How tall is Bob Dylan

Arch Stanton said on 6/Jun/23
I miss the old days of requests Rob! Can't believe Joni Mitchell is still missing! 5 ft 6 online but look here with Bob Dylan wearing flats in the 80s Click Here Looks no more than 5 ft 3 there but is Dylan wearing inflated footwear?. Generally from what I've seen I had thought about 5 ft 4. Her thin frame, long hair and angular facial features in her prime gave off the impression of a taller woman. Van Morrison also missing, I think about 5 ft 4.

Orlando said on 31/May/23
Andy Warhol next to 5ft 6in Tennessee Williams Click Here and next to 5ft 3in Truman Capote Click Here

Orlando said on 31/May/23
Andy Warhol was not 5'11, nor 5'10", nor 5'9".
According to biography "Warhol: A Life as Art", by Blake Gopnik (2020), Warhol was 5ft 8in: «By any normal measure, this thirty-nine-year-old Caucasian, five foot eight, 145 pounds, was D.O.A.»
If one is thin (like Warhol was) and if one has long legs and arms, one looks tall, most of the time. Besides, Warhol wore thick sneakers and big heeled boots.
Look at this photo of Warhol with Salvador Dalí (who was 1.72 m or 5ft 7.75in tall, when he was in his twenties): Click Here

Sandy Cowell said on 10/Apr/23
I have only just woken up and I had ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’ stuck in my head. I searched and searched for the best version, and it has to be the one from ‘Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid’. It’s well worth checking out as a tear jerker.

Sandy Cowell said on 11/Jan/23
I was listening to some Bob Dylan while waiting for my cab.

The first track to play was ‘Everybody Must Get Stoned’, which is okay for a giggle but not at all an anthem by which to conduct your life.

I knew a man who loved this song, and he was my boyfriend after being my good friend. Alas, he died of drug abuse just after his 39th birthday. The main offenders were prescription drugs, of which he took far in excess of the prescribed dose. The reason he was so desperate is because he wasn’t allowed to see his kids, but I got down on my knees and begged him to be patient because they will go out of their way to see him when they’re grown up, but he didn’t listen.

Anyway, he is fondly remembered and had a huge turnout at his funeral. A big guy, Barry Champion, made a beautiful speech and my Mum asked if she could hold his arm. Being the gentleman that he was, he was hardly going to refuse.

The video for ‘Everybody Must Get Stoned’ shows Bob’s height very well.

I’m giving the singer 5ft6.5. He appeared in ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’, and my very favourite song of Bob’s is included in the film. It is ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’ and brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

Arch Stanton said on 12/Nov/21
It depends, sometimes very attractive people aren't the nicest of people and are up themselves and self-centred precisely because they've taken it for granted people fawning over them. There's plenty of women like that in Hollywood. All about them and not interested in anybody else. Scott Eastwood said only about 5% of the people he's ever spoken to in Hollywood genuinely seemed interested in what he had to say and not making it about them...

Ian C. said on 11/Nov/21
I try to avoid praising Bob Dylan whenever possible as there are hundreds of thousands of people who are already doing that, but you really have to admit that his success has been largely intellectual, in that it sprang from his brain. He really did write wonderful songs. Somehow he also became a great recording artist, although that is a bit of a mystery, as far as I'm concerned. His ordinary looks would have been a handicap for anyone who wanted to get into show business.

My guess is that Bob Dylan was never a man who was pleased with what he saw in the mirror. It is supposition, but I have always suspected that Bob Zimmerman renamed himself after (enormously tall) Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, and was profoundly unhappy with his height. I also suspect that Dylan's astonishing personal rudeness was a byproduct of being physically plain in an industry that rewards good looks. In the obverse, Elvis's habitual kindliness may in fact have sprung from his confidence in the way that he looked. Good looking people tend to be nice because they're used to people being nice to them first. Plain people aren't usually so fortunate.


Elvis didn't do it with his mind. He just had extraordinary physical appeal, an innate musical sense and an excellent singing voice. And very good management. There really is no one quite like him in the history of popular music, although Sinatra may have close.

Arch Stanton said on 10/Nov/21
Jewel on the Rogan podcast said Dylan was very helpful to her in her early career and didn't try to hit on her. She said Dylan invited her to see him after hearing she threw somebody out of the gig for unruly behaviour and he respected her was doing it. Of course if you have talents and looks like Dana and Jewel the world's your oyster, but for some reason Dana never became a big name in music, mostly only did vocals for films and TV. I'd be very wary being a beautiful young woman in the music industry, I wonder how many talents in music and film were wasted due to them refusing to "cooperate" with the sleazebag execs...

Arch Stanton said on 10/Nov/21
This is an amazing poorly known talent, Dana Glover, Brooke Shields looking and a killer voice and pianist. Some people have it all and more. Watch this:

Click Here

Arch Stanton said on 8/Nov/21
Ah, I thought you were saying he was ugly. Elvis could range from looking rather chubby faced and a snub nosed facially Click Here to Click Here (where I agree he looks every inch the matinee idol type he wanted to look like). The black hair dye, the clothes and makeup in his films I think made a big difference. Sinatra apparently had a very large tallywacker, and had a temper, maybe that was the appeal LOL. True, most female singers are beautiful.

Ian C. said on 7/Nov/21
I wouldn't call Dylan ugly, Arch. He is plain. A very ordinary looking man with a small, thin body. He has been married and divorced three times, and has sired six children, which suggests normal virility. Also, it must be said, he is, in a strange way, quite a good singer. You will never hear him sing a wrong note, and in fact the rather harsh, nasal quality of his voice may have contributed to his success as a vocalist. People thought, if that guy can be a professional singer then I can too.

Paul Simon is physically tiny. Willie Nelson is definitely short. Roy Orbison was physically plain, although he arguably had the finest singing voice of any popular recording artist in history. Donovan looked like an elf. Frank Sinatra was small and plain of face. (I don't really understand the erotic hysteria that Sinatra was said to evoke in women.)

Elvis Presley was flat-out, movie star beautiful. So were Jim Morrison and Ricky Nelson. There are no unflattering photographs of those guys. I'll bet their driver's license photos looked good.

