Time’s Are A-Changin’: Bob Dylan Ends 3-Year Rough And Rowdy Ways Tour In London

Bob Dylan wrapped up his Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour 2021 – 2024 last night with his third consecutive concert at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall. Dylan currently has no dates on the books and his future touring plans are unclear.

In June 2020 Bob Dylan released Rough And Rowdy Ways, his first new album of original songs in eight years. The 10-song collection arrived at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and Dylan couldn’t hit the road between December 2019 and November 2021 due to the pause in live music. Upon his return to public performances, Bob used the opportunity to rebrand his touring efforts as the “Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour 2021 – 2024.”

Dylan raised eyebrows when he announced the first leg of the Rough And Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour by putting a definitive end date on the run so far in the future. Was this Bob Dylan’s attempt to confirm a farewell tour without the hoopla a final run branded as such would bring with it? The New York Post added to the speculation in July 2023 with a report that the three-year excursion was “likely Dylan’s final tour.”

Bob Dylan hasn’t addressed the retirement rumors, but the potential of the 83-year-old artist saying goodbye to the road was in the air at Royal Albert Hall on Thursday. The setlist contained 19 songs and was nearly identical to every other stop on his fall tour of Europe and the UK including nine of the 10 tracks from Rough And Rowdy Ways. But focusing on that misses the point according to acclaimed Dylan scholar, journalist and author Ray Padgett.

“For three years he conducted a nightly experiment in the malleability of his own songs, stretching them and shifting them, reworking them radically over and over again,” Padgett wrote of the tour on his must-read Flagging Down The Double E’s publication. “No matter what the setlist read on boblinks.com, no night was the same. The tour was also a statement of confidence, displaying even more strongly than usual that he refuses to fit into the oldies-act box many still want to put him in. Plenty of ‘60s-era artists throw in a new song or two, but who else makes them the centerpiece of the entire show for three full years?”

Ray Padgett was at Royal Albert Hall and summarized last night’s concert thusly: “It was a show like any other. It was a show unlike any other.” Padgett picked up on the energy in the room. “The moment that will stick with me most happened before a single note was sung. The band entered first and started playing the ‘Watchtower’ intro, then Bob walked out a few seconds later,” Padgett explained.

“The roar the crowd gave upon his arrival was louder than anything I’d heard this whole week,” he added. “Maybe louder than anything I’ve ever heard at a Dylan show. Even the word ‘roar’ seems to undersell it. It was more like an explosion of appreciation. Whether he was going to acknowledge the occasion or not, everyone in that room knew what this night was.”

Ray Padgett weighed in on the speculation at the end of his his report. “Something is all over now. Most people I spoke to did not think he was hanging it up for good. I don’t either. But this is the end of an era—and, hopefully, the start of a new chapter,” Padgett noted. For now, Bob Dylan fans will need to wait to see what the future holds for one of the world’s greatest artists.

Listen to Bob Dylan’s performance of “Every Grain Of Sand” from last night’s show, the final song of the tour: