From Robbie Robertson and Tom Petty to Bob Britt and Julian Lage
The past few weeks have been an unusually dramatic time for Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour. It began in early June when fans began reporting that Dylan appeared perturbed with Bob Britt, who joined the group in 2019, and the guitarist stopped appearing onstage for the first three songs of the night. But on June 17, when the tour came to the Santa Barbara Bowl, guitarist Doug Lancio, who has been with Dylan since 2021, was gone without any explanation.
In his place was jazz virtuoso Julian Lage. But after just seven shows where guitar duties were split between Britt and Lage, Britt quit the band with a sudden “Sayonara Bobby” Facebook post that threw everything into chaos, especially since Lage has a busy schedule that makes him unable to commit to the tour full-time. Chicago-based jazz and blues guitarist Joel Paterson parachuted in to solve the problem, and he’s been playing all of the guitar parts by himself for the past few shows.
We have no idea how this is going to play out in the coming weeks, but we can say this is hardly the first time Dylan has swapped out a guitarist from his live band. By our own count, he’s worked with 35 of them over the past 61 years. Here’s a look at all.
(This is only a list of guitarists who have toured with Dylan or, in the case of Mike Bloomfield, played an extremely memorable and historic show. We aren’t counting guest guitarists like Carlos Santana, Neil Young, Ronnie Wood, Nils Lofgren, Jack White, Mark Knopfler, or Billy Strings. We also aren’t counting studio guitarists like Bruce Langhorne and Chris Weber, despite the important role they played in the creation of Dylan’s albums.)
Mike Bloomfield (1965)
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Prior to the events of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan concerts were solo acoustic affairs. He sometimes played alongside other singers with guitars, like Joan Baez or Pete Seeger, but they were guests. He didn’t have a band until the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when he famously “went electric” with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and guitarist Mike Bloomfield, who was a key part of the Highway 61 Revisited sessions that same summer.
“The guy that I always miss, and I think he’d still be around if he stayed with me, actually, was Mike Bloomfield,” Dylan told Rolling Stone in 2009. “He could play like Willie Brown or Charlie Patton. He could play like Robert Johnson way back then in the Sixties. The only other guy who could do that in those days was Brian Jones, who played in the Rolling Stones.” But Bloomfield didn’t go on the road with Dylan after Newport, and they wouldn’t share a stage again until Nov. 15, 1980, when Bloomfield came out during a show at the Fox Warfield in San Francisco, just three months before he died.
Robbie Robertson (1965-74)
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Mike Bloomfield was a very busy man in 1965, since the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was red-hot. He simply couldn’t commit to a Bob Dylan tour. That’s why Dylan turned to Robbie Robertson of the Canadian group the Hawks. He allowed him to bring Hawks drummer Levon Helm for the first concert, at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, New York. After a couple of shows, he let Robertson invite the rest of the Hawks to join the group. This was the group (minus Helm for a period) that traveled the world with him throughout the rest of 1965 and into 1966, facing boos from folk purists most everywhere they went. The Band (as they eventually called themselves) remained Dylan’s group for the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival in England, and the 1974 Before the Flood reunion tour. Dylan played with Robertson again at the Last Waltz in 1976. And despite all of the lore between them and the countless Dylan shows in the decades that followed, they never again shared a stage.
Mick Ronson (1975-76)
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Nobody who saw David Bowie on the 1972-73 Ziggy Stardust tour thought to themselves, “That wild guy with the bleach-blond hair playing the sick ‘Moonage Daydream’ solo would work nicely on Bob Dylan’s next tour. I bet Bob hires him.” But that’s exactly what happened in 1975 for the Rolling Thunder Revue. It was a huge change for Ronson, since Bowie played the exact same show every night, note for note, and Dylan made every Rolling Thunder show pretty unique. But Ronson rose to the challenge. And, good Lord, what an adventurous life on the road that man lived between 1972 and 1976.
Bobby Neuwirth (1975-76)
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Bobby Neuwirth became a friend and close confidant of Bob Dylan in 1961, long before the fame hit, and he was by his side through the tumultuous, amphetamine-fueled 1960s period. He gets a lot of screen time in Don’t Look Back as a member of the entourage. Neuwirth began making his own music in the 1970s, remained close to Dylan, and was instrumental in putting the Rolling Thunder Revue on the road. Neuwirth played an opening set most nights, and then joined Dylan on guitar during his portion of the evening.