See if you can think of many female artists who were plain. Janis Joplin, maybe. Cass Elliot, but she was in a group with a beautiful woman. Adele. Not a lot of plain girls, because physical beauty of a certain type is a prerequisite for success in female singers.

Arch Stanton said on 5/Nov/21
Thom Yorke is uglier than Dylan. Joan Baez is amazing, if you've not heard her first two albums listen to them!! Silver Dagger! Dylan in person strikes me as if he'd be a rather surly, odious chap. I don't think Elvis was ridiculously good looking at all, iconic sure, the coiffed dyed black hair and clothes made a big difference to how he looked. Dylan could seem shorter but with 5'4 ish Van Morrison actually looked about 5 ft 7.

Ian C. said on 5/Nov/21
Joan Baez, who became one of Dylan's lovers, has admitted that she first thought of Dylan as "that little toad." Ow Ouch. Of course, it is an ironic measure of Dylan's special appeal that he was able to transcend being small and plain. That is, none of his great success was founded on physical beauty, whereas, for example, at least half of Elvis's appeal was in his extraordinary good looks. In fact I can't think of any professional singer who had less to offer in the way of good looks as Bob Dylan. The Beatles, for example, benefited from being cute, and Mick Jagger got a lot of mileage out of looking slightly demonic.

Imagine the absurdity of giving the Nobel in Literature to a man who cribbed from Cliff's Notes in his acceptance speech. That speech is a strutting example of phony baloney hokum. In it Dylan claimed that All Quiet on the Western Front, the Odyssey and Moby Dick were his principal literary sources of inspiration. (Yeah. We can be pretty sure he hasn't read Moby Dick.) I'm surprised he didn't throw in Joyce's Ulysses, just to be on the safe side.

Ian C. said on 30/Oct/21
Now it is certainly true that I don't love Bob Dylan as much as all the other persons on the planet Earth, but I have my reasons.

When Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize (For Literature. I guess the Prizes for Economics and Chemistry were already taken that year.) he took a few weeks to even acknowledge the honour. Then somebody must have explained to him that he had to formally accept in order to collect the $900,000, so he had to admit that he had noticed that he won. Then, rather than making a speech to the Nobel Committee in person, he sent a written speech. The speech contained a brief passage citing themes from Moby Dick, and it turned out that the passage was a near-word for word plagiarism of an excerpt from Cliff Notes. (Which is crib book that college students use when they haven't actually read the book.) Classic Dylan. Be very rude and then steal somebody else's words, and do it in a way that is so lazily obvious that he would be caught.

Yeah, and he's short. Real short.

Ian C. said on 23/Oct/21
Maybe Dylan is on the autistic spectrum. He has extraordinary talent (or okay, genius) in one area, but is seriously socially awkward. He sat for an interview with Ed Bradley on Sixty Minutes, and the impression he gave was that he just didn't like Bradley. He can be seen on YouTube doing a set with Willie Nelson, who is famously friendly and loved by all, and the sense you get is that Dylan and Nelson didn't like each other. He seems to have no sense of humour.

I have known and worked with people who had Asperger's syndrome, and they are profoundly uncomfortable around other people. They just don't respond to any of your attempts to make friends. Dylan is like that. He refuses to engage with his audiences at his concerts.

I remember watching Dylan sing a song on the Letterman show. Letterman went over to Dylan to say nice things about his set, and Dylan just kind of cut him cold. It was awkward, and Letterman seemed genuinely surprised and embarrassed by Dylan's curt rudeness.

Normal people don't lie. You find out by your early twenties that there is no such thing as a sustainable lie. You always get caught, so you just avoid lying as much as possible, because it causes people to dislike you. Dylan lies much of the time, and doesn't seem to realize or care that it is so offensive. If Bob Dylan was not a musical genius he would have been poor.

Ian C. said on 17/Aug/21
This is certainly speculative, but it is reasonable to suggest that Dylan's frequently terrible personality springs from insecurity about his height. There is a clip in Don't Look Back of a party Dylan is hosting in a London hotel. Somebody has thrown something out the window, and Dylan starts dressing everybody down about "responsibility", as if he's the vice principal of a junior high school, and his guests are rowdy pupils. And he looks ridiculous, because he's a little guy in his mid-twenties, and he has no personal authority. He may have been a cultural god in a recording studio or on a stage, but he has no force as a man if he's just out in the world.

It is said that he followed Ian Tyson and Johnny Cash around as if he were a puppy dog. Those guys were big, studly lads with a lot of masculine authority, and I'll bet he wanted to be like them.

There is another story, in Joan Baez's autobiography (called A Voice to Sing With), where Baez (who seems to be a very naive woman) speaks of an episode where Dylan confronted a maitre d in a hotel about some minor point of dispute, and the man was large and imposing. Baez speaks of Dylan's courage in confronting the man, completely unafraid of the man's superior size. Well that ain't so brave, because who had the power? Dylan was a wealthy celebrity, and the big man was an employee of a hotel, and obligated to treat Dylan with deference. So it was Dylan who was the bully and not the maitre d. It's not as if Dylan was getting in the face of somebody in a blue collar bar in Queens.

Apparently, during Dylan's concerts, he does not speak to the audience in between songs. This comes off as rude and arrogant. Maybe he's just an introvert who landed by a strange amalgam of talent and luck in an extrovert's job.

I'll make you a bet. Very few people who went to high school with Bob Dylan remember him very well.

Ian C. said on 16/Aug/21
If you're a Dylan fan the movie to see is Don't Look Back, which is a documentary made in 1967 about Dylan's 1965 concert tour in England. That's the one with the clip of the vicious abuse of the interviewer, who was a correspondent for TIME magazine named Horace Judson. Judson believed that Dylan's tirade was actually contrived. That is, it was a performance, rather than a real, spontaneous conversation. An act, The tirade was not only shockingly rude, and stupid on its face, it was phony. I would say that a man who publicly insults another man just for the sake of putting on an act is profoundly cynical and certainly indecent.

Also, in that interview, Dylan was presenting himself as tough. It is very easy to be tough when you're pushing around somebody who can't fight back, which is what Dylan was doing at that moment. That's just bullying, and I've loved to see Dylan try that on with someone would have got him back.

