Bob Dylan fans figure out who introduced veteran songwriter to the stage on 2000s tour

Bob Dylan spent years being introduced as a “Columbia recording artist” with a spiel about his career so far. The veteran songwriter’s work on-stage speaks for itself, but the blurb that gave fans a taste of his career so far was delivered before nearly every show in the 2000s. Attendees at the time and fans listening to bootleg recordings decades on from the show may not be aware of who that voice is. Listeners have since figured out who the man introducing Dylan is.

The introduction used by Dylan and his band during the 2000s is as follows: “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the poet laureate of rock ‘n’ roll. The voice of the promise of the ’60s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock. Who donned makeup in the ’70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse. Who emerged to find Jesus. Who was written off as a has-been by the end of the ’80s, and who suddenly shifted gears, releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late ’90s. Ladies and gentlemen, Columbia recording artist… Bob Dylan!”

A post to the r/BobDylan subreddit had listeners trying to figure out who was introducing Dylan. One person asked: “Who is the guy that introduced Bob to the stage in the ’00s? Was it always live, or pre-recorded? The dude who gives like a little intro then says, ‘Columbia recording artist, Bob Dylan.'”

Fans have since pointed to Dylan’s longtime stage manager, Al Santos, as the man behind the voice. This was “done live each time” according to one fan. Another added: “Listened to a lot of bootlegs and his cadence was often a tad different. Sometimes he’d trip over his words.”

Others found the introduction curious given Dylan’s thoughts on the “Voice of a Generation” tag. Dylan spoke against the title in an interview during 2016. He told NPR: “I think that was just a term that can create problems for somebody, especially if someone just wants to keep it simple and write songs and play them. Having these colossal accolades and titles – they get in the way.”

Despite his thoughts on the moniker, fans believe he leaned into it a little too much with his introduction. One fan wrote: “I always thought this was such a bizarre intro for a man who has spent the last half century trying to convince us he wasn’t the voice of a generation. Like if a journalist dared to deduce him to half of these things in an interview, Bob would walk out, but he approved his stage manager do it every night? The messaging is odd.”

Another disagreed, adding: “I personally think Bob deciding to use that intro was him having a sarcastic joke about the cliches that are used in the media to discuss his career. He got it from a writer for The Buffalo News.” A third shared: “Yea it always felt like a joke to me. Like a parody of how some artist’s get introduced.”