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Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Robbie Robertson confirmed dead after he succumbed to prostate cancer.
Robbie Robertson, the frontman of the classic rock group The Band, died at the age of 80 in Los Angeles this Wednesday.
His manager of 34 years Jared Levine released a statement in Variety revealing Robertson’s demise came at the end of a long illness. Sources have informed TMZ that the musician succumbed to prostate cancer.
The Band had a unique chemistry. Known for their vocal harmonies, they had three excellent singers in Helm, bassist Danko and pianist Manuel. Organist and multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson was also crucial.
“They were the goods,” Robertson wrote of his four band mates in his 2016 autobiography, “Testimony.” “This band was a real band. No slack in the high wire here. Everybody held up his end with plenty to spare.”
In a statement, Robertson’s manager of 34 years, Jared Levine, said “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 a new Woodland Cultural Centre.
‘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,’ said his manager’s statement.
‘He is also survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel, and Seraphina,’ Levine added. ‘Robertson recently completed his fourteenth film music project with frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon.’
With a top-flight cast including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, Killers Of The Flower Moon follows a scheme by white Americans to seize oil that has been discovered by the Osage Indians on their land.
‘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,’ said Levine..
His instrument of choice was the guitar, which he thought looked ‘pretty cool,’ and his mother gave him one featuring a painting of a cowboy.
‘I thought it was very ironic that Indians would teach me to play guitar with a picture of a cowboy on,’ Robertson drily recalled.
During his teenage years, he started jobbing around on the fringes of the entertainment industry, working traveling carnivals and even a freakshow.
By the age of 15 he had joined the burgeoning rock scene in Toronto – and in 1958, he helped formed the group that became The Band.
Under their original name The Hawks, they provided backup for Ronnie Hawkins, the rockabilly stalwart who himself died last year at the age of 87.
They turned into The Band in 1967, after they had already provided backup for Bob Dylan on his furiously polarizing electric tour.
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