Tall Sam said on 2/Aug/21
Agreed, I’m a huge Dylan fan, about as devoted a listener as you’re likely to know, and can find something to like even in the low points of his career. I’ve also read about him quite a lot and don’t care about his personality, really, I’ve known him to say jerky, arrogant or bizarre things but I think his wonderful catalog of songs reveal him to be sane, romantic if prone to depression, very thoughtful, challengingly intelligent, surprisingly emotional and even a bit warm hearted.

Arch Stanton said on 29/Jul/21
Dylan's lyrics compensate for any shortcomings wiht his character or height though!! I personally don't care that he was rude and arrogant, he was a brilliant song writer, not as musically talented as Joni, but the true poet of rock. Doubt he was under this after seeing him with Van Morrison who was surely no more than 5 ft 4.

Tall Sam said on 27/Jul/21
Interesting, I do think Dylan does try to be “cool” but I don’t recall him ever trying to pass as a tough guy, really. Yeah he lies and stretches the truth, including about height, and is at best usually considered very cold, aloof and sometimes rude (including to the musicians he’s employed in the past), though I’ve never gotten the impression he’s a mean or sadistic sort. He’s very arrogant, has an enormous ego, often is socially awkward and cold and just happens to be a genius IMO.

I still stand by most of what he said as a young man to journalists can be blown out of proportion. These journalists often seemed like they were at a McCarthy hearing, i.e. asking Dylan “exactly how many folk singers are there?” is a far stupider than the arrogant thing Dylan said quoted below and sometimes his retorts were actually kind of funny (not that one). He is not always that way when interviewed and can seem almost warm at times if he seems to take a shine to an interviewer, but that’s admittedly rare.

Ian C. said on 1/Apr/21
Okay, okay, Bob Dylan really was a genius. I keep pulling up Dylan songs on YouTube, some of them sung by the great man himself, and I end up being entertained. Like, really, really entertained, because they are great songs.

Bob Dylan has a history of bare-faced lying, and the lies are always designed to enhance his standing beyond reasonable limits. He is the product of a banal middle class upbringing in Minnesota, but went around telling people that he had been a hobo, or a rentboy in New York, or a heroin addict. All fictions. He claimed to have been in a motorcycle accident, which is completely uncorroborated and was probably just another lie. He gets credit for being a civil rights activist because some of his early songs were co-opted as semi-anthems by the civil rights movement of the sixties, but there is no evidence that he was personally political. Many of his songs have lyrics that seem profound but are actually just fake-outs. (If you don't understand cryptic lyrics it's not because your stupid. It's because the lyrics are incomprehensible, probably by design.)

There are many occasions where he can be seen to be aggressively rude to journalists, just out of malice and self-aggrandizement. What is the defining example? He can be seen, in his early twenties, telling an interviewer, I can tell more about you already than you will ever know about me. (Not word for word, but that's a close paraphrase.) Well that's just stupid, and Dylan doesn't seem to understand that it's stupid, and he's pulling this nonsense on a man who is helping him sell records.

When he won the Nobel Prize, he didn't even acknowledge the award for at least a week. He just ignored it, which was what? A demonstration of colossal arrogance, and a vicious insult to people who were trying to honour him. A man that rude is at the very least, a flaming narcissist.

And physically he is perfectly ordinary. You don't catch Paul Simon or Willie Nelson going around pretending that they're big, tough studs, but Dylan has actually tried that, as if no one can see that he's a little, skinny guy who has never been in a fistfight in his life.

Contrast Bob to Elvis, who was often described by people who worked with him as an extraordinarily nice man. If anyone had a right by virtue of his achievements to be an arrogant jerk, Elvis was that man, but he was decent and honest clean through. Unlike Mr. Dylan.

Linke said on 16/Jan/21
Wow, Yul claimed 6 feet! I don't really watch old movies but from whatever little I saw of him, I would have guessed him at an average range. Adding over 3 inches is rare, 4 even worse. In person, I have seen many girls under 5 feet add 3-4 inches to their height. And I have a 5'2 male friend who claims 5'6! Another 5'5 guy who claims 5'8.5!

vastlybetter566 said on 9/Jan/21
@Linke

Another guy you might list is Yul Brynner.

Claimed 6ft, while being 5ft8. I hate that.

Linke said on 3/Jan/21
I can think of the following who add 3 inches or more to their claim.

1: Bob Dylan (5'6.5 guy claiming 5'10-5'11)
2: Saif Ali Khan (5'7 guy claiming 5'11)
3: Liam Payne (5'9 guy claiming 6'1)
4: Dom Deluise (Weak 5'10 guy claiming 6'1)
5: Richard Branson (5'11 guy claiming 6'2)
6: Ranveer Singh (5'9 guy claiming 6'0).
7: Orson Welles (6'0 claiming 6'3.5)
8: Neil Brown Jr (5'5.75 claiming 5'9)
9: Corey Feldman (5'5 guy claiming 5'8)
10: Vanilla Ice (5'11 guy claiming 6'2)
11: Jake Pail (5'10.5 claiming 6'2)

Then there's beetlejuice and Aaron carter but beetle's claim was a joke and Aaron has had history of mental illness, so that doesn't qualify.

vastlybetter566 said on 28/Dec/20
Congratulations to Bob for making the least believable height claim I've ever seen. Beating Richard Branson's 6'2 claim by half an inch.

Bob must have thought that he was surrounded by giants all the time. When he worked with Johnny Cash, he probably must have thought that Cash was about 6ft7.

Linke said on 25/Dec/20
He makes Liam Payne's claim believable. 5'10 was bad enough, listing himself 5'11 is even worse.

Linke said on 21/Dec/20
Rob, did he actually claim 5'10?

Arch Stanton said on 30/Nov/20
Click Here And there again. Joni Mitchell in the distance also missing, two of the biggest (and best) artists of the 70s!

Click Here Joni with Elt recently looks to have lost at least 2 inches. Didn't look 5 ft 6 peak, I'd have said nearer 5 ft 4-5 and nearer 5'2 now but haven't looked much. Have a listen to this, gorgeous song. Clouds IMO one of the the greatest albums of alltime. Click Here Joni is hugely respected by jazz musicians too, collaborated with many.

Arch Stanton said on 30/Nov/20
Click Here with Dylan there again.

