'We Are the World' at 40: Why the Star-Studded Recording Session Drove Bob Dylan to a 'Nervous Breakdown'

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:USAforAfricaVEVO/YouTube

USAforAfricaVEVO/YouTube

The highly meme’d imagehas spread far and wide across the internet, representing a very specific kind of existential dread. Its universal appeal comes from the fact that we’ve all been “We Are the World”-era Bob at one time or another — out of our element, insecure, confused, exhausted, woefully unclear what’s expected of us, and unsure when it’s all gonna end. It’s a rare moment of relatability for a man not exactly known for being relatable.

Richie, who co-wrote the song, cleared up any misconceptions about Dylan’s mindset during a2022 interview withThe Hollywood Reporter. While promotingNetflix’s documentaryThe Greatest Night in Pop, he explained why the historic 1985 session, packed with more than 40 of music’s brightest luminaries — Ray Charles,Tina Turner,Bruce Springsteen,Willie Nelson,Diana Ross,Billy JoelandPaul Simon, to name but a few — was not the greatest night for Dylan. “Poor Bob was having a nervous breakdown,” Richie admitted.

So what went wrong? In an effort to find out, PEOPLE launched a look into what very well might be Dylan’s darkest day.

It may seem puzzling that the notoriously mercurial (and occasionally reclusive) icon agreed to participate at all. On one hand, it made a certain amount of spiritual sense that he’d be present for what was a descendant of the musical activism he’d pioneered in the early ‘60s alongside people like Joan Baez and Phil Ochs. Their work mainstreamed the idea that music had the power to change the world for the better, and helped birth the very notion of a “charity single.”

But still, Dylan didn’t always play well with others.According to legend, the organizers of 1969’s Woodstock festival specifically sought a venue near Dylan’s home in Woodstock, New York, with the aim of coaxing him out of his self-imposed retirement as a special guest performer. This failed to occur. Instead, Dylan staged a solo comeback concert two weeks later in England.

Even so, Dylan was pretty iffy on the whole endeavor. “People buying a song and the money going to starving people in Africa is, you know, a worthwhile idea,” he later said during an interview on20/20, “but I wasn’t so convinced about the message of the song, to tell you the truth. I don’t think people can save themselves, y’know.”

Michael Jackson and Bob Dylan during sessions for “We Are the World”.Courtesy of Netflix

Courtesy of Netflix

The session was scheduled for Jan. 28, 1985, just after the American Music Awards — a rare occasion to get so many VIPs together in one place. Once the ceremony wrapped at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium, the artists cruised across town to A&M Studios in Hollywood to begin an extremely long night of work. Richie, who hosted the telecast, found himself the de facto co-host of the session along with co-writer Michael Jackson and producerQuincy Jones. He would later admit that all three were concerned about whether Dylan would actually show up. “Bob is a sweetheart,”he told UPI in 2021. “But when Bob says ‘I’ll be there,’ you have to say to yourself, ‘Okay, did he get the right day? Is it the right time? Is he gonna be there?'"

To everyone’s surprise, Dylan was one of the first artists to arrive. Journalist David Breskin,covering the session forLIFEMagazine, details the moment when bomber-clad Dylan “slouches in, stone-faced, and sits down in the seat closest to the door.” Showbiz wisdom dictates that stars of Dylan’s stature are supposed to make a grand entrance, and his unfashionably early arrival may have started the night off on the wrong foot.

“We Are the World” recording session with Bob Dylan.Mohamed Amin/Camerapix/Getty

Mohamed Amin/Camerapix/Getty

Bruce Springsteen, generally cited as everyone’s favorite person at the session, had a more pleasant experience with his hero. Considering he’d go on to describe Dylan in his 2016 memoir as “the father of my country,” the stan energy coming off him that evening was surely strong. Having just flown in after wrapping up the latest leg of his gruelingBorn in the USAtour the night before in Syracuse, the Boss went in for a hug and Dylan responded warmly. Kim Carnes, hot off the success of “Bette Davis Eyes” and theFlashdancesoundtrack, also shared a nice moment with Dylan. “He was easy to talk to,”she later toldThe Independent. “Exactly how I would have expected him to be.”

The vibes didn’t improve for Dylan once the recording got underway. Photos from the night depict the reserved legendseemingly trying to disassociate from his surroundings. Video shows him looking distinctly uncomfortable and isolated as he takes his place among the choir of music’s most elite, swaying arrhythmically as he sings — or possibly just mouths — the chorus. It doesn’t take a lip reader to detect his total unfamiliarity with the lyrics. In short, it’s clear that Bob is having a bummer.

He meekly approaches the mic and mumbles a string of indistinct syllables while focusing intently on the lyric sheet that shakes in his hand. “You can do it,” says an encouraging voice from the control room. He starts again, in a voice barely above a whisper. No dice. “I have to try it a few more times,” he says bashfully. The moment is chronicled briefly inThe Greatest Night in Popdocumentary, anda longer version of the footage exists online. It’s a tough watch as Dylan wilts with self-consciousness. The man who recorded15 songs in a single day10 years earlier for his albumBlood on the Tracksnow struggles to nail two lines.

“Bob Dylan, when he was recording his solo piece, stepped up to the microphone and sounded nothing like Bob Dylan,”recalled Hollywood mega-agent Ken Kragen, who organized the session almost single-handedly. “He was so nervous because he was not used to recording with all these other stars there.”

Jones deduces the problem right away, and orders the studio cleared, save for a sympathetic Richie and Stevie Wonder. “If you’re thrown in a room with a bunch of singers, you have a tendency to get psyched out and you want to sound like them,” Richie explained toThe Hollywood Reporter. “But everyone that we chose as the lead vocalists, they were not singers, they were stylists. We only had half a line and, in certain cases, one line to sing. We had to make sure that whoever was singing, your voice was identifiable right away. Now, Bob Dylan has an identifiable voice instantly. But he was trying to sing it another way. We kept saying, ‘No, just sing it like Bob Dylan.’ "

Wonder was enlisted as, in Breskin’s description, “the secret agent to make him comfortable.” Seated at the piano, he launches into a pitch-perfect Bob Dylan impression to demonstrate what they’re looking for. The approach has the added bonus of breaking the tension, as Dylan recognizes the inherent absurdity of impersonating his impersonator. Richie and Jones rally to cheer him on. “Just do your thing, man,” says Q. “That’s something nobody can do better than you.”

Dylan approaches the mic and tries again. The outcome is definitely improving, but Dylan is not impressed. “Ugh, I can do that better,” he says. Jones, with his eye on the clock, quickly objects. “That’s fantastic!” Dylan isn’t buying it. “I don’t think that’s any good at all. You can erase that.”

A few takes later, they have it. Dylan isn’t satisfied and asks to do it again. “I’m telling you, we got it!” insists Jones. The producer approaches the mic to pull him in for a bear hug. “Alright, if you say so…” Dylan says with charming self-deprecation. It’s a touching moment, and for possibly the first time that night, he genuinely smiles.

source: people.com