T Bone Burnett (1975-76)
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Long before he oversaw the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack or produced albums for Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, Elton John, Counting Crows, and Ringo Starr, Joseph Henry “T Bone” Burnett III was a guitarist-for-hire who landed a gig on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue. He was a part of the extremely large band, and he rotated between piano and guitar. Several decades later, Burnett took several old Dylan lyrics from the Basement Tapes period and turned them into the 2014 New Basement Tapes LP with Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes.
David Mansfield (1975-78)
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David Mansfield was barely 19 years old when he was hired to play steel guitar, mandolin, violin, and dobro on the Rolling Thunder Revue. He was originally slated to merely back Bobby Neuwirth during his opening set. But Neuwirth’s band essentially became the house band during rehearsals. Bob Dylan was so impressed by his work that he became one of the few Rolling Thunder musicians invited back for the 1978 world tour. This was a very different band with a very different sound, but Mansfield found his place and stuck around for all four legs. (Rolling Thunder bassist Rob Stoner lasted just a few weeks in 1978.)
Steven Soles (1975-78)
Image Credit: David Redfern/Redferns
The Rolling Thunder Revue house band was essentially a mini orchestra of guitars. One of the players was Steven Soles. Like David Mansfield, he was recruited into the caravan tour by Bobby Neuwirth. And like Mansfield, he made it through the entire tour. For a brief period after Rolling Thunder, he formed the Alpha Band with T Bone Burnett and Mansfield. They cut three albums before dissolving in 1979.
Billy Cross (1978)
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The chaos of the Rolling Thunder Revue gave way to a much more organized tour of traditional venues in 1978. David Mansfield and Steven Soles were part of the team, and they were joined by Billy Cross, a one-time member of Sha Na Na. Cross stuck around long enough to record on Street Legal and finish out the 1978 tour, before vanishing forever from Dylan World.
Fred Tackett (1979-81)
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Mark Knopfler played lead guitar on Bob Dylan’s 1979 born-again LP, Slow Train Coming, but Dire Straits were too busy for him to even consider going on the tour. That task fell to session ace Fred Tackett. He did a sensational job with the gospel material on the first leg, and then was given a chance to delve into some of the older classics in 1980 and 1981. Tackett joined Little Feat in 1988, essentially filling the void that Lowell George left behind, and he remains there to this day.
Steve Ripley (1981; Sept. 4-9, 1990)
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Fred Tackett was the sole guitarist throughout the gospel tours of 1979 and 1980, and the Musical Retrospective Tour of November-December 1980. But country-rock guitarist Steve Ripley was brought in for the 1981 Shot of Love sessions, and he joined Bob Dylan’s touring band later that year, where he shared guitar duties with Tackett. You can hear him on the June 27, 1981, Earls Court show in London that Dylan released on the 2017 Trouble No More Bootleg Series. After parting ways with Dylan after the Shot of Love tour, Ripley formed the successful country band the Tractors. During the chaos of the 1990 tour, Dylan brought him back into the band for five shows.
Mick Taylor (1984)
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On March 22, 1984, Dylan played a mind-blowing set on Late Night With David Letterman with members of the L.A. punk band Plugz. It is, by far, the greatest television moment of his career. In a perfect world, he would hit the road with Plugz that year, and guitarist J.J. Holiday would be on this list. But in this world, Plugz and Dylan never again crossed paths. Instead, Dylan hired former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor for his 1984 European co-headlining tour with Carlos Santana. Taylor is an incredible guitarist who lifted the Stones to new heights in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But this wasn’t the ideal gig for him. Still, the best moments from this tour are pretty special, and the oft-maligned concert LP Real Live doesn’t quite do the tour justice.
Mike Campbell (1986-87)
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Bob Dylan first played with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the first Farm Aid, in 1985. It went so well that a world tour was booked for the following year. It was an ideal pairing since the Heartbreakers can play basically any song ever recorded, and they all grew up on Dylan’s music. The quality of the shows varied according to Dylan’s mood on any given night, but they were largely pretty great. And Campbell was called back in 2009 by Dylan to play guitar on Together Through Life. He also backed him during a surprise set at Farm Aid in 2023.
