Bob Dylan: Celebrated Singer-Songwriter

Growing up in the mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota, Bob Zimmerman was different from other kids. He loved musical artists such as Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie. Young Bob taught himself to play piano and guitar, and he and his friends played in his garage and at school talent shows. Bob wrote stories and poems too. His two passions—music and storytelling—led him to a growing musical style called folk. But he also felt trapped in his small, isolated town.

At the age of twenty-nine, Bob moved to New York City to chase his dream of becoming a folk singer. Most artists with this ambition didn’t make it. But Zimmerman, who soon changed his name to Bob Dylan, wasn’t most artists. In 1962 Dylan released his first album. Over time he would record thirty-eight more. Follow Bob Dylan’s journey from small-town Minnesota to the international stage as a folk musician and Civil Rights Movement icon, as well as the incredible songs and revolutionary lyrics that have helped shape American musical history.