0:01 Oh, I don't know. I mean, it could have
0:04 come off maybe a couple cemetery uh tombstones,
0:06 tombstones,
0:07 you know, maybe the phone book.
0:10 >> Bob Dylan was always known as the quiet
0:13 prophet of American music, the Nobel
0:16 icon everyone dreamed of working with.
0:18 But at 83, he shattered that image with
0:22 a confession nobody saw coming. He
0:24 revealed a secret list of seven artists
0:27 he hated the most. And the names shocked
0:30 the entire industry. collaborators,
0:33 close friends, even idols. They praised
0:35 him in public, yet were erased from his
0:38 life behind closed doors. And once you
0:40 hear why these relationships collapsed,
0:42 you'll understand why they swore they'd
0:45 never stand beside each other again.
0:47 Paul McCartney,
0:49 The Beetle,
0:52 Dylan couldn't forgive.
0:54 At the very top of Dylan's hate list,
0:57 the spot nobody expected, sits Paul
1:01 McCartney. Yes, that Paul McCartney, the
1:03 most beloved beetle, the man everyone
1:04 assumed Dylan admired without
1:07 reservation. But nothing like that. And
1:09 once you know what happened, the
1:12 reaction suddenly makes sense. The crack
1:16 appeared in 1987, long before feuds were
1:18 headlines. McCartney was doing a routine
1:21 interview talking about melody, pop
1:23 structure, and the changing state of
1:26 music. Then the reporter casually
1:28 brought up Dylan's recent work, the
1:30 darker, more experimental songs Dylan
1:33 had been wrestling with. Paul laughed
1:36 lightly, shrugged, and said, "Bob isn't
1:38 writing songs people can remember anymore.
1:39 anymore.
1:42 It was soft, almost playful. But to
1:46 Dylan, it wasn't playful at all. It was
1:49 a bullet. People forget that Dylan in
1:52 the mid80s wasn't bulletproof. He was
1:54 fragile, exhausted, and coming out of a
1:57 decade of spiritual turmoil. He was
2:00 redefining himself. And when one of the
2:03 most influential musicians alive implied
2:06 that his new work lacked staying power,
2:08 Dylan felt humiliated.
2:10 A close friend later recalled Dylan
2:13 muttering, "He wanted to be Lennon. He
2:16 never understood me. It wasn't bravado.
2:19 It was Dylan drawing a boundary."
2:22 The fallout happened quietly. Plans for
2:25 a collaborative mini tour suddenly died.
2:26 Private meetings were cancelled.
2:29 McCartney didn't understand why Dylan
2:31 never confronted him. But insiders knew
2:35 exactly what caused the freeze. Fans
2:37 kept hoping for a reconciliation, but
2:39 those close to Dylan swear it never
2:41 happened. Lennon had been the Beatle
2:45 Dylan truly respected. Sharp, cynical, unpredictable.
2:46 unpredictable.
2:49 Paul was the opposite. polished,
2:52 careful, adored, built for charm. To
2:56 Dylan, that charm felt dishonest.
2:59 Eric Clapton, the guitar hero who tried
3:02 to take Dylan's throne. The second spot
3:04 on Dylan's hate list belongs to a man he
3:08 once spoke highly of, Eric Clapton.
3:12 And the wild thing is this. Dylan didn't
3:15 start off disliking him at all. The
3:18 dislike came fast, sharp, and from one
3:21 moment he never forgot. People close to
3:23 both men still talk about the night it
3:27 happened. It was late 1978
3:29 inside a cramped rehearsal room in West
3:31 Hollywood. A handful of musicians were
3:34 hanging around after a session. Clapton
3:37 was relaxed, warmed up from a long day
3:40 of playing, talking louder than usual,
3:42 and he dropped a sentence that hit the
3:44 room like a broken bottle.
3:46 Dylan's losing his bite. Someone's got
3:49 to step in eventually.
3:51 The people standing there froze. One of
3:54 them later said he didn't say it
3:56 angrily. He said it like he was stating
3:59 a fact. And that was worse. And of
4:02 course, that fact reached Dylan within
4:05 24 hours. Because in the music world,
4:08 nothing stays quiet. When Dylan heard
4:11 it, he didn't explode. He didn't even
4:14 look surprised. He just nodded slowly.