Tom Petty (1986-87)
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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played a handful of their own songs at these shows, but the set was largely Dylan songs. It allowed Tom Petty to stand back a few feet and simply become a guitar player in his own band. He loved every second of it. A year after the tour ended, the Traveling Wilburys formed. But they never actually toured — a tremendous lost opportunity.
Jerry Garcia (1987)
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For six memorable nights in July 1987, between legs of his world tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan played six co-headlining stadium shows with the Grateful Dead where they served as his backing group. They pushed him to break out songs like “Joey,” “John Brown,” and “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest” that he hadn’t touched in years. Many of the worst moments were cobbled together for the dismal 1989 live album Dylan & The Dead. But the bootlegs tell a slightly different story. Still, this tour doesn’t represent either Dylan or the Dead in peak form. But it’s very cool to hear Dylan and Jerry Garcia trade licks. There was tremendous respect between the two icons, but they rarely played together.
Bob Weir (1987)
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Of course, Bob Weir was also part of the Dylan and the Dead tour of July 1987. He got a second chance to play with Dylan in 2003, when Dylan and the Dead (as the surviving members billed themselves at this point) went on a summer tour together in 2003. Dylan sat in with them several nights and played songs like “Friend of the Devil,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “Gotta Serve Somebody.” By this point, Dylan rarely played with other acts that toured with him. But he made an exception for the Dead. And he liked Bob Weir so much that he played his 2016 solo deep cut “Only a River” several times in 2023.
G.E. Smith (1988-90)
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Dylan’s career as a live artist forever changed when he started a tour in 1988 that’s basically still going today. Dylan hates the term “Never Ending Tour,” but that’s what most everyone calls it at this point. The first of many guitarists in the group was Saturday Night Live house-band leader G.E. Smith. He was actually still on SNL during his time with Dylan between June 1988 and October 1990: He just insisted that Dylan not book shows on Saturday nights when an episode was scheduled. Two years after leaving the band, Smith served as the musical director of Dylan’s 30th-anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden.
Steve Bruton (Aug. 19-29, 1990; Oct. 11-12, 1990)
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The only time the guitar situation in Dylan’s live band was as chaotic as the summer of 2026 took place in the summer of 1990 when G.E. Smith gave his notice, and Dylan invited a series of possible replacements to join the band for a handful of shows each. They were basically public auditions. First up was Steve Bruton, who came into Dylan’s orbit during the 1973 Mexico City sessions for the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack. He’s on “Billy 4.” And in August 1990, he played 10 shows as a member of Dylan’s band. During one of them, Dylan dedicated “Moon River” to Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in a helicopter crash the day before.
Miles Joseph (Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 1990)
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It may seem like Bruton’s run didn’t go very well since Dylan gave him the boot after a mere 10 shows. But the next guy up, Miles Joseph, only made it through three shows before he was disappeared. Bob is not an easy person to please. (Joseph also played with Aretha Franklin, Joe Sample, Edgar Winter, and Bruce Willis during his long career. He died in 2012.)
César Díaz (Sept. 11, 1990-March 2, 1991)
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After giving three guitarists the chance to prove themselves with results he didn’t find satisfying, Dylan decided to let his guitar tech, César Díaz, try out for the position. It worked out so well that he let Díaz remain in the live band through the spring of 1991, playing about 50 shows total, even though additional guitarists were added during this time.
John Staehely (Oct. 16-Nov. 18, 1990)
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The crazy churn of 1990 somewhat calmed down on Oct. 16, when Dylan brought guitarist John Staehely onto the stage alongside César Díaz and G.E. Smith, who remained in the group throughout all of the ill-fated attempts to find his replacement that fall. Things went so well with Staehely that Smith was finally able to leave the group three days later. And for the rest of 1990, Staehely and Díaz handled the guitar parts on their own. Staehely’s last show took place in Detroit on Nov. 18, and features the only live performance of the Blood on the Tracks deep cut “Box of Rain” in Dylan’s history.
