Here’s Why Bob Dylan Thought the Rolling Stones Were the “Greatest Rock and Roll Band”

The question of the greatest rock and roll band of all time is not one with an easy answer. There are countless opinions on the subject. You’d be hard-pressed to find a consensus. But, if we want an educated guess on the subject, perhaps we should look to another rock great. Find out why Bob Dylan thought the Rolling Stones were the greatest rock band of all time, below.

[RELATED: Bob Dylan’s Decades-Long Bond to Former President Jimmy Carter: “He Was a Kindred Spirit to Me”]

Here’s Why Bob Dylan Thought the Rolling Stones Were the “Greatest Rock and Roll Band”

Childhood living is easy to do

The things you wanted, I bought them for you

Graceless lady, you know who I am

You know I can’t let you slide through my hands

Dylan has long revered the Rolling Stones. He once called them the beginning and end of rock and roll, meaning they were unlike anything that came before them and no one has been able to replicate their magic since.

“The Rolling Stones are truly the greatest rock and roll band in the world and always will be,” Dylan once said. “The last too. Everything that came after them, metal, rap, punk, new wave, pop-rock, you name it, you can trace it all back to the Rolling Stones. They were the first and the last and no one’s ever done it better.”

When talking about which Stones song in particular moved him, Dylan cited an all time fan favorite: “Wild Horses.”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe ‘Angie,’ ‘Ventilator Blues’ and what else, let me see. Oh yeah, ‘Wild Horses,’” Dylan once said.

Wild, wild horses couldn’t drag me away

I watched you suffer a dull, aching pain

Now you decided to show me the same

No sweeping exits or offstage lines

Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind

Luckily for Dylan, his love for the Stones is mutual. The band has also extended praise to the folk legend. Keith Richards once went on record saying he’d find a way to work with Dylan no matter the odds.

“I’d work with Bob any[where]. I’d work with Bob in hell or heaven. I love him,” Richards once said.

I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie

I have my freedom, but I don’t have much time

Faith has been broken, tears must be cried

Let’s do some living after we die

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away

Wild, wild horses, we’ll ride them some day

(Photo by Everett/Shutterstock)