Robbie Robertson

For other people named Robbie Robertson, see Robbie Robertson (disambiguation).
"Jaime Robertson" redirects here. Not to be confused with English film score composer Jamie Robertson.

Robbie Robertson
OC
Robertson in 2000
Born
Jaime Royal Robertson

(1943-07-05)July 5, 1943
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedAugust 9, 2023(2023-08-09) (aged 80)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Musician
  • songwriter
  • singer
Years active1957–2023
Spouses
  • Dominique Bourgeois
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1968; div. 1977)​
  • Janet Zuccarini
    ​
    (m. 2023)​
Children3, including Sebastian
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Guitar
  • vocals
  • keyboards
Labels
Formerly ofThe Band

Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson[1] OC (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician of Indigenous ancestry.[2] He was lead guitarist for Bob Dylan in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s, guitarist and songwriter with The Band from their inception until 1978, and a solo artist.

Robertson's work with the Band was instrumental in creating the Americana music genre. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame as a member of the Band, and into Canada's Walk of Fame, with the Band and on his own. He is ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitarists.[3] He wrote "The Weight", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", and "Up on Cripple Creek" with the Band and had solo hits with "Broken Arrow" and "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", and many others. He was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Songwriters.[4]

Robertson collaborated on film and TV soundtracks, usually with director Martin Scorsese, beginning in the rockumentary film The Last Waltz (1978) and continuing through dramatic films including Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Silence (2016), The Irishman (2019), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), scoring the latter shortly before his death.[5] The film was dedicated to his memory,[6] and garnered him a posthumous nomination for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards.[7]

  1. ^ Robertson, Sebastian (2014). Rock and Roll Highway: The Robbie Robertson Story. New York: Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 978-0-8050-9473-2.
  2. ^ Six Nations Band Council. "Life Time Achievement Award" (PDF). Six Nations of The Grand River, Ontario, Canada: Six Nations Band Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 16, 2017. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
  3. ^ "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Rolling Stone. November 23, 2011. Archived from the original on December 30, 2015. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  4. ^ Warner/Chappell. "Robbie Robertson: Our Artists and Producers". Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).