John Jackson (1992-97)
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Stability finally came to the guitarist position in Dylan’s band in early 1991, when Nashville pro John “J.J.” Jackson was hired. These were initially lean years for the Never Ending Tour, as many casual fans had totally written Dylan off. But after some very rocky shows throughout 1991 and 1992, things started to dramatically improve. Yet, just as Dylan was on the verge of a major comeback in 1997 with Time Out of Mind, he let Jackson go. The guitarist was brought back in 2006, when he played in the house band for Twyla Tharp’s Broadway musical The Times They Are a-Changin’. The show was a critical disaster that closed within weeks, but Dylan came to a rehearsal and had a chance to catch up with Jackson nearly a decade after they parted ways.
Bucky Baxter (1992-99)
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John Jackson was the lone guitarist onstage throughout much of 1991. But in early 1992, he was paired with Bucky Baxter, who played pedal steel guitar and electric slide guitar. Bucky quickly became a fan favorite by adding unique textures to every song. During the stellar shows around the Time Out of Mind era, he was a critical component of the instrumental blend.
Larry Campbell (1997-04)
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Most hardcore Dylan fans agree that the Never Ending Tour peaked roughly between 1997 and 2002. Larry Campbell played an enormous role in that thanks to his skills on the guitar and fiddle, and his vocal harmonies. His musical chemistry with Bucky Baxter and later Charlie Sexton produced majestic shows that remain cherished on bootlegs, most notably their European run in the fall of 2000. (Some day, this period needs to be chronicled with a Bootleg Series box set.) Campbell remains an extremely active musician, and has played with Phil Lesh, Elvis Costello, Levon Helm, and many other icons.
Charlie Sexton (1999-02; 2009-12; 2013-19)
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Arc Angels guitarist Charlie Sexton replaced Bucky Baxter in 1999 when Dylan hit the road for a co-headlining tour with Paul Simon. It was apparent from the very start that he was a perfect fit for the band, and had effortless chemistry with Larry Campbell. There’s almost no doubt that the absolute pinnacle of the Never Ending Tour was Sexton’s first tenure. Just listen to any show from this time on YouTube for evidence. Much changed by the time he came back in 2009, and he was no longer able to fully demonstrate the range of his talents. He briefly left for a second time in 2012, before coming back the following year when things didn’t go so well with Duke Robillard.
Billy Burnette (Feb. 6-26, 2003)
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Charlie Sexton was a very difficult act to follow. Rockabilly guitarist Billy Burnette had experience with this sort of task when he stepped into Fleetwood Mac when Lindsey Buckingham quit in 1987: He managed to somehow last nine years in Fleetwood Mac. Bob Dylan let him go from the band after just 11 Australian shows in February 2003. Burnette told Rolling Stone in 2022 that he had a publishing deal with Barbara Orbison, Roy Orbison’s widow, and she convinced Dylan to let him go since he wasn’t writing enough on the road. “I was pissed,” he said. “It was a great gig. I couldn’t understand it at the time. Bob liked me. I got along really well with the band. It was just that Barbara … bless her. She’s passed away since then. But she was real tight with Bob.” (We suspect there were more factors in Burnett’s dismissal than Barbara Orbison wanting him back home and generating money for her publishing company, but we’ll likely never know.)
Freddy Koella (2003-04)
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When Dylan returned from Australia following his brief stint with Billy Burnette, he hired Freddy Koella to play in the group alongside Larry Campbell. Once again, Sexton was a very difficult act to follow. But Koella had a unique take on the material, the fans grew to really enjoy his playing, and he remained in the band for a solid year. In 2012, Dylan brought him back onstage for a couple of shows at the Santa Barbara Bowl.
Tommy Morrongiello (2003-04)
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In the summer of 2003, when Dylan was touring with the Dead, he gave guitar tech Tommy Morrongiello the César Díaz treatment by allowing him to play on a few songs a night. “At the Columbus show, it was like Bob calling his dog over,” a fan wrote on the Bob Dylan Usenet group in 2003. “Bob would snap his fingers, the guy (don’t know his name) would run over, Bob would point to one of two guitars, and the guy would pick the guitar up and start playing. Just prior to the end of the song, he would set the guitar down and run off to do something. Before both shows he was wearing shorts but would change into long pants before playing guitar. Tony [Garnier] seemed amused at most of this.” Dylan continued to periodically let Morrongiello play through the following summer. Morrongiello played with Ian Hunter and Mountain in the 1970s, and joined up with the Springsteen tour in 2007 as a guitar tech.