Arch Stanton said on 30/Nov/20
Any chance Rob of adding Van Morrison? Looked quite a bit shorter than Bob Dylan Click Here 5 ft 7 is laughing gas, I'd say as low as 5'4 possible, tiny guy. Click Here Legendary musician, makes up for lack of height!!

Tall Sam said on 10/Nov/20
It could be that he stood 5'7" in his heyday but that was the max he could've been. He was never a guy who was distinctive for being super short like Paul Simon, Prince or Van Morrison but its hard to argue him over 5'6.5" range looking quite a bit shorter than Kris Kristofferson, Robbie Robertson, John Lennon, even Robert De Niro.

Damon Albarn said on 8/Nov/20
I think his peak height was at least 5'7 he didn't look that small back in the day

Raindog said on 19/Sep/20
To Ian C, how does a person plagiarize a last name of a TV characters last name? That is ridiculous. If I change my last name to Smith am I plagiarizing Brad Pitt’s character’s name from the movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”? And to take that thought to the extreme of suggesting that Mr. Dylan is the type of a person that would make a preposterous lie about being 6’7” Is quite frankly ridiculous and nasty. Obviously you don’t like him and maybe you should adhere to the saying “if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all”.

Tall Sam said on 31/Aug/20
I think Ian C. dislikes Dylan since he was famously rude to journalists during the height of his rock star fame in the mid 60s. However, if you go back and watch the press conferences, the journalists were roughly equally obnoxious in their pushy ways and its clear the young Dylan fancied himself a kind of modern day Groucho Marx wiseacre to their stodgy Margaret Dumonts. Now I'm not going to say Dylan now or has ever been Mr. Warm and friendly but I've read a lot about him and have never got the impression that he was a deliberately harmful to other folks.

vastlybetter566 said on 30/Aug/20
@Ian C

Wow, what an unnecessary personal attack on Bob Dylan. You're making it seem as if he's Kanye West.

He seems to be a guy, who wants to be known for writing and performing music, rather than being in the spotlight all of the time.

Miss Sandy Cowell said on 24/May/20
🎂🎁🎶🎈 Happy Birthday Bob! 🎈🎶🎁🎂

A Very Happy 79th Birthday to the terrific Bob Dylan!

My late boyfriend used to repeatly play the movie 'Pat Garratt and Billy the Kid', in which Bob Dylan had a bit part and the film contained his music. I grew bored with the film, but never the soundtrack. 😃📺🎶🎵

Bob gets 5ft6.5 😁👍

🎂🎁🎶🎈🎂🎁🎶🎈🎂🎁🎶🎈🎂🎁🎶🎈

Spencer said on 19/Feb/20
5'6.5" peak
5'6" nowadays

Tall Sam said on 9/Sep/19
Considering that he could look 5'6" in some photos and 5'7" in others, I do think that 5'6.5" is a good bet for his peak (though after seeing him near Bruce Springsteen, I don't buy Bruce was ever really anything over 5'9"). Nowadays, Dylan might be a tad under 5'6".

Miss Sandy Cowell said on 16/Jul/19
I have fallen in love with one of Bob's songs, as sung by Jon Anderson and Steve Howe of Yes. Bob didn't half write some moving songs. I used to buy his albums for my late boyfriend.

Yes, Bob Dylan is a legend in his own lifetime. 🎼😀👍💕

Bob gets 5ft6.5.

Miss Sandy Cowell said on 24/May/19
🎼🎸🎧 Happy Birthday Bob! 😁👍🎂🎁

Have a very enjoyable day, Bob!

5ft6.5. 🎈💐

Irffo said on 30/Mar/19
Anyone know how tall Phil Ochs was?

Greg99 said on 9/Mar/19
I would have thought a young Bob was over 5'7" and likely closer to 5'8" - I'm not seeing a 6.5" difference between Dylan's height and Band member Robbie Robertson who is widely listed at 6'1"

Ian C. said on 16/Feb/19
An inch taller than Joan Baez, who claimed five foot five and a half. So, Rob's listing is well confirmed.

Ian C said on 27/Jan/19
Well. Check out that picture with Dylan standing next to Muhammad Ali. Neither man looks as if he likes the other very much. Dylan didn't like Ali because he didn't like anybody, and Ali didn't like Dylan because of his nasty personality.

Could Dylan's appalling lifelong rudeness be a function of his height? In the great human hierarchy of physicality, Bob Dylan is decidedly below average. Unlike Elvis, nobody ever asked Bob to be a leading man in a movie. A skinny little guy with an I.Q. of 130, and I'll bet he was bullied a bit in high school.

Watch Don't Look Back, a fine documentary about the young and suddenly famous Bob Dylan, and it is astonishing how rude he is to people. The sense you get it that he was one angry little fella, and he was out to get even with everybody. Or consider his superhuman rudeness to the Nobel Committee. He just ignored the announcement that he had won the Prize. You've got be autistic to be that lacking in social grace.

Tall Sam said on 15/Oct/18
Hard to say though, generally there seems to be nothing like a big 3 inch difference between Springsteen and Dylan, maybe footwear is a factor of it. However hard to see more than two inches, maybe at one time Dylan being nearer 5'7" and Springsteen nearer a flat 5'9" is not impossible.
Click Here

Tall Sam said on 15/Oct/18
Yeah, he did look more like 5'7.5" range in that photo with Muhammad Ali. I think it's from the Rolling Thunder tour in the late 70s and Dylan was sporting some pretty big heeled boots for a lot of it,. From the same tour, there's a photo of him with Springsteen and they look nearly even.
Click Here
Click Here

alabamafr said on 9/Oct/18
@Ian Coleman

There is a famous picture of him and Muhammad Ali. I doubt the reason he doesn't do a lot of pictures is mainly due to a height insecurity. He's a guy who doesn't do a lot of publicity. He rarely does interviews. When he's in the public eye, it's mostly for concerts or important events.

Keys said on 27/Sep/18
Is a head as big as 9.25 inch possible for Dylan, Rob?

