Legendary singer Bob Dylan stated he was “sickened” to see unarmed black man George Floyd “tortured to death” by a white police officer in his home state, in a rare interview published Friday.
Dylan talked to The New York Times the day after Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis, which has sparked mass anti-racism demonstrations across the USA. It was the musician’s only interview outside his own website since he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016.
“It sickened me no end to see George tortured to death like that,” he stated of Floyd, who died after a white policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
Various of Dylan’s most popular songs from the 1960s and 70s addressed issues of police ruthlessness and racism, including “Hurricane” and “George Jackson.”
He is set to issue his first album of original songs in eight years next Friday, named “Rough and Rowdy Days.”
Dylan announced himself had been shocked when the 17-minute ballad about the assassination of John F Kennedy and the development of the 1960s counterculture rose to the top of the Billboard chart.
It was also the first song Dylan penned and published since he reluctantly accepted the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature, the first songwriter awarded the honor.
Dylan started a relentless touring schedule till the coronavirus struck, forcing him to cancel a string of dates in Japan and North America this spring and summer.
