Robbie Robertson has died at 80. Per an announcement from his administration offered to Selection, the guitarist, singer/songwriter, and chief of the legendary roots-rock group the Band handed away in Los Angeles after a protracted sickness. Robertson was 80.

Robbie Robertson was born Jaime Royal Robertson in Toronto, the place each of his mother and father labored in a manufacturing unit. (Later, Robertson discovered that his organic father was a person who died earlier than Robertson obtained an opportunity to fulfill him.) Robertson discovered to play guitar on the Six Nations Reserve, the place his mom grew up, and he fell in love with early rock ‘n’ roll.

In 1959, after working in circuses and carnivals, Robbie Robertson joined the native band Little Caesar And The Consuls. He additionally performed in just a few completely different teams earlier than Ronnie Hawkins, an Arkansas-born rockabilly singer based mostly in Toronto, recruited him to hitch his backup band the Hawks. Within the early ’60s, the Hawks developed a secure lineup of locked-in musicians, after which they cut up away from Ronnie Hawkins in 1964.

With out Ronnie Hawkins, the group modified its identify to Levon And The Hawks, with Arkansas-born singer/drummer Levon Helm positioned because the frontman. Robbie Robertson write the Hawks’ debut single “Uh Uh Uh,” which got here out 1965. Later that 12 months, Bob Dylan, who’d not too long ago gone electrical, requested the Hawks to function his backing band on tour. The group, billed as Bob Dylan And The Band, toured for a few 12 months, creating a ferociously shambolic type of folk-rock. Robbie Robertson performed guitar on a lot of Dylan’s traditional 1966 album Blonde On Blonde. A 12 months later, the Band recorded The Basement Tapes with Dylan; the extensively bootlegged album went formally unreleased till 1975.

The Band launched their very own traditional debut Music From Huge Pink in 1969. Bob Dylan co-wrote a few of its songs, however the group’s actual breakout second occurred when Dennis Hopper included their music “The Weight” in his film Straightforward Rider. Robertson wrote “The Weight,” and he additionally wrote different hits for the Band, like “Up On Cripple Creek” and “The Night time They Drove Outdated Dixie Down.” The Band performed Woodstock, and so they continued to again Dylan up at lots of his largest exhibits. Their music drew on nation and blues, and it helped set the template for the Americana model, even when a lot of the Band’s members had been Canadian.

The Band famously toured Canada by prepare with Janis Joplin and the Grateful Lifeless. Their albums bought fairly properly, and their 1969 self-titled sophomore LP went platinum, however they had been extra of a stay and significant favourite than a business juggernaut. The group battled habit issues and inner tensions earlier than deciding to name it quits in 1976. As a grand finale, they performed one closing present in San Francisco on Thanksgiving, sharing the stage with friends like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Younger, and Muddy Waters. Martin Scorsese filmed the live performance, and his 1978 documentary The Final Waltz stays one of many all-time nice live performance films.

Through the Band’s lifetime, Robbie Robertson collaborated extensively, taking part in on data from artists like Ringo Starr, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, and Neil Diamond. After the Band’s breakup, he produced and starred within the 1980 film Carny, and he additionally co-wrote the film’s soundtrack. Robertson additionally labored on the soundtracks for a lot of Martin Scorsese movies, beginning with 1980’s Raging Bull.