Bob Dylan's Touring Band Loses Another Guitarist as Bob Britt Reportedly Quits
Bob Dylan's already-shaken touring band has lost yet another guitarist, with Bob Britt, a member of the group since 2019, apparently departing just two weeks after fellow guitarist Doug Lancio left the tour unexpectedly and was replaced by jazz guitarist Julian Lage.
The news of Britt's exit surfaced over the weekend through his own Facebook page, where he posted the phrase "Sayonara Bobby" alongside an image showing a flight itinerary from Austin, Texas, site of Dylan's next scheduled performance at the Moody Amphitheater, to Nashville, Tennessee. When a fan responded to the post, Britt confirmed his departure directly in the comments, simply writing, "I quit." Dylan superfan and longtime tour-tracker Harold Lepidus was credited with first spotting and flagging the posts, which quickly spread through Dylan's online fan community.
Lage, who stepped in following Lancio's departure, has a previously scheduled performance set for June 29 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, meaning he, too, will be unavailable for the Austin show. With both Lancio's status uncertain and Lage committed elsewhere that night, the only musicians from Dylan's band confirmed to still be in place, at least publicly known, are longtime bassist Tony Garnier and drummer Anton Fig.
It seems highly unlikely Dylan would take the stage in Austin without any guitarist at all, backed solely by bass and drums. The National Sawdust engagement has been on Lage's calendar for some time, and Dylan's camp was surely aware that the guitarist's other commitments meant he was never going to be a long-term, permanent fixture in the band. That suggests one of two likely outcomes: either Lancio is returning to the fold, or Dylan has already brought in a new full-time guitarist. Given how suddenly Britt's exit appears to have happened, though, there may not have been enough time to line up a second replacement guitarist on short notice.
If Dylan does take the Austin stage with just one guitarist alongside Garnier and Fig, it would mark a notable departure from his typical touring setup. Dylan hasn't performed with such a stripped-down lineup since the earliest days of his Never Ending Tour. The band has featured at least two guitarists consistently since pedal steel player Bucky Baxter joined in 1992, making a bare-bones configuration now a significant break from decades of habit.
As is often true with Dylan's unpredictable touring operation, fans likely won't know exactly who's in the band until the lights go down and the musicians actually walk onstage. Whoever ends up playing, though, the setlist itself probably won't shift dramatically. Despite a surprising recent appearance of the deep Basement Tapes cut "Baby, Won't You Be My Baby", which broke the record for the longest gap between a song's recording and its live debut, Dylan's sets have remained largely consistent in recent shows. Expect an opener of either "To Be Alone With You" or "Watching the River Flow," followed by staples like "All Along the Watchtower," "Tryin' to Get to Heaven," "When I Paint My Masterpiece," and "Under the Red Sky," along with unconventional cover choices such as Bo Diddley's "I Can Tell" and Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Share Your Love With Me."
