This Monday, May 24, singer-songwriter and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan turns 80. Here are some facts you may not have known about his life.
Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota, with the name of Robert Allen Zimmerman.
He has won 10 Grammy Awards out of 38 nominations. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award and an Academy Award.
His early musical influences include Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, and Howlin ‘Wolf.
Many cities in the world celebrate Dylan’s birthday as the Dylanfest.
Between 1960 and 1961 he dropped out of college and went to New York, hoping to meet his idol, Woody Guthrie, and began performing on the Greenwich Village folk scene.
In 1962, he released his first album, “Bob Dylan”. It consists mainly of old folk songs remade by Dylan. He legally changes his last name to Dylan in August.
In 1971, he published his book “Tarantula”.
On March 3, 1973, he won the Grammy Award for album of the year for “The Concert For Bangladesh”, which he shared with Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Leon Russell, Ravi Shankar and Ringo Starr.
In 1978 he directed and starred in the film “Renaldo y Clara”.
In 1979, he studied Christianity at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship school in California.
In 1988 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1997, he made a presentation for Pope John Paul II in Bologna, Italy.
Later that year, he became the first rock musician to receive the Kennedy Center honors, which recognize a lifetime achievement in the performing arts.
On March 25, 2001, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Things Have Changed” from “Wonder Boys.”
In October 2004 he published “Chronicles: Volume One”, his autobiography.
On April 7, 2008, he won a special Pulitzer Prize mention for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”
On February 9, 2010, he presents “The Times, They are a Changing” at the White House in honor of Black History month, as part of a celebration of music by the Civil Rights Movement.
In January 2011, he signed a six-book contract with Simon & Schuster.
On May 29, 2012, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
On February 3, 2015, he released his 36th studio album, “Shadows in the Night” and gave away 50,000 copies to seniors who subscribed to the AARP magazine.
On October 13, 2016, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature, which he belatedly accepted on April 1, 2017 during a private ceremony in Stockholm.
In May 2018 he launched a whiskey collection called “Heaven’s Door”.
On November 20, 2020, auctioneers announced that a collection of Dylan memorabilia including letters, unpublished lyrics and handwritten lyrics to “Blowin ‘in the wind” sold for nearly half a million dollars.
On December 7, 2020, it is announced that Dylan has sold his entire song catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group.