Fans of the legendary songwriter Bob Dylan believe that The Beatles‘ Paul McCartney is ‘envious’ of the Mr. Tambourine Man hitmaker.
McCartney went on record as not being a fan of Dylan’s shows, suggesting that the 84-year-old should include more of his hits as that is what people are, according to the Wings frontman, paying to hear. McCartney told The Rest is History: “I’ve been to see a couple of Bob’s shows and honestly, I couldn’t tell what song he was doing. Now, that’s a bit much, because I know his stuff. And I get it if he doesn’t want to do Mr. Tambourine Man – maybe he’s fed up with it. But I would like to hear it. And I paid.”
Despite McCartney’s want for songs like Mr. Tambourine Man in the setlist, Dylan has flat refused to play the hit song for the last fifteen years. He performed it once at a show on the Outlaw Music Festival tour in 2025, but this is the sole performance of the track since 2010. Other hits like Masters of War, Highway 61 Revisited, and Ballad of a Thin Man are equally as elusive on the modern Dylan tour.
But fans of the All Along the Watchtower songwriter believe McCartney is jealous that he cannot dig into his back catalogue. Most of McCartney’s shows follow a similar setlist, a hits-heavy celebration including Band on the Run, Hey Jude, and Live and Let Die. Dylan, in contrast, features songs from lesser-known albums like Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind.
A Dylan fan took to X and claimed: “Maybe McCartney doesn’t want Dylan doing so much modern material because it highlights the dearth in quality of his own recent output. When I saw McCartney, I was hoping he wouldn’t play Fuh You again like when I’d seen him before, but I was always happy to hear False Prophet.“
Another fan agreed, adding: “Fuh You is the absolute nadir of popular music. The absence of it was the highlight of the two Macca gigs I went to a couple of years ago.”
A third wrote: “The fact that Dylan has an audience that is obsessed with what Dylan is doing right NOW must make him at least a little envious. And ironically, Dylan has praised McCartney’s show.”
Dylan expert Ray Padgett, in a separate post, went on to joke about McCartney’s comment and says the criticism is “not a problem” for dedicated Dylan fans. He joked: “Not a problem for those of us paying to see 50s rockabilly covers sung off-mic.”
Dylan is set to continue his North American tour in June this year, with the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour seemingly over after advertising for the tour was switched out to the Spring 2026 shows.
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