If there’s one thing Bob Dylan is good at—and he’s good at a lot of things—it’s keeping audiences guessing. On Tuesday night, the legendary singer-songwriter kicked off his 2025 Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour in Tulsa, OK and took the stage with a new drummer, Anton Fig.
Replacing longtime drummer Jim Keltner, 72-year-old Fig previously worked with Dylan on ’80s tracks “Clean Cut Kid” (Empire Burlesque) and “Drifting Too Far From Shore” (Knocked Out Loaded). He also played at Dylan’s 30th-anniversary concert in 1992, backed up Mick Jagger, Joe Bonamassa, Warren Zevon, Rosanne Cash, Paul Butterfield, and more, plus served in David Letterman‘s house band for nearly 30 years. Fig joins Dylan’s longtime backing band of Bob Britt (guitar), Tony Garnier (guitar, piano, harp), and Doug Lancio (guitar).
While the personnel change came as a shock, many fans were hoping to also see some curveballs in the setlist. After touring with a consistent setlist heavily reliant on Rough and Rowdy Ways material since launching his tour in 2021, Dylan mixed things up last summer on Willie Nelson‘s traveling Outlaw Festival tour. While playing outdoor amphitheaters with Willie, Dylan added covers of the Grateful Dead and Chuck Berry to his repertoire and dusted off long-dormant originals like “Under the Red Sky” and “Shooting Star”.
Tuesday’s show at the 2,800-capacity Tulsa Theater, however, saw a return to the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour format of the past four years. As Rolling Stone notes, “[I]t was the exact 17-song set he played when he wrapped up 2024 with three nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall.”
Though the songs remained the same, the major change came in Dylan’s voice. He spent the last four months off the road, making no public appearances even as his biopic A Complete Unknown took in over $130 million at the box office and fetched eight Oscar nominations, and the difference in his singing was unmistakable. Dylan’s voice sounded remarkably clearer, no longer like he’s gargling concrete (which did have its charms, especially when paired with Rough and Rowdy Ways tracks). To hear him hit the higher notes on songs like “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”—especially in comparison to 2024 recordings—makes it sound like the 84-year-old somehow reversed the aging process.
Despite the stagnant setlist, Dylan continues to reinvent his songs. He stripped “Black Rider” and “My Own Version of You” back to their bare essence of his voice and the piano, and trotted out his upbeat redo of “When I Paint My Masterpiece” over the music for “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”. Midway through the show, after “To Be Alone With You”, Dylan unexpectedly told the crowd the band would be back after a ten-minute break—a new wrinkle the band did not repeat the following night in Little Rock, AR, suggesting this may have been a one-off adjustment.
Tuesday marked the first show of Dylan’s marathon 57-date tour schedule through September. In May, he’ll link back up with Willie Nelson and play every date of Outlaw Festival—featuring rotating support from Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Sheryl Crow, and many more. At 84 years old, Dylan still has plenty of surprises left in him, and with 55 more shows to go, there’s plenty of chances to be caught off guard. Find tickets and a full list of tour dates here.
Bob Dylan — “It Ain’t Me, Babe” — 3/25/25
[Audio: I’m first among equals]
Setlist: Bob Dylan | Tulsa Theater | Tulsa, OK | 3/25/25
Set One: All Along the Watchtower, It Ain’t Me, Babe, I Contain Multitudes, False Prophet, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Black Rider, My Own Version of You, To Be Alone With You
Set Two: Crossing the Rubicon, Desolation Row, Key West (Philosopher Pirate), Watching the River Flow, It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue, I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You, Mother of Muses, Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Every Grain of Sand
Note: Brief intermission between “To Be Alone With You” and “Crossing the Rubicon”.