How Dylan's 'Nashville Skyline' Inspired the Stones' Country Turn on 'Dead Flowers' and 'Wild Horses'

When Bob Dylan released Nashville Skyline in 1969, it wasn’t just a solo country detour—it was a permission slip for rock bands to openly borrow from Nashville without losing their edge. The Stones, who had already dabbled in folk and blues, watched Dylan trade his electric snarl for a relaxed croon and pedal steel, and suddenly country didn’t seem like a sellout. Keith Richards later admitted that hearing Dylan go full country made him feel like “it was okay to like it.”

You can hear the direct influence in the sessions for Sticky Fingers. “Wild Horses” was written in 1969 around the same time Dylan’s album hit, and it’s built on an acoustic guitar with a weeping pedal steel part from Mick Taylor. The lyrics—“I watched you suffer a dull aching pain”—feel more vulnerable than typical Stones swagger, closer to Dylan’s plainspoken storytelling. Then there’s “Dead Flowers,” which is practically a barroom country waltz with its loping beat and deadpan chorus: “Take me down to the paradise city / Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.”

The Stones never went full Nashville, but Dylan showed them