Stu Kimball (2004-18)
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Most music fans have never heard of Stu Kimball. The guitarist isn’t a flashy player with a big personality. And he’s never done much of anything to promote himself or seek out press. But he holds the record as the longest-serving guitarist in Dylan’s history by playing an astounding 1,323 shows with him between 2004 and 2018. Nobody else comes close. He also recorded with Dylan on Modern Times, Tempest, Shadows in the Night, and Fallen Angels.
Denny Freeman (2005-09)
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Denny Freeman had a long history before he joined Dylan’s touring band in 2005, playing with everyone from Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan in their prefame days to Taj Mahal and Percy Sledge. He became part of Dylan’s band shortly before the recording of Modern Times and stuck around through 2009. He died from abdominal cancer in 2021.
Duke Robillard (April 5-June 30, 2013)
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Sixteen years after he played guitar on “Million Miles,” “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven,” and “Can’t Wait” during the Time Out of Mind sessions, journeyman guitarist Duke Robillard was hired to join Dylan’s touring band. It lasted just a couple of months. “[Dylan] started acting really strange,” Robillard said in 2025. “I just decided I was too old to deal with it. He’s got a reputation for being different and difficult when he wants to be. I just said, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m going home.’ It’s a long story, very complex. I did something he didn’t like, and he shouldn’t have got upset about. I just can’t explain it. You’re gonna have to wait for my book.”
Colin Linden (July 15-Aug. 4, 2013)
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Dylan called Charlie Sexton back into action after the Duke Robillard situation imploded, but he had prior commitments with the Chicks spinoff band Court Yard Hounds. It led to a very weird situation where he flew into the tour whenever possible throughout July and August 2013, and Colin Linden served as his understudy whenever he couldn’t make it. This all took place when Dylan was playing large amphitheaters with My Morning Jacket and Wilco. To his credit, Linden handled the supporting role with great ease.
Bob Britt (2019-26)
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Bob Britt first played with Dylan during the Time Out of Mind sessions in early 1997, but none of those recordings were heard until the Time Out of Mind Bootleg Series box set came out in 2022. He got a second chance to work with Dylan in October 2019 when Dylan hired Matt Chamberlain on drums, and added Britt into the lineup to play alongside Charlie Sexton. He stuck around until June 2026, when he quit with a “Sayonara Bobby” post on Facebook. “I was not fired,” he added, “but left of my own accord for reasons I would prefer to keep private.”
Doug Lancio (2021-26)
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The global pandemic forced Dylan to take his first year off the road since beginning the Never Ending Tour in 1988. When he came back, fans learned that Charlie Sexton’s third stint in the band had ended. In his place was Doug Lancio, a veteran Americana musician who recorded with Patty Griffin for years, and who also worked with John Hiatt and Tom Jones. Lancio stuck around until June 2026, when he suddenly vanished following a show at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. Unlike Britt, he didn’t take to Facebook to explain what happened, meaning we don’t know if this was Bobby saying “Sayonara Doug” or Doug saying “Sayonara Bobby.” Either way, he’s gone.
Julian Lage (June 17-26, 2026)
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Most Bob Dylan fans at the Santa Barbara Bowl on June 17 were like, “Who the hell is the new guy playing guitar in Doug’s spot?” But a small percentage likely said something approximating, “Oh, my God! That’s Julian fuckin’ Lage!” The folks in the latter category were guitar aficionados, and they knew Lage is a freakishly talented jazz guitarist, able to play virtually anything. But he’s in such high demand that his time in Dylan’s band was limited to just seven concerts. We’re hearing he might come back at some point, but it’s unclear when.
Joel Paterson (June 29, 2026-Present)
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At some point after the June 26, 2026, show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bob Britt quit the band. This was a pretty big problem since Lage had an event booked in New York City on June 29, the same night as the next show in Austin. Fortunately, Dylan had already made plans for Chicago-based blues guitarist Joel Paterson to join. And for the first time since the John Jackson days of 1991, he was the sole guitarist on the stage. It was a crazy trial by fire, and he passed. Going forward, we have no idea if Paterson will remain the sole guitarist, if Lage will return and join him, or if a new member will come and fill the Britt role. There are no press releases or social media posts about such matters in Dylan World. You just have to wait until the show begins, and see who walks onto the stage.