Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty's Epic '80s Performance Is a Rock and Roll ‘Fever Dream'
In 1986, Dylan was scheduled to hit the road with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for their co-headlining True Confessions Tour. This wasn't the only time Dylan and Petty would team up musically (they first performed together at Farm Aid in 1985 and formed the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys in 1988 with Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison) but at that point in time, Petty (who was going through a tough time in his marriage) was reluctant to leave home. That's when yet another legendary singer stepped in: Stevie Nicks.
As Showbiz Cheat Sheet reported, Nicks was the person who convinced Petty to go through with the tour, offering to go along as a "sidekick."
"Tom was sitting there on the chair at his house and he says, 'I'm not going,'" she recalled. "I told him, 'Oh yes, you are going! You can't cancel on Bob f---ing Dylan! What, you're going to call up Bob and tell him it's off!?' Tom just goes, 'I'm not doing it.'"
"I turn around and say, 'Well, do you want me to go? Do you need a sidekick, is that what you're saying, someone to be with you and to make you laugh, and to be there when you're lonely?'" Nicks continued. "'This is obviously the thing that is scaring you on this tour, and you're not afraid of anything; you're not afraid of alligators.' What the f--k, you know?"
Thankfully for fans, Petty agreed to go on the tour, later praising Nicks for helping him to focus and saying her "lighthearted" presence was "good" for him. However, because Nicks didn't have a work visa, she was only supposed to watch Dylan and Petty from the sidelines. Still, that didn't stop her from joining her pals onstage in Sydney, Australia, for "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Like a Rolling Stone."
Comments on a recently shared clip of the trio singing "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" were a testament to the significance of the concert, with one person writing, "This is a fever dream I love it."
"This would've sent me into a coma if I saw this live," added a second fan, with another demanding, "SOMEBODY CREATE TIME TRAVEL SO I CAN GO SEE THIS."
"So that's what heaven sounds like," added someone else.
Unfortunately, the performance was not a hit with Australian officials, as Nicks told The Daily Telegraph in 2017.
"I was told by the Australian government I would never be allowed back in the country, not with Fleetwood Mac, not by myself as a solo artist, not as a tourist if I did that again," she said. "I couldn't even stand on stage to play a tambourine. So that was that."
Related: Legendary Singer-Songwriter, 78, Plays What Bob Dylan Called the 'Best Song Ever Written' in 'Brilliant' New Video
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