Singer, songwriter and guitarist Robbie Robertson, best known as a member of the Band, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles at the age of 80. He had suffered from a long illness, according to a statement released by his management.

Robertson’s manager of 34 years, Jared Levine, wrote: “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. He is also survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel and Seraphina.” In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to “support a new Woodland Cultural Center”.

Born in Toronto on July 5th, 1943, Robertson learned music from his mother’s side of the family, who were Mohawk and lived on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. As a teenager, he linked up with Ronnie Hawkins and his band the Hawks on the bar circuit in Toronto.

In 1965, a year after their split with Hawkins, Robertson and his fellow bandmates – drummer Levon Helm, bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson – were recruited by Bob Dylan as a backing band during his pivot to non-acoustic music, including his famed “electric” set at the 1965 Newport folk festival.

Renamed “the Band”, the group released their debut album Music from Big Pink in 1968 and followed up with such hits as The Weight, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Up on Cripple Creek and It Makes No Difference. Music from Big Pink as well as subsequent albums The Band (1969) and Stage Fright (1970) combined barroom rock with the American new folk revival, and became critical and commercial successes. The Band’s music influenced such contemporaries as Eric Clapton and George Harrison as well as a generation of American roots musicians.

Substance abuse and creative disputes plagued the act by the mid-1970s, and the Band called it quits by 1976. Their farewell concert, held on Thanksgiving Day 1976 at the Winterland ballroom in San Francisco, was captured by Martin Scorsese in the documentary The Last Waltz. Released in 1978, it is now considered a classic concert documentary.

Robertson continued to work on side projects with former Band members, as well as a solo artist in the subsequent decades. He released his self-titled debut in 1986 and his sophomore record, Storyville, in 1991, and contributed to records by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Ringo Starr, Neil Diamond and others. Robertson released his final solo album, Sinematic, in 2019.

He also maintained a long creative relationship with Scorsese, who produced another documentary on the Band, Once Were Brothers – a retrospective that leaned heavily on Robertson’s recollections – in 2019. Robertson scored several of Scorsese’s films, including Raging Bull, Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman. Scorsese’s upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon, scheduled for release later this year, was also scored by Robertson.

In a statement released today, the film-maker paid tribute. “Robbie Robertson was one of my closest friends, a constant in my life and my work,” he said. “I could always go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor. I tried to be the same for him. Long before we ever met, his music played a central role in my life - me and millions and millions of other people all over this world. The Band’s music, and Robbie’s own later solo music, seemed to come from the deepest place at the heart of this continent, its traditions and tragedies and joys. It goes without saying that he was a giant, that his effect on the art form was profound and lasting. There’s never enough time with anyone you love. And I loved Robbie.” - Guardian