Bob Dylan has launched a Patreon account offering fans exclusive content including fictional letters from historical figures, short stories, and audio essays for $5 a month. The singer promoted the page, titled Lectures From the Grave, via an Instagram story. Initial posts feature a letter purportedly from Mark Twain to Rudolph Valentino and a short story called 'Bull Rider.'
Bob Dylan shared a link to his new official Patreon account over the weekend, inviting subscribers to access 'a living archive of lectures from the grave, letters never sent, and original short stories curated by Bob Dylan' for $5 monthly. The page includes audio essays such as 'Last Testament of Frank James,' 'Aaron Burr: On the Art of Survival,' and one voiced as Wild Bill Hickok, ranging from 15 to 67 minutes. These appear to use AI-generated voices, with snippets previously posted on Dylan's Instagram. An embedded live performance video of Mahalia Jackson is also available among the initial six posts. Dylan's representative has not yet responded to inquiries about the project, and his official website makes no mention of the Patreon. One entry in the 'Letters Never Sent' series is a fictional missive from Mark Twain to silent film star Rudolph Valentino, signed in cursive and attributed to 'Herbert Foster.' The letter notes the oddity of both figures being dead, though Valentino was only 14 when Twain died in 1910. 'Dear Mr. Valentino,' it opens, 'I take up my pen under circumstances that would puzzle the calendar and embarrass the undertaker, for I am told that both of us have already completed the respectable business of dying.' Another post features the seven-page short story 'Bull Rider' by 'Marty Lombard,' describing a drifter arriving in Texas for a rodeo. It begins: 'The bus coughed me out somewhere past Amarillo, dust in my teeth and a sky that stretched out so wide it felt like it was laughing at me.' Meanwhile, Dylan, now 84, continues his United States tour, with his next show scheduled for Monday at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, Illinois.