Mick Jagger Electrifies The Oscars With A Hot Bob Dylan Take

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCKIN’
Jagger shared his cheeky reason for why the even older Dylan turned down the chance to present “Best Original Song.”

Eboni Boykin-Patterson (www.thedailybeast.com/author/eboni-boykin-patterso…) Entertainment Reporter (eboni.boykin-patterson@thedailybeast.com)

Published March 2, 2025 10:08 PM EST
Updated March 3, 2025 3:06 AM EST

Mick Jagger shocked the Oscars audience Sunday night by bounding onto the stage as a surprise presenter joking that Bob Dylan had only one winner in mind for “Best Original Song,” and it wasn’t any of the Academy’s nominees.

Jagger presented the award for that category on Sunday night, but before he introduced the nominees, he told a little story about what brought him to the stage—and spilled a little tea. “I wasn’t the first choice to give this award out,” he began. “The producers really wanted Bob Dylan to do this. Bob didn’t want to do it because he said the best songs this year were obviously in the movie A Complete Unknown.”

The Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet is nominated eight times over at this year’s awards, but not for original song, as the songs in the film are Dylan’s own popular tracks. Chalamet stunned audiences with his singing and overall performance as Dylan, which earned him several Best Actor nominations during this year’s awards season.

Dylan called Chalamet a “brilliant actor” in an X post (x.com/bobdylan/status/1864381624915231149) from December announcing the actor would be playing him in the film. Chalamet has called him a “true American hero.” Despite their complimentary comments about one another, the two have still never met (www.cbsnews.com/news/timothee-chalamet-studying-bo…) Dylan was heavily involved in his biopic however, approving the script only after performing the lines himself (www.iheart.com/content/2024-12-30-bob-dylan-perfor…) with a table read.

He ultimately felt his music was the best music in the race, Jagger revealed, and thus didn’t want to hand an award for music to anyone else. He even went so far as to make a suggestion for who else should do it instead, Jagger said. “Bob said ‘You should find somebody younger,’” Jagger joked, quoting Dylan. “I said ‘OK, I’m younger. I’m younger than Bob, I’ll do it.’ So, here I am.” Jagger is 81 years old to Dylan’s 83.

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Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones (Jagger / Richards © 1968)

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