‘The Band’ Songwriter Robbie Robertson Dead at 80

Robbie Robertson, iconic rock guitarist for The Band, has died. He was 80 years old. Robertson was the primary songwriter for The Band, penning classics such as “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up On Cripple Creek” and many more of the group’s hit songs.

In a statement published by Rolling Stone, Robertson’s management company confirmed his death. “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny,” read the statement from longtime manager Jared Levine. “In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support the building of their new cultural center.”

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1943, Robertson lived a fascinating life. In his younger years, he traveled with a carnival and later worked a freak show. He would later turn the experiences into inspiration for his song “Life is a Carnival” — with the Band — as well as the 1980 movie Carny, which he also starred in and produced.

Robertson began playing music in his teen years, eventually landing a gig playing in The Hawks, with the late Ronnie Hawkins. Notably, the Hawks band would come to consist of Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson. They would later come to adopt the name The Band, after also playing for a couple of years with Bob Dylan, whom they would later reteam with, in the mid-70s.

The Band made their formal introduction into the music industry in the late ’60s, making their debut with the 1968 album Music from Big Pink. The group would go on to record six more studio albums between ’68 and 1977, with their early years culminating in The Last Waltz, a final live performance that was filmed by Martin Scorsese. 

Robertson went on to work in music production for film and TV, often working with Scorsese. The pair collaborated on films such as Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Casino (1995), The Departed (2006), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and The Irishman (2019). Notably, Roberston was the composer on Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese’s next movie, which is scheduled to open in select theaters on Oct. 6, before going wide on Oct. 20. It appears that this will be Robertson’s only posthumous film project.