When Bob Dylan walked onto the stage at the Santa Barbara Bowl in California on June 17 this year, there was no sign of guitarist Doug Lancio, who hadn’t missed a single show since joining his backing band in 2021. Standing in Lancio’s spot was guitarist Julian Lage, a one-time child prodigy, deeply established in the jazz community, who teaches at the New School’s School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York, and has worked with everyone from Nels Cline and David Grisman to Yoko Ono, John Zorn, and Bill Frisell.
Lage may not quite be a household name, but he’s revered in musician circles, and is generally considered one of the most talented and versatile players on the planet. But in typical Dylan fashion, this stunning addition to his band wasn’t preceded by any sort of announcement. His last Instagram post was a photo 10 weeks back of Texas blues musician Little Hat Jones’ 1930 record “Kentucky Blues,” and his surreal Patreon is centered around fictional “unsent letters” between historical figures who never knew each. The most recent ones depict Tennessee Ernie Ford writing to Alfred Hitchcock, and Eddie Cochran to Hulk Hogan.
Some fans thought that Lage might just be covering for Lancio for a single night. But he’s been there for the past six shows, and there’s no sign of Lancio coming back. Dylan’s no-camera policy makes it difficult to see great video of these performances, but some intrepid fans have flouted the rules and posted clips onto YouTube. And there’s plenty of clean audio available. Taken together, they show that Lage is adding distinctive touches to the material, working nicely with fellow guitarist Bob Britt, but also staying out of the spotlight and sticking closely with Dylan’s arrangements.
It’s pointless to try to speculate about why Lancio is out and why Lage suddenly appeared in his place, since neither of them have commented on the matter, and Dylan’s camp operates in strict secrecy. But we can say that Lancio played the first seven shows of Dylan’s Long Hot Summer Tour ’26 (as the official T-shirts call it) this month before vanishing after the June 14 concert at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. And a mid-tour departure like that is very rare. Dylan changes up his band members somewhat regularly — most recently the drummers have come and gone in something approaching Spinal Tap fashion — but it almost always happens between legs of the tour.
That doesn’t mean there’s no precedent. Journeyman guitarist Duke Robillard, who played on Dylan’s 1997 classic Time Out of Mind, went on to join the band on April 5, 2013, and left some time between the June 30 show in Nashville and the July 2 concert in Memphis that year. “[Dylan] started acting really strange,” Robillard told Boston.com in 2025. “I just decided I was too old to deal with it. He’s got a reputation for being different and difficult when he wants to be. I just said, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m going home.’”
When pressed in that interview, Robillard opted to not get into the gritty details. “All I can say is: It’ll be in my book,” he said. “I’m writing a book, and that’ll be one chapter.… It’s a long story, very complex. I did something he didn’t like and he shouldn’t have got upset about. I just can’t explain it. You’re gonna have to wait, I’m sorry [laughs]. It’s too weird and long a story.”
Charlie Sexton, who originally played in Dylan’s band between 1999 and 2002, came back to take over from Robillard in 2013. But he had other gigs booked that summer with Court Yard Hounds, a side project of the Chicks. It led to a bizarre situation where Sexton was with Dylan that summer whenever his schedule allowed, and Canadian guitarist Colin Linden served as his understudy.
Julian Lage is also about to run into some scheduling issues. He’s in the clear for Dylan’s June 26 show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but he’s scheduled to appear at the Brooklyn venue National Sawdust on June 29 for a live performance and a discussion about his album Scenes From Above (released earlier this year on Blue Note Records). That same night, Dylan is playing at the Moody Amphitheater in Austin. Unless Lage has found a way to clone himself, he’s not going to be there.
Lage also has commitments in July and throughout the end of the year, all the way into 2027, that’ll make it impossible for him to stay in Dylan’s band full-time. There could be some sort of Charlie Sexton/Colin Linden arrangement where he comes in and out. But that seems fairly unlikely. It’s more probable that either Lancio returns or some other guitarist joins the band.
No matter what happens, Lage has added a very impressive line to his résumé. He’ll also have Dylan stories to tell for the rest of his life. Let’s just hope he’s keeping a diary. We’d one day happily read a book titled “Thirteen Days on the Road With Bob Dylan.”
