<p id=”par-1_57″>Joan Baez and <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/bob-dylan/?swcfpc=1″>Bob Dylan</a> were together until 1965. In that time, they performed together, with both writing political <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/music/”>music</a>. By the end of their time together, Dylan had moved away from writing folk music, which angered his fans and contemporaries alike. Baez admitted that she pushed him to continue to sing about social and political causes.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-joan-baez-said-she-tried-to-fit-bob-dylan-into-a-mold”>Joan Baez said she tried to fit Bob Dylan into a mold</h2>
<p id=”par-2_20″>While Baez and Dylan’s relationship ended with <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/joan-baez-revealed-forgave-bob-dylan-totally-demoralizing-relationship.html/”>bad feelings between them</a>, she said she adored him while they were together.</p>
<p id=”par-3_22″>“I was crazy about him,” she said, per the <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/joan-baez-gets-her-apology/article_7401ddca-79db-5ea1-963b-febb2f113885.html” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Toronto Star</a>. “We were an item and we were having a wonderful time.”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Joan-Baez-Bob-Dylan-2.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Joan Baez wears yellow and stands with her arm on Bob Dylan’s shoulders. He wears black and holds a guitar.” class=”wp-image-3757814″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Joan Baez and Bob Dylan | Gai Terrell/Redferns/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-4_11″>She said she found his level of talent to be inspiring.</p>
<p id=”par-5_53″>“I talk about stuff, pouring out of me, that I don’t know where it’s coming from. I believe that’s true of Bob,” she told <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/features/joan-baez-interview-bob-dylan-steve-jobs-poetry-b2542474.html” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>The Independent</a>. “Watching him, his hand was going a mile a minute, and he was smoking, and he was picking at his hair, and that stuff came out brilliant.”</p>
<p id=”par-6_36″>Baez believed Dylan was a necessary voice in folk and protest music and pushed him to align himself with various causes. Upon reflection, she said she was trying to push him to be something he wasn’t.</p>
<p id=”par-7_11″>“I was trying to shove him into a mold,” she said.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-bob-dylan-stopped-making-protest-music-not-long-after-his-split-from-joan-baez”>Bob Dylan stopped making protest music not long after his split from Joan Baez</h2>
<p id=”par-8_37″>By 1966, Dylan said he wanted to <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/bob-dylans-fans-said-sincere-1-protest-songs.html/”>move away from protest music</a> altogether. He began his career with songs like “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and “Masters of War,” but he wanted to make a career pivot.</p>
<p id=”par-9_42″>“I’ve stopped composing and singing anything that has either a reason to be written or a motive to be sung,” he told Playboy that year. “Don’t get me wrong, now. ‘Protest’ is not my word. I’ve never thought of myself as such.” </p>
<p id=”par-10_7″>He found the songs dull and limiting.</p>
<p id=”par-11_28″>“Anyway, message songs, as everybody knows, are a drag,” he said. “It’s only college newspaper editors and single girls under 14 that could possibly have time for them.”</p>
<p id=”par-12_27″>He claimed that he never had <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/bob-dylan-said-never-really-protest-singer-right.html/”>any interest in protest music</a> to begin with. It was just the way he got his start in the music industry.</p>
<p id=”par-13_38″>“I haven’t lost any interest in protest since then,” he said. “I just didn’t have any interest in protest to begin with — any more than I did in war heroes. You can’t lose what you’ve never had.” </p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-he-married-not-long-after-their-split”>He married not long after their split</h2>
<p id=”par-14_55″>Very shortly after Dylan and Baez went their separate ways, he married Sara Lownds. They went on to have four children together. Dylan’s tour manager, Victor Maymudes, said his decision to marry Lownds surprised him. He shared why he thought Dylan moved on from his relationship with Baez to the one he had with Lownds.</p>
<p id=”par-15_93″>“Bob’s desire to get married to Sara surprised me,” Maymudes wrote in his book <em>Another Side of Bob Dylan: A Personal History on the Road and Off the Tracks</em>. “I asked him about it. ‘Why Sara?! Why not Joan Baez?’ He responded with, ‘Because Sara will be home when I want her to be home, she’ll be there when I want her to be there, she’ll do it when I want her to do it. Joan won’t be there when I want her. She won’t do it when I want to do it.’”</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-2″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-541280973-1.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”A black and white picture of Bob Dylan and Sara Lownds walking together. They both wear sunglasses.” class=”wp-image-3758702″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Bob Dylan and Sara Lownds | Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<div class=”related-article related-article–simple”>
<span class=”related-article-flag”>Related</span>
<p class=”related-article__title”>
<a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/joan-baez-left-insulting-1984-tour-bob-dylan-early.html/”>
Joan Baez Left Her Insulting 1984 Tour With Bob Dylan Early </a>
</p>
</div>
<p id=”par-16_17″>Maymudes thought Dylan felt a <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/bob-dylan-marry-joan-baez-knew-compete.html/”>sense of competition with Baez</a>, who also had a successful music career. </p>
<p id=”par-17_39″>“I personally would have gone with Joan in a minute, but Bob didn’t want to compete with her,” Maymudes wrote. “If Bob was a king, Joan was a queen, and Bob didn’t want a queen. He wanted something simpler.”</p>