Joan Baez and Bob Dylan were romantically involved in the early 1960s, but they continued to collaborate for decades to come. In 1984, Baez joined Dylan on a tour of Europe, but she quickly realized he wasn’t interested in sharing the spotlight. Baez shared why she decided to exit the tour early.

Joan Baez left her tour with Bob Dylan early 

When concert promoter Billy Graham approached Baez about touring with Dylan, he promised her equal billing and a chance to duet with Dylan every night. In reality, though, the tour seemed far more interested in advertising Dylan. Baez’s name was miniscule on the poster and she hardly saw Dylan. He also didn’t invite her out to duet until the third and fifth shows, and he stopped asking her after that. 

Before long, Baez had had enough. In Copenhagen, she told Dylan she was quitting. He didn’t seem to be in the right headspace to understand what she was saying to him.

“I leaned over and kissed his sweaty forehead,” Baez wrote in her book And a Voice to Sing With (via Rolling Stone). “It was covered in whiteface. He looked, as the British say, as if he’d been dragged through a hedge backward.”

He spoke about seeing her in a dream (it was actually a recent television appearance she made) before beginning to touch her.

“Bob started running his hand up my skirt, around the back of my knee, and partway up my thigh,” she wrote. “‘Wow, you got great legs. Where’d you get those muscles?’”

She lifted his hand and placed it on his own chest before kissing him again and leaving.

Joan Baez said she has forgiven Bob Dylan

While Baez said her relationship with Dylan felt “totally demoralizing” at times, she has let go of any lingering anger she held towards him.

“We were in our early 20s,” she told People. “We were stupid, and you can’t blame somebody forever. I certainly tried but finally stopped.”

She said she reached this point of forgiveness after painting a portrait of him in his youth.

“I put his music on, and I just dissolved into tears,” she said. “When I was through with the painting, I had no animosity left. None. It’s remained that way.” 

He feels badly about the way their relationship ended

For his part, Dylan has said he regrets the way he ended things with Baez.

“I feel very bad about it,” Dylan said, per the Toronto Star. “I was sorry to see our relationship end.”

His former tour manager believes Dylan cut things off with Baez because he didn’t want to compete with her musically. Still, Dylan said he felt drawn to her voice.

“We could sing anything together. In fact, a lot of times in bed, I’d hear her voice,” Dylan said in the documentary Rolling Thunder Revue, per USA Today. “Joan is so courageous. She always seems like she’s just come down from a meteor.”