<\/p>\n
Bob Dylan<\/strong>‘s music has never pulled any punches. The raw emotion, the unapologetic lyrics, the storytelling\u2014it all amalgamated into the essence of who Dylan is. He was also among the first to bring folk music to a largely popular scale, and as a pioneer in a niche, one can get pretty protective of their own “turf.” I think this applies to anyone in a creative field.<\/p>\n Even as a writer in a time of constant syndication, I get a little ruffled when I think of an idea first and see a lot of people taking the same approach. It\u2019s silly because writing, art\u2014whatever you do creatively\u2014always borrows from others, but it\u2019s really a spectrum of gray area. And it\u2019s almost a comfort to know the great Bob Dylan<\/strong> is guilty of this too.<\/p>\n Though they are good friends now, Dylan turned a little green with envy when he heard the iconic hit “Heart of Gold.”<\/p>\n \u201cThe only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about \u201972 and the big song at the time was \u2018Heart of Gold\u2019,\u201d Dylan told SPIN, according to Far Out Magazine. \u201cI used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young<\/strong>, but it bothered me every time I listened to \u2018Heart of Gold.\u2019 I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I\u2019d say, \u2018That\u2019s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n So in rebuttal, his song “Forever Young” was titled and written in response <\/a>to the number one track, according to Dylan’s biographer Clinton Heylin<\/strong> in a 2009 Rolling Stone interview.<\/p>\n \u201cDylan\u2019s saying he\u2019s forever Young, which is a dig at Neil for imitating Dylan,\u201d speculated Heylin.<\/p>\n Related: ’70s Folk Rock Legend Neil Young Performs ‘Heartbreaking’ Song for First Time in 6 Years<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The two, in all sincerity, have developed a genuine friendship and a respectful artistic relationship over the years.<\/p>\n In a 2005 Time interview, Far Out Magazinereported that Neil Young<\/strong><\/a> had nothing but words of praise for Dylan.<\/p>\n “He\u2019s the master. If I\u2019d like to be anyone, it\u2019s him. And he\u2019s a great writer, true to his music and done what he feels is the right thing to do for years and years and years.\u201d<\/p>\n On his 30th studio album, Dylan honored Young with a line in his song “Highlands” in 1997.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, my heart\u2019s in The Highlands \/ I can only get there one step at a time \/ I\u2019m listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n In Young’s song “Flags of Freedom” years later, he wrote, “Their bond is everlasting \/ Listening to Bob Dylan singin\u2019 \/ In 1963 \/ Watchin\u2019 the flags of freedom flying.\u201d<\/p>\n Recently, at Farm Aid’s inaugural 40th show, Young followed Dylan’s performance with his anti-Trump anthem “Big Crime.” The living legends have historically shared the stage many times in their careers.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the two have lived lives together and parallel in the industry for decades\u2014so what\u2019s a little creative rivalry between friends?<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\ud83c\udfac<\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Oct 7, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bob Dylan‘s music has never pulled any punches. The raw emotion, the unapologetic lyrics, the storytelling\u2014it all amalgamated into the essence of who Dylan is. He was also among the first to bring folk music to a largely popular scale, and as a pioneer in a niche, one can get pretty protective of their own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2077711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[29332,390217,347077,32187],"class_list":["post-2077710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-bob-dylan","tag-clinton-heylin","tag-forever-young","tag-neil-young"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Heartwarming-Bob-Dylan-Song-May-Actually-Be-a-Dig-at.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2077710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2077712,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077710\/revisions\/2077712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2077711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2077710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2077710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2077710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Neil Young and Bob Dylan’s Friendship<\/strong><\/h2>\n