Nobel Prize committee gives up trying to contact Bob Dylan

The Nobel Prize committee has given up trying to reach Bob Dylan, five days after he became the first musician awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature

Dylan, 75, is yet to respond to the accolade, which was announced on Thursday. That evening he gave a concert in Las Vegas in which he spoke little, and did not mention the award. 

On Friday he performed in Coachella, as part of the Desert Trip festival – and was commended by The Rolling Stones, who performed after him.

"I want to thank Bob Dylan for an amazing set," said Sir Mick Jagger. "We have never shared the stage with a Nobel Prize winner before. Bob is like our own Walt Whitman."

Keith Richards added: "I can’t think of anybody that deserved it better."

But Dylan himself again failed to acknowledge it.

The Swedish Academy, which awards the prizes every October and organises the presentation in December, says it has not heard back from the Minnesota-born singer.

"Right now we are doing nothing,” said Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the academy. “I have called and sent emails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is certainly enough."

Dylan has a long and erratic history with award ceremonies, beginning with his 1963 Tom Paine award for civil rights, in which he delivered a rambling acceptance speech saying he sympathised with JFK’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. He later issued an apology.

Source: The Telegraph