BOB DYLAN has gone public after a blow to fans who bought his signed work.
The singer, who must be one of the world’s hardest-working artists, has said he “regrets” having made “an error in judgment” in using machine technology to sign and work then sold as hand-signed.
The error happened over a three year period.
Bob said the use of autopen signatures began in 2019 when he was hit by a case of vertigo. It then went on as Covid crashed businesses and made communication difficult.
Normally, staff would help with the hand-signing sessions.
But when the world went wrong Bob says was given “the assurance that this kind of thing is done ‘all the time’ in the art and literary worlds.” Now he says, “I want to rectify it immediately. I’m working with Simon & Schuster and my gallery partners to do just that.”
Dolly Parton, Brian Wilson, Kenny Loggins and Ozzy Osbourne have all been caught up in similar signature upsets.
Even Donald H. Rumsfeld, former defence secretary, was criticised for doing the same thing on condolence letters to the families of service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dylan wrote on social media: “I’ve been made aware that there’s some controversy about signatures on some of my recent artwork prints and on a limited-edition of Philosophy of Modern Song. I’ve hand-signed each and every art print over the years, and there’s never been a problem.”
He said: “However, in 2019 I had a bad case of vertigo and it continued into the pandemic years. It takes a crew of five working in close quarters with me to help enable these signing sessions, and we could not find a safe and workable way to complete what I needed to do while the virus was raging. So, during the pandemic, it was impossible to sign anything and the vertigo didn’t help.”
He said that as “contractual deadlines” approached, the autopen idea was suggested, “along with the assurance that this kind of thing is done ‘all the time’ in the art and literary worlds.” He added: “Using a machine was an error in judgment and I want to rectify it immediately. I’m working with Simon & Schuster and my gallery partners to do just that.”
Bob said: “With my deepest regrets, Bob Dylan.”
Now refunds are being arranged.
Simon & Schuster at first refused to discuss the problem but then spokesman Adam Rothberg said: “We acted quickly to address the situation, took the book off sale and initiated the process of issuing an immediate and automatic refund to all customers who bought the book.”
Simon & Schuster had initially refused to honour refunds, assuring buyers that the signatures were legitimate and validated by a “letter of authenticity”.
The publisher later made a public statement on social media, writing: “To those who purchased The Philosophy Of Modern Song limited edition, we want to apologise. As it turns out, the limited edition books do contain Bob’s original signature, but in a penned replica form. We are addressing this immediately by providing each purchaser with an immediate refund.”
The Philosophy of Modern Song has 66 essays on tracks written by other artists, and took him 12 years to bring to market. It’s his first book since he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
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