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 Saturday to 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 1,000 with a smile, asking the orchestra to start over.

Longtime musician cited nerves as the reason she forgot the lyrics to Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall 0:52

The moment was met with comforting applause from the audience, dressed in sequined dresses, jewels and tuxedos. Many watching clearly felt for her. Smith recovered and continued on 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.

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.

Bob Dylan, seen here performing in Los Angeles in 2012, said he would not be attending the Nobel Prize ceremony and sent a thank you speech to be read out instead. (Chris Pizzello/Associated Press)

Horace Engdahl, a member of the Swedish Academy and the Nobel 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 her full Nobel Prize performance of A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, click here.