TikTok Is About to Be Banned, So Bob Dylan Joined the App to See What the Fuss Is About

There’s a scene in A Complete Unknown where Bob Dylan shows up to a party late and leaves shortly after arriving. The biopic seems to have really captured his true essence, since he essentially just did the same with TikTok. The short-form video platform is expected to be banned in the U.S. as soon as Sunday, but Dylan appears to have only just launched his account on the app.

“Explore the world of Bob Dylan, now on TikTok,” the caption on his first post reads. The video is a compilation of footage from throughout the 83-year-old musician’s life set to “Like a Rolling Stone.” The account already has more than 10,000 followers. But the comments are already warning Dylan that the fun won’t last. “You’ve got 30 minutes king,” a top comment reads, while another notes: “Bob TikTok is knocking on heavens door.”

Some other users are running low on hope that TikTok might be spared by the Supreme Court before the ban can go into effect — so low that they think Dylan might be the messiah they’ve been waiting on all this time. “Bob Dylan save TikTok,” one user wrote, with another urging: “Bob you have money please buy TikTok or something.” A few suggested he learn Mandarin and join RedNote, the app hundreds of thousands of TikTok users are migrating to for their scrolling fix.

It would probably take RedNote going up in flames for Dylan to have any interest in using it. He seems to prefer his social media apps to have one foot in the grave. Last year, when Elon Musk was in the process of dismantling Twitter and restructuring it as the functionally inefficient, bot-filled X, the music legend suddenly became an avid user. “Happy Birthday Mary Jo! See you in Frankfort,” he posted in September. Who is Mary Jo? Hell if we know.

Another X post took the long route to a short story: “At the hotel in Frankfurt there was a publishing convention and every room was taken, parties all night. I didn’t know there were so many book publishers in the world. I was trying to find Crystal Lake Publishing so I could congratulate them on publishing The Great God Pan, one of my favorite books. I thought they might be interested in some of my stories. Unfortunately it was too crowded and I never did find them.”

It’s too bad Dylan hopped on the TikTok train just as it was veering off the tracks. He would have loved the “Put a Finger Down” storytelling trend.

From Rolling Stone US.