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Bob Dylan meets with Pope Leo at Vatican
Bob Dylan has spent more than six decades knocking on heaven's door. On Wednesday, the door opened at the Vatican, where the legendary musician had a private audience with Pope Leo.
Leo and Dylan, fellow travellers from the U.S. Midwest, were seen meeting together in the pope's office at the ornate apostolic palace in photos shared by the Vatican's newspaper on social media.
The 71-year-old leader of the Catholic Church wore his customary white cassock. Dylan, the acoustic songbird who went electric in the 1960s, wore a black coat, black gloves and a black hooded sweatshirt.
Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Vatican official and Jesuit known for building relationships between the Church and figures in the entertainment industry, said on Instagram he had helped arrange the meeting.
"It was hard not to feel the emotion of being part of an encounter that had a real sense of history about it, with the feeling that, at every step through the Apostolic Palace, absolutely anything could happen!" He said.
Spadaro also helped broker the meeting of Pope Leo and Patti Smith earlier this year.
The Vatican press office did not immediately comment on whether Leo and Dylan had discussed anything blowing in the wind.
The Vatican's newspaper said Leo had "received in private audience Mr. Robert Allen Zimmerman," using the name the musician was given at birth in Duluth, Minnesota.
Leo, originally from Chicago, is known as a Dylan fan. He quoted a 1963 anti-nuclear protest song from the singer, "Go Away You Bomb," in a preface of a book released in July.
Meanwhile, this isn't the first time the Nobel Laureate has met with a Pope. According to CNN, Dylan met Pope John Paul II in Italy back in 1997, where he played a few of his songs including "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
— With reporting from Lou Albano, GMA News/Reuters
