Bob Dylan ‘flipped off’ The Rolling Stones in front of 60,000 people as wild moment recalled by opening act

Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones’ wild performance saw the Highway 61 Revisited writer “flip off” Mick Jagger and the band in front of 60,000 people.

Opening act The Black Crowes recalled the moment Dylan, seemingly frustrated by the performance, stormed off stage and made his feelings known to a startled Jagger and Keith Richards. Speaking on The Howard Stern Show, Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes recalled an incident in Montpellier in 1995. The show saw Dylan invited on stage to perform Like a Rolling Stone with The Rolling Stones. Dylan, who had not released an album in two years, appeared on stage but sounded at odds with Jagger’s more excitable performance.

Robinson, speaking to Stern on the show back in 2019, said: “The Black Crowes, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones. We’re behind Keith’s amps and The Stones had Like a Rolling Stone as their single in Europe for that tour, the Voodoo Lounge cycle, so they’re going to have Bob sit in. Bob comes walking right beside me and Rich, and he’s wearing the exact same outfit [as Mick Jagger]. He walks out on stage, and The Rolling Stones are The Rolling Stones, they’re the greatest rock band of all time.

“They’re playing a Bob Dylan song, Bob is sitting in. The ‘Stones don’t jam, they don’t deviate. They come up to Bob’s turn, so the band bigs it up, and Bob goes to the microphone, and doesn’t sing anything.”

It caused quite the shock for The Rolling Stones’ consistencies on stage, with Dylan already known for changing the tone and style of his songs. His performance in front of 60,000 fans in the French city seems to have left a lasting impression on The Black Crowes’ frontman, who said the performance only devolved from there.

He added: “So they [The Rolling Stones] go all the way around again and he [Dylan] just leans into the mic, and turns away. It goes on for another half a verse and then Mick’s going to come over and save the day, and then Bob finally goes to the mic and starts singing something.

“They don’t finish, and they’re [Dylan] walking off-stage before the end of the song. They’re [The ‘Stones] are like ‘Bob Dylan,’ and he turns around and he goes ‘fuck you’ and gives them the finger.

Despite the tension on stage, it seems not to have left a lasting impression on The Rolling Stones, but it did on The Black Crowes and those in attendance. Robinson added: “I’m like, ‘this is the best fucking concert I’ve ever seen in my life.’ I can see Keith going like ‘don’t be like that Bob,’ it’s the best thing we’ve ever seen.”