Sean Penn has confirmed that a sequel to Bob Dylan‘s autobiography, Chronicles, is coming.
In an interview on Spotify’s The Louis Theroux Podcast, Hollywood veteran Penn said he was “about to do” the audiobook of “the second one” in the Chronicles series. Dylan’s acclaimed recollection of career memories was released on October 5, 2004. The book documented his rise to fame in New York, and the recording of lesser-known albums New Morning and Oh Mercy. Dylan suggested the book was not entirely accurate and that his approach to writing was “novelistic” in nature. Penn has since confirmed he will be involved in the audiobook version of Chronicles II. He also provided his voice for the audiobook of Chronicles.
In an interview with Theroux, Penn announced the book was on its way, over twenty years after the first from Dylan. He also confirmed this was not an audiobook of Dylan’s recent text, The Philosophy of Modern Song.
Theroux asked: “Speaking as the voice of Bob Dylan, because you read his audiobook, didn’t you?” Penn replied: “Yeah, I think I’m about to do the second one, actually. Yeah, Chronicles II.”
Penn confirmed he has not read the book yet but this is because he waits until he records the audiobook. He added: “I think it [Chronicles] is terrific.” Dylan confirmed he had been working on a follow-up to Chronicles back in 2012, but it has been quiet since then. He suggested the follow-up would be a deeper dive into Another Side of Bob Dylan and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
He said at the time: “It would definitely start with records. I stumbled into a strategy of going into the future and into the past … The whole early part of the first Chronicles was supposed to be based on some old record – maybe Another Side of Bob Dylan … Someplace in the 1960s. I was going to use that [record] and then I could go into the future.
“Well, what happened was that I … kind of just stayed there, and didn’t really go into the future. When I started writing about the early days in New York, I found it all extremely interesting. When you start doing that, it amazes you what you uncover without even trying.”
While the biography received rave reviews at the time of release, biographers of Dylan suggested Chronicles was filled with “lies.” Clinton Heylin said of the book: “Jesus Christ, as far as I can tell almost everything in the Oh Mercy section of Chronicles is a work of fiction.
“I enjoy Chronicles as a work of literature, but it has a[s] much basis in reality as Masked And Anonymous, and why shouldn’t it? He’s not the first guy to write a biography that’s a pack of lies.”
No official announcement for Chronicles II has been made by Dylan’s team. Columbia Records has been contacted for comment.
