The Never Ending Tour is the popular name for Bob Dylan's ongoing touring schedule which began on June 7, 1988. The tour has amassed a huge fan base with some fans traveling from around the world to attend as many Dylan shows as possible. Dylan himself has been dismissive of the Never Ending Tour tag, but his touring schedule has continued to be referred to as the "Never Ending Tour" by most media outlets.
The Never Ending Tour is the popular name for Bob Dylan's ongoing touring schedule which began on June 7, 1988. The tour has amassed a huge fan base with some fans traveling from around the world to attend as many Dylan shows as possible. Dylan himself has been dismissive of the Never Ending Tour tag, but his touring schedule has continued to be referred to as the "Never Ending Tour" by most media outlets.
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The Never Ending Tour is the popular name for Bob Dylan's ongoing touring schedule which began on June 7, 1988. The tour has amassed a huge fan base with some fans traveling from around the world to attend as many Dylan shows as possible. Dylan himself has been dismissive of the Never Ending Tour tag, but his touring schedule has continued to be referred to as the "Never Ending Tour" by most media outlets.
According to Swedish researcher Olof Björner, Dylan played show number 2,000 of the Never Ending Tour on October 16, 2007, in Dayton, Ohio. He played show number 3,000 on April 19, 2019, in Innsbruck, Austria. Dylan has attributed much of the versatility of his live shows to the talent of his backing band, with whom he recorded each of his 21st-century studio albums: Love and Theft (2001); Modern Times (2006); Together Through Life (2009); Christmas in the Heart (2009); Tempest (2012); Shadows in the Night (2015); Fallen Angels (2016); Triplicate (2017); and Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020).
Following the 2019 touring year, performances were cancelled during 2020 in Japan and the US due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 27, 2021, Dylan announced a new tour called the Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour, spanning 2021–2026, with the tour starting in November 2021. This tour has been referred to by the media as an extension of his ongoing Never Ending Tour.
Origin
The tour's name was cemented when journalist Adrian Deevoy published his interview with Dylan in Q Magazine no. 39, December 1989. Critic Michael Gray listened to Deevoy's interview tape and points out in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia that Deevoy's article put the phrase into Dylan's mouth, but it actually came from Deevoy:
Deevoy: Tell me about this live thing. You've gone straight into this tour again—one tour virtually straight into the next one.
Dylan: Oh, it's all the same tour.
Books, live recordings, and broadcasts
Andrew Muir published Razor's Edge: Bob Dylan and the Never Ending Tour in September 2001. The book chronicles the first fifteen years of Dylan's Never Ending Tour from the point of view of a committed fan, analyzing how Dylan varies his interpretations of his songs, and exploring his possible motivations. In July 2013, Muir updated Razor's Edge when he published One More Night: Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour: this book covers Dylan's touring activities from 1988 to 2011.
The only complete live album of material recorded with the Never Ending Tour band is MTV Unplugged, recorded in 1994 and released in 1995.
Dylan's 2008 album The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 included five live performances from the Never Ending Tour recorded between 1992 and 2004. In 2009, former Never Ending Tour drummer Winston Watson released the DVD Bob Dylan Never Ending Tour Diaries: Drummer Winston Watson's Incredible Journey documenting his touring with Dylan between 1992 and 1996.
The Deluxe Edition of Dylan's 2023 album The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996–1997) included an entire disc, 12 tracks in total, devoted to live versions of songs from the Time Out of Mind sessions that had been performed between 1997 and 2001.
Band
For a two and a half year period, between 2003 and 2006, Dylan ceased playing guitar, and stuck solely to the keyboard during concerts. Various rumors circulated as to why Dylan gave up guitar during this period, none very reliable. According to David Gates, a Newsweek reporter who interviewed Dylan in 2004, "basically it has to do with his guitar not giving him quite the fullness of sound he was wanting at the bottom. He's thought of hiring a keyboard player so he doesn't have to do it himself, but hasn't been able to figure out who. Most keyboard players, he says, like to be soloists, and he wants a very basic sound". Dylan's touring band typically features two guitarists along with a multi-instrumentalist who plays pedal & lap steel, mandolin, banjo, violin and viola. From 2002 to 2005, Dylan's keyboard had a piano sound. In 2006, this was changed to an organ sound. At the start of his Spring 2007 tour in Europe, Dylan once again began playing guitar. The last time Dylan played an acoustic guitar live was at the White House's Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights concert in 2010. As of the most recent leg of the Never Ending Tour, in Summer 2026, he mostly played an electric keyboard but
Dylan himself has been dismissive of the Never Ending Tour tag. He writes in the sleeve notes to his album World Gone Wrong (1993):
Don't be bewildered by the Never Ending Tour chatter. There was a Never Ending Tour but it ended in 1991 with the departure of guitarist G. E. Smith. That one's long gone but there have been many others since then: "The Money Never Runs Out Tour" (Fall of 1991) "Southern Sympathizer Tour" (Early 1992) "Why Do You Look At Me So Strangely Tour" (European Tour 1992) "The One Sad Cry Of Pity Tour" (Australia & West Coast American Tour 1992) "Outburst Of Consciousness Tour" (1992) "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Tour" (1993) and others, too many to mention each with their own character & design.
In a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Dylan questioned the validity of the term Never Ending Tour:Critics should know there is no such thing as forever. Does anybody call Henry Ford a Never Ending Car Builder? Anybody ever say that Duke Ellington was on a Never Ending Bandstand Tour? These days, people are lucky to have a job. Any job. So critics might be uncomfortable with my working so much. Anybody with a trade can work as long as they want. A carpenter, an electrician. They don't necessarily need to retire.
The tour was briefly interrupted in the spring of 1997 when Dylan was forced to cancel dates after suffering a serious medical issue in May. Columbia Records announced that he was being hospitalized for the potentially fatal chest infection histoplasmosis, but Dylan resumed touring that fall.