Where Is Bob Dylan Now? All About the Music Icon's Life Nearly 6 Decades AfterA Complete UnknownLeaves Off

Mar. 15, 2025

Val Wilmer/Redferns; Jo Hale/Redferns

A Complete UnknownspansBob Dylan’s life in the early 1960s — but the music icon was just getting started.

The film — starringTimothée Chalametas Dylan — follows the musician’s life starting in 1961 when he arrives in New York City at age 19 to pursue a music career. He cultivates professional and personal relationships with music icons includingJoan Baez(Monica Barbaro) and Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) — and falls in love with political activist Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), who is based off Dylan’s real-life relationship withSuze Rotolo.

The film culminates in a shocking performance at the Newport Folk Festival, and although it was a pivotal moment in Dylan’s life, it was also just the beginning of what would be a decades-long, ongoing career.

Since that Newport Folk Festival performance in 1965, Dylan has continued to release studio albums and tour the world, cementing his spot as one of the biggest musical legends of his generation. As for his personal life, Dylan went on to marry twice and have six children following his split from Baez and Rotolo.

So where is Bob Dylan today? Here’s a look at the music icon’s life nearly six decades afterA Complete Unknownleaves off.

What happens to Bob Dylan inA Complete Unknown?

(L): Bob Dylan performs at The Bitter End folk club in Greenwich Village in 1961 ; (R): Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in ‘A Complete Unknown.'.Sigmund Goode/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty; Macall Polay/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Sigmund Goode/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty; Macall Polay/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

A Complete Unknownchronicles the music icon’s early career, starting in 1961 at 19 years old when he arrives in New York City with his guitar determined to change the course of American music. It spans the next four years of his life through his rise to fame in the folk music world, up until a pivotal 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival where he shocked the crowd and traded in his acoustic sets for rock-and-roll.

In the movie, Dylan meets Baez, a fellow unsigned artist who becomes his musical and romantic partner, at an open mic night along the way. (In real life, however, Baez was already an established folk artist when they met, perBusiness Insider.) But his relationship with Baez grows complicated when he meets Russo, a young woman who works for a social justice organization, at a Riverside Church Folk Concert.

Not only does Russo become a significant love interest, but she inspires him to write political songs. In the movie, she leaves Dylan for 12 weeks while she heads to Italy to study art, which leaves Dylan heartbroken. However, they enter an on-again-off-again relationship, ending with Russo breaking up with him for good at the Newport Film Festival.

Did Bob Dylan ever return to perform at the Newport Folk Festival?

Bob Dylan performing at the Newport Folk Festival in 2002.Ebet Roberts/Getty

Ebet Roberts/Getty

In 1965, Dylan performed at the Newport Folk Festival and shifted from folk to electric for the first time — leading the crowd to “boo” him after performing “Maggie’s Song” with an electric guitar. For years, Dylan believed that he was met with dismay from the crowd — including his mentor Seeger, who he thought attempted to cut the cables — at the festival because of his genre shift.

In 2002, Dylan made his return to the Newport stage after 37 years of refusing to perform at the festival. Additionally, in 2015 — on the 25-year anniversary of Dylan’s shocking electric set — the festival put on a tribute performance titled 65 Revisited, perNewport Folk. What’s more: a guitar collector who had won Dylan’s old guitar at an auction notified the festival, giving them the chance to use the very same legendary instrument in the tribute performance.

What happened after Bob Dylan’s motorcycle ride?

Bob Dylan at the Mayfair Hotel.Cummings Archives/Redferns

Cummings Archives/Redferns

A Complete Unknownends with Dylan riding off on his motorcycle before the screen cuts to black, alluding to a real-life incident that happened (albeit differently) one year after the Newport Folk Festival.

According to the outlet, Dylan addressed the accident in his 2004 autobiographyChronicles: Volume One, writing, “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.”

What happened to Pete Seeger?

American folk singer Pete Seeger performs a song on the banjo at the Mosque Theater in Newark, N.J., on Dec. 9, 1965.Sam Falk/New York Times Co./Getty

Sam Falk/New York Times Co./Getty

Seeger was a folk legend who was considered a mentor to Dylan throughout his early career. However, rumors of a feud surfaced once Seeger was believed to have tried cutting the cord on Dylan’s 1965 performance at the Newport Folk Festival.

According toFar Out Magazine, Seeger wrote Dylan an apology letter in 1990 (which is now on display at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla.) in which he “denied” the claims that he didn’t like Dylan’s shift to electric.

“I was furious at the distorted sound – no one could understand the words of ‘Maggie’s Farm’ – and dashed over to the people controlling the PA system,” he wrote, adding that he was told, “No, this is the way they want it.”

“I shouted, ‘if I had an axe, i’d cut the cable’, and I guess that’s what got quoted. My big mistake was in not challenging from the stage the foolish few who booed,” he added.

In January 2014, Seeger died at 94 years old in Manhattan.

What happened to Joan Baez and Suze Rotolo?

(L): Bob Dylan and Suze Rutolo in September 1961 in New York City ; (R): Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in the gardens of the Savoy Hotel on the Thames Embankment in London in April 1965.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Daily Herald/Mirrorpix via Getty

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty; Daily Herald/Mirrorpix via Getty

AlthoughA Complete Unknowncenters around Dylan’s early career, it also puts his tumultuous love stories with his music partner Baez and political activist Russo (based off the real-life Rotolo) front and center.

Baez began collaborating with and dating Dylan in the early 1960s, until he broke her heart in 1965 — which ultimately inspired Baez’s 1975 hit, “Diamonds & Rust.”

In October 2023, Baez told PEOPLE that she has since found “total forgiveness” for Dylan.

“We were in our early 20s,” she said. “We were stupid, and you can’t blame somebody forever. I certainly tried but finally stopped.”

Baez told PEOPLE that she and Dylan have not reconnected — but she did continue to make music for years to come without Dylan. She officially retired from touring in 2019, other than a performance in May 2023 for San Francisco’s 2023 Acoustic-4-A-Cure. As for her personal life, she shares a child, Gabriel Harris, with her ex-husband David Harris.

Meanwhile, Rotolo and Dylan had an on-again-off-again love affair for years, much to do with the disapproval from her parents, until it ended in the mid-1960s. In addition to remaining politically active, she spent most of her adult life pursuing a career as an artist, according toThe New York Times.

In 1967, Rotolo married film editor Enzo Bartoccioli in 1967, and together they welcomed a son, Luca.

Rotolo died in February 2011 from lung cancer at age 67.

Did Bob Dylan ever get married and start a family?

Bob Dylan arriving at at Heathrow Airport with his wife Sara Dylan in September 1969.WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty

WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty

AlthoughA Complete Unknownculminates in 1965 with no mention of marriage, Dylan went on to marry his first wife, Sara Dylan, that year. The pair met in 1964 and quietly wed on Nov. 22, 1965, when Sara was already pregnant with their first child, son Jesse.

Sara had a daughter, Maria, from a previous marriage, whom Dylan adopted following their wedding. Over the span of four years, the couple welcomed three more children together: Anna, Sam and Jakob.

They quietly raised their family in Woodstock for years, and moved to Malibu, Calif., in 1973. Their marriage started to fall apart in 1974 when he began taking art classes with artist Norman Raeben. Dylan later toldUncutmagazine of the lessons, “I went home after that and my wife never did understand me ever since that day.”

The couple ultimately got divorced in 1977. In 2005, the pair’s youngest son Jakob told biographer Michael Gray that although his parent’s marriage didn’t last, they continued to successfully co-parent.

“My father said it himself in an interview many years ago: ‘Husband and wife failed, but mother and father didn’t,’ ” he said. “My ethics are high because my parents did a great job.”

On Jan. 31, 1986, Dylan welcomed a child, daughter Desiree Dennis-Dylan, with singer Carolyn Dennis. They tied the knot five months later, but later divorced in 1992.

Where is Bob Dylan now?

Bob Dylan performs in concert during Farm Aid at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center on Sept. 23, 2023, in Noblesville, Ind.Gary Miller/Getty

Gary Miller/Getty

A Complete Unknownends around 1965, but Dylan’s career was only beginning. In addition to releasing songs, his continued touring has gone on for so long that it has earned the nickname “Never Ending Tour.” In December 2022, he told theWall Street Journalthat he kept touring because “it is a perfect way to stay anonymous and still be a member of the social order.”

“You’re the master of your fate,” he added. “But it’s not an easy path to take, not fun and games.”

Dylan’s musical legacy is honored across numerous landmarks around the United States, as he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, theSongwriters Hall of Famein 1982 and theNashville Songwriters Hall of Famein 2002.

His latest leg around the world, “Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour,” began in 2021, in support of an album he released one year earlier, and went until November 2024.

Dylan’s latest album,Shadow Kingdom, was released in 2023. While it mostly consisted of reimagined recordings of older tracks, the album also included an original instrumental track titled “Sierra’s Theme.”

Although the “Like a Rolling Stone” singer has aged since his days as the wide-eyed 19-year-old arriving in New York City, he is doing his best to keep himself healthy and active. In June 2020,The New York Timesasked Dylan about his health—specificallyhow he keeps his mind and body working together in unison — to which he responded, “Your mind and body go hand in hand.”

“There has to be some kind of agreement. I like to think of the mind as spirit and the body as substance,” Dylan said. “How you integrate those two things, I have no idea. I just try to go on a straight line and stay on it, stay on the level.”

source: people.com