'I'm sorry, I'm so nervous': Patti Smith forgets Bob Dylan lines during Nobel Prize performance

Even well-known musicians who have been performing for decades get nervous and Patti Smith is no exception.

The Because the Night singer-songwriter attended the Nobel Prize presentation ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on Saturdayto perform in place of Bob Dylan, who was awarded the literature prize but couldn't attend.

Smith, performing Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall,forgot the lyrics for the song midway through.

She stumbled just before the line: "I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'."

"I apologize. I'm sorry, I'm so nervous," Smith told the audience of 1,000with a smile, askingthe orchestra to start over.

Patti Smith stumbles midway through Nobel Prize performance

8 years ago

Duration 0:52

Longtime musician cited nerves as the reason she forgot the lyrics to Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

The momentwas met withcomforting applause from theaudience, dressed in sequined dresses, jewels and tuxedos.Many watching clearly felt for her. Smith recovered and continuedon with no further mishaps.

Dylan had announced earlier he would not be going to the event, citing other commitments. He sent a thank you speech instead, to be read out at the ceremonial banquet.

• Just a songwriter? Bob Dylan's polarizing Nobel win

The initial announcement regarding his win was met with mixed reaction: Some argued it was a positive change to recognize a songwriter, while others considered it a ploy to appeal to the masses.

Horace Engdahl, a member of theSwedish Academy and theNobel Committee for Literature, defended the decision in his presentation speech.

"By means of his oeuvre, Bob Dylan has changed our idea of what poetry can be and how it can work," Engdahl said Saturday."If people in the literary world groan, one must remind them that the gods don't write. They dance and they sing."

Smith, 69, might have let her nerves get the better of her, but she also proved she can pick herself back up again.To watch herfull Nobel Prize performance ofA Hard Rain'sA-GonnaFall, click here.