Ian Coleman said on 31/Aug/18
Hey, boys and girls. Here's an experiment you can do at home with your computer: Google up "Bob Dylan," call up the Images pages and you will notice there are almost no pictures of Mr. Dylan standing beside another person. In the few that you can find, he's the taller of the two. Call me unreasonably suspicious but that suggests to me that ol' Bob has always been so sensitive about being short that he has made it a lifelong practice to avoid having pictures taken that would reveal his true size. I mean really, how can you be in show business and avoid having your picture taken standing beside other human beings unless you are deliberately avoiding having your picture taken standing beside other human beings?

Tall Sam said on 17/May/18
At times I still think 5'7" might've been possible at peak but he does often enough look on the weak side for it, but for his generation I believe he's only a couple inches under average. I'm a huge Dylan fan but he was a bold-faced liar about many things including his height. Dylan can look noticeably taller obviously than truly short guys like Van Morrison, Paul Simon, even James Brown. I'd bet in their Cuban heels and holding good posture, he and Ringo Starr might've looked close in the 60s.

I'd also say, he probably deserves a current height listing, maybe 5'5.75"-5'6" range.

Sixone said on 4/Feb/18
His passport claims 5’11...
Click Here

Travis said on 1/Oct/17
He's an almost 80 year old man. I think it's necessary you add a peak height. He's tiny.

Drooperdoo said on 22/Sep/17
Regarding Dylan expressing confusion over his family's Germanic surname [Zimmerman], he did that in reference to the fact that his family did not emigrate to the United States from Germany, but from the Ottoman Empire. They were Turkish Jews. (At the time period, the world's only majority-Jewish city in the world was Salonaika in the Ottoman Empire.) The majority of Turkey's Jews, however, were not generally Yiddish Jews, but Sephardic Jews from Spain. So Dylan's right: Zimmerman would have been uncommon, though not exactly improbable (since Turkey is on the other side of the Black Sea from the Ukraine). So Yiddish-speaking Jews could very easily have migrated to Turkey from Eastern Europe. And that's probably his family's trajectory. Polish/Russian Jews moving to Turkey and thence to the U.S.

kk said on 17/Jul/17
just saw dylan at concert 2017 and 5 6.5 may be right. maybe 5.5

mande2013 said on 11/Feb/17
Rob: What about Van Morrison? I'm surprised he doesn't have a page.

Lou said on 4/Feb/17
This seems about right.

Lmeister said on 15/Dec/16
Terrible posture makes him look shorter. 5ft7 ~ 170cm in his youth.

Sam said on 14/Dec/16
You might want to consider a current height since he continues to be pretty active. I don't get the impression he's lost much, maybe 5'6" from a 5'6.5" peak?
Click Here

Pita said on 15/Oct/16
If you consider his curly, puffed up hair, he could be 5'6" ~ at the most!

Sam said on 28/Mar/16
I wouldn't rule out near 5'7" standing straight at his peak. I once saw a quote from I believe Dave Von Ronk saying that in person Dylan could look bizarrely different at different times, sometimes robust and solid medium height, other times tiny and small. Don't know if it was Bob trying out lifts or something but definitely in line with the I'm Not There view of Dylan's life.

Tarvis Pons de Beaumont said on 20/Dec/15
I met Dylan just before the concert in Kilkenny, Ireland in 2001. As his usual he had a stetson hat and cowboy boots and also a fake big beard, to keep a low profile when visiting Kilkenny Castle. I met him another time when I gave him a lift from Turin Airport to John Beck rented villa outside town in 1976. In both cases he was just tall as I was and I am now, 5.7 in the '70s and a bit less in the naughties, considering the boots that he took off during an impromptu party in Beck's place. During the '70 I was mimicking anything he did, including his very poor dressing and hygiene standards, so I was quite pleased to be as tall as him. Nowadays's different, I put on lots of flesh and he has not (-:

Sam said on 13/Nov/15
Dylan with Sonny and Cher, doesn't really look more than an inch taller than 5'5" listed Sonny Bono:
Click Here
Could look under 5'6" here with Robert De Niro but I think he's slouching more than De Niro:
Click Here
Looks as listed I believe with David Letterman:
Click Here
Dylan can look taller at times but I think he sported some fairly blatant platforms in the late 70s, making him seem closer than expected to Bruce Springsteen and Muhammad Ali in photos.

Sam said on 4/Jun/15
Any chance of a current height (not much but probably half inch loss) and a photo for Dylan, Rob?

Sam said on 4/May/15
Rob, is this his peak height?

Ian C said on 4/Feb/15
Now Berek, the protocols for "poetic license" apply to literary or theatrical treatments of real events. When Bob Dylan tells people things about himself that are not true he not being poetically licentious. He is lying. If that little (select whatever pejorative noun you may be comfortable with) were to tell me that the sky was up I'd go outside and look, just to make sure.

Sam said on 8/Dec/14
Leaning near Kris Kristofferson, he does look near listing. Click Here
In some photos, such as the ones with Tom Petty, Springsteen or Muhammad Ali, I thought Dylan could have looked 5'7" depending on how big his footwear was.

Berek said on 29/Sep/14
People saying in the comments here that he has claimed 5'11" doesn't make it true. There is a photo on the front of his Biograph album that shows a passport detailing a height of 5'10", but anyone that has listened to Bob Dylan's lyrics, his showmanship or his fabricated biography knows this is a man deeply enthralled by poetic license. Claiming 5'10" is just another way to mislead and beguile his reader. Dylan is not as low as 5' 6.5". Watch his video for "Blood in My Eyes". He's likely wearing cowboy boots in the video, as is his custom, but he still pulls off 5'9" when in situ with recognisable landmarks in Camden town. He's likely 5' 7.5" in his stockings.

Sam said on 24/Sep/14
Rob, he is over 70, possibly due for a current height listing. Maybe shrunken about a half inch or a bit more.

Somebody's Problem said on 4/Aug/14
I heard he claimed 5'11, what a joke.

RoDawg said on 19/Jul/14
I could see him at 5ft 7.5 back in his prime but definitely no taller. As for right now the listed height seems accurate.

Ian C. said on 8/Jul/14
I wonder if Bob Dylan is the most aggressive height liar ever considered by Celebrity Heights. This site is cluttered with the names of celebrities who have added and sometimes subtracted inches, but Dylan seems to hold the record for biggest lie by going for four-and-half inches of imaginary height. Bob Dylan seems to be one of those people who thinks that the strict truth is only for people who are too stupid to make stuff up.

