In the days after Pope Francis' death on April 21, 2025, a rumor began to spread that singer and songwriter Bob Dylan said the late pontiff " was a voice of mercy in a time of noise." For example ...

Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen each recorded great late-career albums that proved they weren’t finished.

After 1989's comeback album Oh Mercy, Dylan returned with an all-star project that included contemporaries (George Harrison, Elton John) and some newer guns (Slash, Stevie Ray Vaughan).