4:15 And according to a basist in the room,
4:18 he said something only once. Funny how
4:20 people change when they think they're
4:23 catching up. That line wasn't aimed at
4:25 Clapton's talent. It was aimed at his
4:29 ambition. The fallout was immediate. A
4:31 session Dylan and Clapton were scheduled
4:33 to test out disappeared from the
4:35 calendar. Calls went unanswered.
4:38 Messages were ignored.
4:40 Clapton tried asking around and finally
4:42 one engineer told him straight. Whatever
4:46 you said the other night. Bob heard it.
4:48 Clapton tried to fix it once during a
4:52 1981 festival. He walked toward Dylan
4:54 backstage, hand slightly raised, ready
4:57 to speak. Dylan saw him, tightened his
5:00 jaw, turned his back, and walked the
5:01 other direction.
5:04 Clapton looked genuinely stunned, like
5:06 he just realized this wasn't a misunderstanding.
5:08 misunderstanding.
5:10 It was permanent.
5:12 Joan Bayz, the folk queen who broke
5:14 Dylan's trust.
5:17 What exactly pushed Bob Dylan and Joan
5:19 Bayz from being the most powerful duo in
5:21 folk music to barely speaking for
5:23 decades? That's the question fans still
5:26 whisper about. Because the break wasn't
5:29 just artistic. It was personal.
5:32 Painfully personal. Their feud started
5:35 with a moment Joan thought was harmless.
5:37 During the chaotic mid1960s when Dylan
5:40 was reinventing himself, Joan publicly
5:42 said he was turning away from the people
5:45 who need him. To the world, it sounded
5:48 like a comment about music. To Dylan, it
5:50 felt like a knife from someone who knew
5:52 his private doubts better than anyone.
5:55 The real fracture hit during the 1965 UK
5:58 tour. Joan expected to join Dylan on
6:00 stage as they had done many times
6:03 before. But when she arrived, everything
6:05 was different. Dylan's staff wouldn't
6:07 give her a slot. Dylan himself wouldn't
6:10 commit to a duet. According to one crew
6:13 member, Joan confronted him in a hallway
6:15 and said, "Are you really shutting me
6:18 out?" Dylan reportedly replied coldly,
6:20 "This isn't your show."
6:23 That wasn't just rejection. It was humiliation.
6:24 humiliation.
6:27 A few nights later, Joan realized Dylan
6:29 wasn't just moving in a new direction
6:32 artistically. He was cutting her loose.
6:35 She later said, "He didn't owe me
6:38 anything except honesty."
6:42 Dylan never apologized, never explained.
6:44 And that hurt her more than any
6:47 headline. But that wasn't the end. Joan
6:50 took the pain public. She spoke in
6:52 interviews about Dylan losing his way,
6:54 about him abandoning activism. She
6:57 didn't attack his talent. She attacked
6:59 his integrity. And that was the one
7:01 thing Dylan guarded more fiercely than
7:04 his fame. People around Dylan said he
7:08 felt exposed, almost betrayed, that the
7:10 person who knew his insecurities had
7:12 turned them into ammunition. He never
7:15 yelled about it. He simply erased the
7:17 possibility of working with her again.
7:20 Managers who suggested a reunion were
7:23 shut down immediately. Dylan later said,
7:27 "She used my doubts to shame me." Their
7:30 silence lasted over 40 years. Even their
7:32 reunion at the 1975 Rolling Thunder
7:35 review didn't heal the wound. It only
7:37 made the tension visible. Cameras caught
7:40 them smiling but not connecting,
7:43 performing together but not trusting.
7:46 Lou Reed, the punk poet who mocked
7:48 Dylan's soul.
7:50 Lou Reed earned the fourth spot on
7:52 Dylan's hate list the moment he opened
7:54 his mouth in 1974.
7:57 He went straight at Dylan's identity,
8:00 and Dylan never forgave him for it. The
8:02 moment happened during an interview Reed
8:03 gave while promoting a Velvet
8:06 Underground project. The journalist
8:08 asked him about Dylan's impact on
8:11 songwriting. Reed didn't pause. He fired
8:13 off a line that still echoes today.
8:16 Dylan never meant anything to me. Then
8:18 he added another blow. His lyrics are
8:20 smoke and mirrors.
