use \u201cThe Times They Are a-Changin’\u201d in a 1996 commercial. But he telegraphed the move back in 1965 when he joked to a reporter that he\u2019d let his music appear in an ad for \u201cladies garments.\u201d It took 39 years, but the prophecy came true. And when Rolling Stone<\/em> questioned Dylan about the move in December 2004, he was typically flippant. \u201cWas I not supposed to do that?\u201d he asked. \u201cI wish I would have seen it. Maybe I\u2019d have something to say about it. I don\u2019t see that kind of stuff. That\u2019s all for other people to see and make up what they will.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tAt some point in nearly every interview with Gene Simmons, he mentions that he wrote a song with Bob Dylan. It sounds like a braggadocios fantasy, but this actually took place in 1991. It started with the KISS frontman simply calling Dylan\u2019s manager and asking if there was any chance he\u2019d be down for a songwriting collaboration. \u201cAnd all of a sudden within two days, an unmarked van shows up at my house,\u201d Simmons said, \u201cand Bob gets out with an acoustic guitar in his hand, and tells his driver, \u2018I\u2019ll see you at the end of the day,\u2019 comes up, and we start strumming. I mean, it was just like that.\u201d Simmons broke down how they worked together in an interview with Billboard<\/em>.<\/a> \u201cBob came up with the chords, most of them, and then I took it and wrote lyrics, melody, the rest of it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe understood each other right away. He picked up an acoustic guitar, and we just tossed it back and forth, \u2018How \u2019bout this, how \u2019bout that?\u2019\u2019 They called their song \u201cWaiting for the Morning Light,\u201d and it finally came out in 2004 on Simmon\u2019s solo LP Asshole.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tIn the real world, getting anywhere near Bob Dylan when he comes to town is simply impossible. In the magical world of Pawn Stars,<\/em> all it takes is walking up to his bus tour with a vinyl copy of Self Portrait<\/em> and asking for an autograph. Our bullshit detector went into overdrive when Pawn Stars<\/em> star Chumlee pulled off this feat on the History Channel program. And when we called Chumlee up later that week,<\/a> he stuck to the official story. \u201cI found out he didn\u2019t do that, so I scouted the grounds for about four hours,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was shocked, but he signed the album for me. We talked for a minute and I told him I was a big fan of his work and my boss Rick would be really psyched if I got his autograph.\u201d This was almost certainly a setup, especially since Rick appraises an unsigned Self Portrait <\/em>at $50 when it\u2019s worth a fraction of that. But staged or not, Dylan did indeed appear on an episode of Pawn Stars.<\/em> (We await the day that Chumlee reveals the real story of how this happened.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tAn underwear commercial with Adriana Lima was one thing. But a vocal contigent of Dylan fans flinched when he appeared in a 2007 commercial for the Cadillac Escalade,<\/a> and then flinched again in 2014 when he shot another one for Chrysler. In both ads, he provided the narration (\u201cYou can\u2019t import original. You can\u2019t fake true cool\u2026What\u2019s life without the occasional detour?\u201d) and even drove the car around. The Escalade commercial doubled as an ad for Dylan\u2019s Theme Time Radio Hour on XM, and the Chrysler one emphasized creating jobs in America, but it wasn\u2019t like Dylan did them for free. He was surely paid several million dollars. There may have been a stigma on such a thing years ago, but it\u2019s almost totally gone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\nThe 25th Anniversary Chabad Telethon (1989)<\/h2>\n
Dennis Hopper\u2019s \u2018Catchfire\u2019 (1990)<\/h2>\n
Wyclef Jean\u2019s \u2018Gone till November\u2019 video (1997)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Dharma and Greg\u2019 (1999)<\/h2>\n
A Victoria\u2019s Secret Commercial (2004)<\/h2>\n
Gene Simmons\u2019 \u2018Waiting for the Morning Light\u2019 (2004)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Pawn Stars\u2019 (2010)<\/h2>\n
Commercials for the Cadillac Escalade and Chrysler (2007, 2014)<\/h2>\n