Bob Dylan's MusiCares Person Of The Year Speech Praises Mellencamp

By Randall Roberts - Read Bob Dylan's full acceptance speech at LA Times

John paid tribute to Bob Dylan at Friday Night's MusiCares event. Here is a description of John's performance by USA Today: "The musical high point in a night of many highlights was probably John Mellencamp’s interpretation of “Highway 61 Revisited”; with a vocal tone and timbre that channeled Tom Waits’, he made this usually scorching rocker into a blues dirge. Never has Mellencamp sounded so artful..."

MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need, services and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies. After the star studded lineup paid tribute to Dylan, Bob himself accepted the honor with one of the longest and most impassioned speeches of his career.

Bob closed his speech with his support and appreciation for MusiCares which included a very touching mention of John, as transcribed by the LA Times: "And then one day he got sick. And like my friend John Mellencamp would sing -- because John sang some truth today -- one day you get sick and you don't get better. That's from a song of his called "Life is Short Even on Its Longest Days." It's one of the better songs of the last few years, actually. I ain't lying.."