8:22 People who heard the full interview said
8:25 Reed wasn't joking, wasn't jealous,
8:28 wasn't even angry. He said it with the
8:31 same flat cool tone he used when talking
8:32 about amp settings and guitar
8:35 distortion. And that's exactly what made
8:38 the comment sting. It wasn't personal
8:41 for Reed, but it became deeply personal
8:43 for Dylan. When the remarks reached
8:46 Dylan, he didn't lash out. He didn't
8:50 speak back. What he did was colder.
8:52 According to someone who worked on his
8:55 1970s tours, Dylan nodded once and said,
8:59 "Let him talk. Silence will answer him."
9:02 And that silence became the feud.
9:05 Dylan wiped Reed from his world. No
9:07 public shoutouts, no even
9:09 acknowledgements. Musicians who tried to
9:11 bring up Reed in conversation said Dylan
9:14 would change the subject instantly, like
9:16 flicking ashes off a cigarette. The
9:18 tension quietly intensified a decade
9:21 later. In the early '9s, during a
9:23 Rolling Stone interview, a journalist
9:26 casually mentioned Lou Reed. Dylan
9:30 looked up, smirked, and asked, "Who?"
9:33 It wasn't a joke. It was pure dismissal,
9:35 the kind artists fear more than an insult.
9:37 insult.
9:39 Reed heard about it later and reportedly
9:41 rolled his eyes, saying, "Of course he
9:43 said that, but it bothered him more than
9:46 he admitted." And here's the twist.
9:49 Almost no fans know. Reed once told a
9:52 friend, "Dylan was too insecure to take
9:55 me honestly." Dylan heard that, too.
9:58 After that, the door was closed for good.
9:59 good.
10:03 Leonard Cohen, the poet.
10:05 Dylan loved,
10:08 then resented forever.
10:10 Leonard Cohen holds the fifth place on
10:12 Dylan's hate list, and it's the most
10:15 painful one because this feud didn't
10:18 start with mockery or ambition. It
10:20 started with admiration.
10:23 Dylan genuinely loved Cohen's work. He
10:26 praised him publicly, called him the
10:28 highest level of songwriting, and spoke
10:30 about Cohen with a softness he rarely
10:33 gave to anyone. And that's exactly why
10:35 what happened next felt like a betrayal
10:38 Dylan couldn't shake. The breaking point
10:41 appeared quietly in the early 1970s.
10:44 Cohen being interviewed in Paris was
10:46 asked about Dylan's early writing. He
10:49 smiled politely, thought for a moment,
10:52 and said his early songs were a bit
10:55 adolescent compared to the poets I
10:57 admire. He meant it academically, not
11:01 maliciously, but context didn't matter.
11:04 That single word, adolescent, hit Dylan
11:06 like a slap.
11:08 People around Dylan say he reread that
11:11 quote several times, not believing Cohen
11:14 had said it. This wasn't a rival or a
11:17 provocator. This was the one songwriter
11:20 Dylan genuinely feared because Cohen's
11:23 writing touched depths Dylan respected.
11:25 Hearing Cohen downplay his early work
11:28 felt like hearing a mentor whisper, "You
11:29 were never as good as you thought."
11:31 During a chance meeting in New York
11:34 years later, Cohen tried small talk.
11:37 Dylan stayed cool, detached. Cohen later
11:40 told a friend, "Bob speaks in riddles."
11:42 But insiders say Dylan simply didn't
11:44 want to open the door again. He couldn't
11:46 trust someone who had once cut him in a
11:49 way critics never could. Their artistic
11:52 rivalry only grew more complicated. When
11:54 Cohen released Hallelujah, Dylan praised
11:57 it publicly, performing it in concerts,
12:00 but never reaching out privately.
12:02 When Cohen complimented Dylan's
12:04 simplicity of the heart in songwriting,
12:07 Dylan ignored it, nothing more. To
12:10 everyone else, it felt cold. To those
12:13 who knew Dylan, it was deliberate. The
12:15 wound from that old interview had never
12:18 closed. So tell me, which name on
12:20 Dylan's list shocked you the most? And
12:22 which feud do you think should have been resolved?
12:24 resolved?
12:25 Drop your thoughts below and don't
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