Sam said on 2/Jul/14
Does look around 5'6" IMO next to President Obama.
Click Here

Sam said on 8/Apr/14
Again, I don't see under 5'7" here from Dylan meeting Elvis Presley.
Click Here

Sam said on 13/Mar/14
I've seen listings from 5'4" to a ridiculous self claimed 5'11". I still think it's possible he hit 5'7" at peak, though.

truth said on 21/Feb/14
Most sources say 171cm this source says 169cm. I think 170cm flat peak.

Samuel said on 3/Jan/14
What about his peak height then?
He looked short even back in the 60s. Probably in the 5'7-5'7.5 range (at most), with boots around 5'8.

John said on 1/Dec/13
I think he's a bit taller than that. 5'8 seems fair

Sam said on 9/Oct/13
He could look 5 inches taller than Paul Simon.

Sam said on 27/Sep/13
His sons are taller than him, but don't know about Samuel or his daughters. Jakob's around 5'9"ish next to Bruce Springsteen.
Click Here
And Jesse Dylan is seemingly over 6 foot, being about 2 inches shorter than Will Ferrell and a few inches taller than strong 5'9"ish Judd Apatow.
Click Here
Click Here

Sam said on 22/Jul/13
Maybe the shortest I've seen Dylan look, here with Marlon Brando. Dylan looks like 5'5" if he's lucky but I don't know about angles, et al.
Click Here

Sam said on 11/Jul/13
Hey, Dylan could have reached 5'9"...in a boot with a large, 2-inch heel...I think his footwear why he looked close to Springsteen, not as much shorter than Muhammad Ali as you'd expect, etc. during the Rolling Thunder tour in 76. I do find it incredible that he could claim 5'10" in serious way. It is not common for people other than wrestlers to give themselves a 3 (or more?) inch upgrade, 2 inches is more typical in Hollywood.

Ian C. said on 10/Jul/13
I'll bet you this month's liquor bill that Bob Dylan has always wanted to be tall. When asked how he came to choose the stage name Dylan, he has always claimed that, I dunno, he just kind of thunk it up. Come on. I think he named himself after Marshal Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke, who was enormously tall. Yeah, and his first stage name was Eldred Gunn, and I think he took that name from the eponymous hero of Peter Gunn, also a popular TV show when Bob Zimmerman was in high school. And Peter Gunn was tall. I tell you, this was a little guy who was very unhappy about it. As an interesting personal note, I am six feet four. I am not a fabulously wealthy songwriter who is widely regarded as a great American artist. I'm not happy about that.

Sam said on 11/Jun/13
Any particular reason for the downgrade, Rob?

Matt said on 27/May/13
5'6.5 now? Wasn't he listed 5'7"?

Junior Goodbar said on 13/Mar/13
Also seen photos of him with neil young, who's 6ft, looking not that much shorter. Probably his boots I imagine.

Sam said on 3/Dec/12
Dylan with even shorter colleagues-
Van Morrison:
Click Here
Paul Simon:
Click Here

Sam said on 3/Dec/12
Dylan and Bruce Springsteen can look close in height:
Click Here
Click Here
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Though other photos support that Springsteen has a few inches over Dylan:
Click Here
Click Here

DylanFan said on 24/Jul/12
I would say Bob's around 5'5.5" (5'6" or a shade under at 5'5.75" for his prime). Gina Gershon who is around 5'5 to 5'5.5" had this to say:
Click Here

Sam said on 10/Feb/12
Here's the photo with Ali:
Click Here

Sam said on 30/Dec/11
In the recent Uncut magazine (with Tom Waits on the cover), there's a picture with Bob posing with 6'2.5" Muhammad Ali in the mid-1970s and Bob looks 4-5 inches shorter maximum, not 7.5 inches. In this same set of photos, Bob looks the same height as 5'9.5" Bruce Springsteen. I suspect that Bob's footwear during that tour may have been advantagously tall heeled boots, though I doubt with lifts.

brazil said on 8/Sep/11
Louis, I guess that in the past his 5'7 was something like 5'8 ~5'9 today due to the height increase along the years. But I use to get happy with that kind of discovery too

mcfan said on 11/May/11
Thought he used to be 5'8-5'8.5. Looks 5'7 now.

Spence said on 1/May/11
I don't think he was ever over 5'6 to be honest

bob said on 14/Apr/11
in response to eamonn i have to add that dylan maybe short in your eyes but he is certainly not small (a good example of small is your vocabulary) -please learn a few more words !

bellman3000 said on 27/Jan/11
very accurate. i have seen him about 5ft from my face. i am 5'7" and he was eye to eye with me. i do believe he had boots on at the time, but i had dress shoes on so it evens out.

SuzeB said on 17/Nov/10
A photographer who did a lot of early promo shots said 5'6"

Night said on 4/Jun/09
I got a chance to meet Andy Warhol about 6 months before he died, and I definitely would say he is shorter than 5'10". I was around 14 at the time, and 5'4" and he seemed no more than maybe 2-3 inches taller than me as I recall (and I recall well, because I was in a big Warhol phase at the time so meeting him was a huge deal to me).
I would say the same range for Bob Dylan, although I've never seen him in person.

shale said on 27/May/09
Andy Warhol was not 5'10''. He described himself as 'short', and also has been described so by the others. His profesor said that he was 'tiny'. Would you actually call someone who's 5'10'' tiny? He never looked much taller than 5'4'' Edie Sedgwick in some heels and updo hair.
As for Dylan, I think that 5'5-5'6'' is his range. And of course big hair and boots and razor-sharp thinness can make people look taller.

Bobby Billings said on 26/Feb/09
I suppose 5' 7 would be right (just judging from pictures of him and other celebs) but besides that, according to most people on this site, he seems to have a bit of an attitude. I wonder what his problem is?

Tompwgy said on 15/Jan/09
He may look taller beacause of the Beatles boots he used to wear in his electric-era, of which many photos are! I thin 5 ft 7 in is correct!

leonari said on 26/Dec/08
Eammon: If you are 5'7 and Dylan 5'6" how can you look "down" on him man? An inch is an inch and it isn't that much. It's 2.54 cm man. Get real. You need a t least a solid 2 inches to look down on somebody and even 2 inches barely fits that description.

