Canadian music icons Robbie Robertson has died at the age of 80.
According to his management, the celebrated singer-songwriter and former member of the Band died Wednesday (August 9) in Los Angeles from a long illness.
Robertson’s long-time manager, Jared Levine, issued a statement that reads:
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. Robertson recently completed his fourteenth film music project with frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese, Killers Of The Flower Moon. 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.
Early on Robertson played with music legends like Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan, the latter of which led Robertson to eventually form the Band with Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, and Richard Manuel. The went on to fashion the sound of Americana music, holding a farewell concert that became a triumphant event Martin Scorsese shot as the concert film, 1978's The Last Waltz.
After the band, Robertson continued to work with Scorsese on a number of films, including Raging Bull, The King of Comedy and The Wolf of Wall Street, as a composer, music supervisor and producer.
He also established himself as a successful solo artist in the 1980s, often exploring his Indigenous roots through his songwriting. His last solo album, Sinematic, was released in 2019.
In 2016 he published his autobiography, Testimony: A Memoir, which led to the 2019 documentary, Once Were Brothers, which followed his time in the Band.