LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Robbie Robertson, the lead songwriter and guitarist for the legendary Canadian American rock group The Band, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 80.
His manager, Jared Levine, told the New York Times that Robertson died after a long illness but did not provide additional information about a cause of death.
Throughout his storied career, Robertson wrote and recorded hits such as “King Harvest Has Surely Come,”” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” that mined the roots of Americana while appealing to contemporary artists, easily straddling genres such as folk, country, blues and gospel.
“I wanted to write music that felt like it could’ve been written 50 years ago, tomorrow, yesterday — that had this lost-in-time quality,” Robertson said in a 1995 interview
Born and raised in Ontario, Robertson joined Arkansas-based rockabilly group Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks in the early 1960s, starting first as a roadie before his songwriting and guitar skills earned him a role in the band alongside other artists such as drummer/singer Levon Helm and bassist Rick Danko.
In 1964, the Hawks parted ways with Ronnie Hawkins as the other members of the group sought to expand beyond the Rockabilly sound and the band was soon recruited as Bob Dylan’s backing band.
While working with Dyland, Robertson contributed to songs such as “The Weight”, “Chest Fever”, “Caledonia Mission,” that would become central to Dylan’s ’60s sound.
In 1969, the band ventured out on their own and began performing regularly, including at high profile festivals such as Woodstock and the Isle of Wight. They released their eponymously named album, The Band in 1969, earning almost universal critical praise and landing squarely in the top ten of the Billboard Pop Albums chart on the strength of hits such as “Across the Great Divide” and “Up on Cripple Creek.”
Transitioning into the 1980s, Robertson embarked on a solo career, eventually releasing five studio albums, including 2011’s “How to Become Clairvoyant,” which reached the #8 position on the Canadian albums chart.
Beyond his roles as a songwriter and musician, Robertson’s studio prowess was noteworthy, encompassing production and session work. His collaborations extended to luminaries like Ringo Starr, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, and Neil Diamond, to name a few.
Robertson’s creative influence also extended to the realm of modern cinema. During the filming of “Carny” in 1980, he shared lodgings with legendary film director Martin Scorsese and contributed to other Scorsese classics like “Raging Bull,” “The King of Comedy,” and “The Color of Money.”
In 1989, Robertson and fellow members of The Band received induction into the Canadian Juno Hall of Fame, with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame following suit five years later.
Robertson’s personal life was graced by his marriage to Canadian journalist Dominique Bourgeois, with whom he raised three children. In 2022, he announced his engagement to longtime partner, Canadian entrepreneur, restaurateur, and Top Chef Canada judge Janet Zuccarini.
“While Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and John Kay were fighting their way through Toronto’s Yorkville Village’s folk clubs in the 1960s, Ronnie Hawkins, backed by Levon and the Hawks– Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko–reigned on downtown Yonge Street,” recalls Larry LeBlanc, senior writer, CelebrityAccess.“The Yonge Street bar strip was then a ‘Life is A Carnival’ maze of flickering neon lights, honking car horns, and fast people. “Local musicians, as well as myself and others, would fight nightly for seats as the Hawks held court in a raucous style Toronto bar crowds expected from young players backing a colorful Fayetteville, Arkansas rock and roller who’d tell us, ‘Live fast, live hard, die young, and leave a be-yu-ti-ful memoree.’
“’We were really going strong in those days,’” Hawkins once told me. “We were just experimenting; how much we could cram in, how much we could learn.’”
“In listening to the Band’s debut album, “Music From Big Pink” and the slim collection of albums that followed, we knew that the years of such ‘woodshedding’ paid off. As well Robbie Robertson’s enduring legacy as a master Strats guitarist lived on with local players including the late Domenic Troiano and Freddie Keeler as well as more recently Colin Linden.
“And even those who didn’t play guitar growing up in Toronto, like myself, we still wanted to be Robbie Robertson, the coolest of the cool. I got to interview him numerous times over the years, and his music is part of my DNA.”
