A news programme had to issue an embarrassing apology after falsely stating that Bob Dylan had died.
The Australian Today show was airing a segment about the auction of some of the legendary musician’s documents at the weekend when they referred to him as the “late singer”.
During the broadcast, an on-screen banner read “Late singer’s documents sell for $495 thousand.”
The faux pas led to presenter Richard Wilkins making an apology to viewers.
“We need to make a correction now,” he said. “About half an hour ago on our entertainment chat, we incorrectly ran a banner on your screen about Bob Dylan. It was false and we apologise for any confusion.”
Among the documents that were sold at the auction were unpublished lyrics written by the singer, as well as letters and transcripts of interviews between him and the late American blues musician Tony Glover.
The collection previously belonged to Glover, with the majority of the separate lots bought by an unnamed bidder.
Within the transcribed interviews, Dylan speaks about how antisemitism influenced his decision to change his name from Robert Zimmerman.
“A lot of people are under the impression that Jews are money lenders and merchants,” he said.
It is also revealed that his 1969 song Lay Lady Lay was originally written for Barbra Streisand, and some of the lyrics included lines Dylan wrote after visiting Woody Guthrie.