White House: Dylan won’t be at meeting between president, US Nobel winners

Obama’s get-together with recipients will not include Jewish troubadour who will also snub Stockholm ceremony

By AP 1 December 2016, 12:48 am

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Bob Dylan accepts the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year award at a ceremony in Los Angeles, February 6, 2015. (Vince Bucci/Invision/AP)

WASHINGTON — Bob Dylan is not only skipping the ceremony in Stockholm awarding him the Nobel Prize in Literature, he’s also skipping meeting with the president on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with several American winners of the Nobel Prize before they officially accept their award. The White House plans to make a complete list of attendees available later.

But White House spokesman Josh Earnest says “unfortunately, for those of you wondering, Bob Dylan will not be at the White House today, so everybody can relax.”

Earnest says Dylan didn’t give a reason, but he notes that Dylan and the president had met previously and “the president enjoyed meeting him.”

In 2012, Obama presented the Jewish singer-songwriter with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.