TikToking on heaven’s door: Bob Dylan joins social media app as US ban looms
Bob Dylan is TikToking on heaven’s door after signing up to the social media app – days before it could disappear from his native US.
The 83-year-old songwriter has set up an official account, which launched with a 50-second video montage accompanied by a soundtrack featuring Like a Rolling Stone, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and Hurricane. The post has attracted nearly 2m views.
That was followed by a second post, a seemingly pointed clip of Dylan at a 1960s news conference saying: “Good God, I must leave right away.”
Dylan’s embrace of TikTok comes shortly before the platform faces being banned in the US, under a law that has set the app’s Chinese parent a deadline of Sunday to sell the American operation.
On Friday, the US supreme court upheld the law, although the president-elect, Donald Trump, is reportedly considering ways of suspending a ban.
Dylan has garnered 42,000 followers since setting up the account on Tuesday. He also has accounts on Instagram and X, with respective follower counts of 1 million and 485,000.
Users commented on the potentially last-ditch nature of Dylan’s appearance – for his US audience at least – with one writing: “In true Bob fashion, showing up right at the last minute.”
The songwriter has appeared on TikTok after the latest surge in media and listener interest in his work related to the release of the movie biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet.
Billboard has reported that streams of Dylan songs have been boosted since the film appeared in US cinemas, with US streams of his back catalogue more than doubling from 8m a week in early December to 20m a month later.
Listening figures for Like a Rolling Stone jumped 232% over the period, according to the music data firm Luminate, with Blowin’ in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin’ also registering big increases.
Dylan has also been posting more frequently on X, recently complimenting Nick Cave on his new song Joy after seeing the Australian perform with the Bad Seeds in Paris.
Dylan wrote: “I was really struck by that song Joy where he sings ‘We’ve all had too much sorrow, now it the time for joy.’ I was thinking to myself, yeah that’s about right.”
Writing on his Red Hand Files website, Cave described Dylan’s post as a “lovely pulse of joy”. He added: “Since I doubt I’ll get an opportunity to thank him personally, I’ll thank him here. Thank you, Bob!
The increased presence on X coincided with Dylan’s recent tour and the buildup to the release of A Complete Unknown, with the singer using the social media platform to flag the film’s release. Previously, Dylan’s X account was used to post impersonal content such as tour date announcements and official statements.
Since last year, however, the feed has been filled with personal posts, with the TikTok move representing Dylan’s latest step up in his social media presence.