Eamonn said on 24/Dec/08
I met Dylan back in 1993, stood eyeball to eyeball as he started an autograph and then changed his mind, bless him! I am 5'7 and believe me I was looking down at him , he's about 5'6 max, and no he wasn't slouching ,standing upright and looking right through me like I wasn't there. guess I got him on a bad day :-). And he's really old looking up close really lined face. Great man thought, my all time hero.

Eamonn said on 24/Dec/08
I met Dylan back in 1993, stood eyeball to eyeball as he started an autograph and then changed his mind, bless him! I am 5'7 and believe me I was looking down at hime , he's about 5'6 max, and no he wasn't slouching ,standing upright and looking right through me like I wasn't there. guess I got him on a bad day :-).

Mr. T said on 21/Sep/08
5'7" peak. Could be 5'5" now, he looks like hell.

VietnamVetPlayinAirGuitar said on 9/Aug/08
He is somewhat an elusive height concealer. Bouncing from incomprehensible numbers. I once fell in to the presence over digits factor but then fell in rationalisation. His thin frame, I believe, somewhat helps as well. But here is Bob with 5'10" Andy Warhol. Actually SEEMING around 5'10" also. BIG boots? Heels?

Click Here

And(even though this is evidently OLDER Bob) here he is, complete with boots plus cowboy hat, with 5'4" BAREFOOT Penelope Cruz. Not lookin' so much higher. 5'5" barefeet-5'6" maybe. I wonder how he managed to keep up so high with some measurements with his given height.

Click Here

A VERY fun one to scrutinize. Again with Patti SMiTh(5'8")

Click Here

Uno Mas!

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Hopefully, this will aid in anybody's expedition. Regardless..Majestic Sounds that cultivate from Bob Dylan.

Naboo1 said on 4/Aug/08
See him stood next to George Harrison in the Bangladesh concert (and rehearsal). He is a good inch or two shorter, and George was 5'9...or 5'11!!

ryan said on 19/Jul/08
i allways thought that bob was a 6'2 kind of guy. I am suprised at that one. Maybe it is becuase he is skinny?

Canada said on 12/May/08
Dominic Robbie Robertson is about 5'10 not 6'1, never.

doris said on 31/Dec/07
stood next to him too - i'm 5'7 and 3/4 - we were both in boots with heels mine maybe a 1/2" taller than his... bob is definitely at least my height if not a little taller. i say this because i was very surprised that he wasn't shorter.

Al Sands said on 17/Dec/07
I'm 5'8" and once stood next to Bob after a concert - he looked to be about my height in heels, so he's about 5'6"

Jagger said on 27/Oct/07
He always looks really tall on stage when he's on his own, but when others come on he seems tiny. I think the big hair, highheels and stick thinness gives the alusion that he is tall.

Anyway it doesn't really matter, he's the world's best song writer, whether he's small or not.

katyblue said on 17/Sep/07
I can assure you that Dylan has never been anywhere near 6 foot tall -- lol . He is around 5' 5," with boots and hat, about an inch shorter than 20 years ago. He's always worn boots (with heels, and, no doubt, lifts). His hair (with back-lighting) always made him appear taller on stage. He now has arthritis (maybe just a bit more than normal for his age) and walks slightly bent (with knees also bent). But most fans don't give a hoot how tall (or thin) he is, for his presence on stage is sky-high. ;) katyblue

Austrian said on 13/Sep/07
thats true, Zimmermann is a common german name

but many jewish people have german names (due to historic reasons)

leonari said on 12/Sep/07
The man looksm 5'6" and is 5'6". Don't understand where taller claims come from.

guy said on 12/Sep/07
His original last name, Zimmerman, is apprently just an average German surname. He himself even wondered how his family got it. I always thought he was in the 5-6 range.

sam said on 2/Aug/07
Dylan's ancestry is (so I've read) Lithuanian, Ukranian and Turkish (100% Jewish heritage). Totally disagree with you about his music, Terry, even if, by most accounts, he isn't the nicest guy. He's one of the greatest songwriters/musicians of our time to me. I think of Dylan as slouchy 5'7", no more, no less.

Terry said on 2/Aug/07
This man appears much shorter than his actual height. When I met him, he was basically hiding his identity. He wore a grey tracksuit, with the hood covering his head and face. When he pulled back the hood, I got a good look at a man that looked like the Grim Reaper. I hate his music, and judging by his appearance, I very much doubt I would like anything about him. He is about the scruffiest fellow I ever did meet - looked like a pan handler. He is a bent-over (almost appearing crippled) fellow that has passed his prime - who knows how many decades ago.

Mr. T said on 1/Aug/07
Van's 5'5".

glenn said on 26/Jul/07
you could be right.but i also read jewish/turkish.

Austrian said on 26/Jul/07
actually Dylan was not turkish (and neither half-turkish or anything) as far as i know

his ancestors were all jewish, some of them just lived in turkey at one point

glenn said on 2/Jul/07
interesting on van.i think someone mentioned he was 5-6.

sam said on 2/Jul/07
Just watched The Last Waltz for the first time in a while this weekend. He looks short next to The Band, many of whom were probably 6-footish. He was also a serious sloucher, which made him look shorter at times. Dylan was sharing the mic with Van Morrison at one point in the big climax and it looked like he had about 2 inches over Morrison. I'm not sure how tall Morrison is exactly, but he looked like the only standing man on stage who was shorter than Dylan.

glenn said on 1/Jul/07
i think i remember that now.like ahmet urtegan(sp?).

Mr. T said on 30/Jun/07
Trivia: I didn't know he was half-Turkish.

Johnny Bluenote said on 15/May/07
Oh dear! That's worse. Tampering with a passport is not at all proper!

MCD said on 14/May/07
It's worse than you think. That was a United States passport, NOT a driver's license.

Viper said on 14/May/07
I have 5-10 on my license and Im really 6-3. So Dylan being taller than me at 5-11 on his license when hes really around 5-6-5-7 is hillarious.

Jackie said on 14/May/07
The passport shown on the bootleg series booklet also says his birthday is May 11 which it's not. I doubt it is real.

