Bob Dylan fans realise Tempest merch shirt was made to commemorate ‘tour that never happened’

A “tour that never happened” has been commemorated by Bob Dylan through a merch t-shirt sold on the Rough and Rowdy Ways show.

The tour, which is set to continue through 2025, had stop-offs across the United States and Europe last year. Dylan fans who headed to the merch stall may have spotted a t-shirt with a list of tour dates promoting the album, Tempest. This tour never happened. A post to the r/BobDylan subreddit saw fans try and figure out if the Tempest Tour 2012 ever happened. One fan asked: “Did the Tempest 2012 shirt debacle ever get solved? I remember last summer when the Tempest 2012 tour shirt hit the merch stand during the Outlaw Fest I think?

“The amazing thing about it was the false dates on the back. I remember there was initial confusion but I never heard anything about it after. Well, I finally got around to reading my Rolling Stone Bob Dylan album guide magazine and found this excerpt. So my guess is that he’s just fucking with us.”

An article quote attached claims Dylan had wanted to “release a live album but with all the dates and cities listed incorrectly to mess with the heads of Dylanologists.” It appears he came close to the plan on his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, with the Tempest Tour 2012 printed on the t-shirts never actually occurring.

One user explained: “It’s definitely Bob fucking around. The crucial detail is this. There was no Tempest Tour in 2012. In other words, that’s not a reproduction/reimagining of an old t-shirt, with a few fake dates added on for fun, it’s a new shirt created to commemorate something that never happened.

“Dylan did play shows in (most of) those cities in the fall of 2012. But the fall 2012 tour was not promoted as the Tempest Tour. The fall 2012 tour was a tour Dylan did with Mark Knopfler. And that’s how it was billed. All the posters and promotional materials said ‘Bob Dylan and His Band plus Mark Knopfler.’

“There was no Tempest Tour branding, there was no Tempest Tour merch. Hell, Dylan barely played anything from Tempest. The only Tempest song he played more than twice on that tour was Early Roman Kings. This is Dylan creating a parallel universe and choosing to live in it.”

Another user added: “I couldn’t resist buying this shirt last summer because I was hoping that a wacky mystery would reveal itself at some point. But as another commenter said, it’s probably because he just likes to mess with people.”

Did the Tempest 2012 shirt debacle ever get solved?
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Some have not read into the Tempest Tour 2012 t-shirt as much as others, and have suggested it could be a merch people mistake. One user suggested: “I think Dylan being intentionally obtuse and misleading in rewriting history makes a lot of sense but I would blame it more specifically on his shitty official merch people.

“Someone decided to design a retro tour shirt, used the album name as the tour, and pulled an early list of tour dates that didn’t all happen. My theory is a younger merch staffer made a bootleg/parking lot-style shirt and tried to channel Dylan by choosing Tempest.

“There was another retro tour t-shirt on the Outlaw tour last summer, for an early 80s or 90s tour, also used the album name as the tour, I believe. I can’t remember if it was correct or not. Dylan doesn’t even use the Never Ending Tour term, so we normally all choose the narrative we like better anyway!”