Johnny Bluenote said on 14/May/07
Bob is 5'6". End of story. That photo on the Bootleg series booklet which shows his height on his driving license as 5'11" has always made me laugh! [In your dreams Bob!] And by the way: isn't it illegal to tamper with your driving license?

bobo said on 14/May/07
My wife and I stood right next to Bob Dylan once. There wasn't much conversation, but one thing I can say for sure is that he's the same height as my wife---5 feet 5

Ace Fury said on 14/May/07
I was 5'10" when I was 19, now I'm 5'8" at 66. I was near him during the '80s and he was/is short then me, I would guess i 5'6-7". The only way he could be 5'9" is if he had lifts in his shoes.

MA said on 14/May/07
I don't think that Dylan at 65 has shrunk an inch. If he were 85...then that may be valid. He's probably the same size at this time, as he was in 1965.

Judas said on 14/May/07
He probably managed to get up to 5 ft 10 in with his "high hair" and boots back in the sixties, but I believe 5-7 is the correct height, though he should be shorter now of course.

Tony said on 14/May/07
I saw him standing next to Paul Simon in concert and he was MUCH taller than Paul. As alluded to, Bob may have been wearing Boots of Spanish Leather.

Colin Power. said on 14/May/07
I stood right next to Bob once. My guess is he is 5' 6". I'm 5' 7" and he was definitely smaller than me. He looks taller from a distance because he is so thin. His weight? My guess is he would be 125 pounds.

Danne said on 14/May/07
I met Bob in the bar at Cirkus in Stockholm after the concert on June 25th 1991. Bob was exactly my height, 170 cm. He was younger then though, and so was I.

Random Person said on 4/Apr/07
I saw him awhile ago at a store once, I didn't get a chance to talk to him but I did get to stand just about a foot away from him. He came up to my eye brows at best and I was about 5'9 at the time. That says 5'6 to me, maybe a little under even.

yeah said on 21/Mar/07
come on the guy is like 65 or so, he has shrunk maby an inch or so, give him a peak height.

Anthony said on 8/Mar/07
I can buy 5'7 in the 60s'. But now, I think he's 5'6, maybe a little below. One of the best, though.

Glenn said on 18/Jan/07
5-6 when I saw him.

Robert.R said on 17/Jan/07
I always heard he was 5'7" and very conscious about his height, yet he was born in about 1941 so in his era 5'7" was only just below average height. He has always looked more like 5'6" to me.

Michael said on 12/Jan/07
I've been a fan of Bob Dylan since the early sixties and have been in his company a couple of times. He used to be the same height as my wife, 5ft. 7 inches, wearing sneakers but Bob has always had a slight stoop. Then again he used to wear 2 inch Cuban-heeled boots and sometimes still does. Now at the "grand old age of 65 he has shrunk somewhat (we all do as we ger older) so he is now 5ft. 6 inches tall.

St Andrews said on 14/Dec/06
I studied at the University of St Andrews, UK and saw Dylan when he was awarded an honorary degree by the university in 2004. He was about 5'7".

Jim said on 20/Nov/06
Bob Dylan standing next to 5'9 Carlos Santana:

Click Here

Not sure about his boots, but he clearly looks taller than Carlos.

Glenn said on 7/Nov/06
I dont know where Rob got that 5-7.he is 5-6.

Brad said on 7/Nov/06
Saw him last month, he wore boots of spanish leather, can't judge his height. He slouches. 5' 7" I guess.

Bruno said on 31/Oct/06
Jack is 1974, so I guess Bob is about 172 or so.. Click Here

Bruno said on 31/Oct/06
I would go for 174 cm!

barry said on 26/Jul/06
this guy really seems to believe, he's 5'6"
Click Here

Pierre said on 21/Jun/06
he really is about 5''5

barry said on 4/Jun/06
Click Here
Dylan with Letterman

Drooperdoo said on 1/Jun/06
It's hilarious, watching people try to indulge Dylan's vanity and accord him more height than he actually has. In a Harvard study of height, a 5'7'' man was described as 6' after he left the room when the man was presented as someone of importance. When the same man was introduced as a nobody, people described him correctly at around 5'7''. It's interesting to see that phenomenon at play here with Dylan.

Chris said on 22/Apr/06
When he recived the polarprice here in Sweden a couple of years ago, he looked 2- max 3 inches shorter then our 5'10

Vincent said on 15/Mar/06
on "don't loook back," a reporter (not the voice interview) asks dylan a question, to which he responds, "how could I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders?!?! Gosh, I'm only five foot ten!"

but he wears high heel type cowboy boots and looks 5-6

Becky said on 4/Mar/06
i think id probably say that Dylan is 5'7" like most people would say.

Barry said on 3/Mar/06
here's Bob Dylan and Joan Baez standing in front of some cinder blocks, which I believe are usually 8 inches by 16 inches

http://dragon.dju.ac.kr/~bwkim/bobjoan.jpg

gotta subtract and add though, for that 3/4 block at the bottom, and for Bob's hair and heel (which you can't see)

Dominic said on 24/Feb/06
This is a pretty good height to list him at. He always wore big boots so it's kinda hard to tell his height, but alot of rock stars did. I dont think he is any less than this height and no more than 5'9.5. In the last waltz he looked like one of the tallest ones on stage, especially next to Band member 6'1 Robbie Robertson. I think you could move him up to 5'8 though rob.

CelebHeights Editor said on 29/Sep/05
In a 1965 village voice interview said: "Christ, I'm only five feet ten"

Anonymous said on 28/Sep/05
on the back of the insert from the bootleg series vol 1 is a copy of his passoprt. 5'11".

CelebHeights Editor said on 22/Aug/05
From dylan newsgroup: "5'5 sounds about right. I had a brief, face-to-face chat with Mr. Dylan in October '78. I'm 5'6 and a bit...and a bit taller than he is"

"My honest shoeless estimate of Bob's height would be about 5ft8 and 1/2 inches. He was no more than 4 inches shorter than me and I always wear
big boots too"

Victor said on 20/Jun/05
hello, I saw in a concert with Eric Clapton. He is 5 and 9.

franky said on 10/May/05
i've seen him passing next to me very closely ,he is a little shorter than me ..i'm 5.8 1/2 ..he is probably 5.7 1/2

marble said on 6/May/05
bob dylan is actually a bit taller than that at 5'9