Written in ENTERTAINMENT he 08/09/2023 16:09

Robbie Robertson, songwriter, guitarist and cleader of the rock group The Band, He died on Wednesday at the age of 80 in Los Angeles.

canadian musician died “after a long illness”, his rep Jared Levine reported in a statement.

“Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death,” said the statement, which did not offer more details about the illness he was suffering from.

Born in Toronto in 1943, Robertson founded Canadian-American band The Bandone of the most recognized rocks of the 1970s.

The group collaborated regularly with the likes of Bob Dylanand has even become a benchmark for guitarists of Eric Clapton’s stature.

Their impact was such that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they collaborated again with Dylan and they accompanied him to famous festivals like Woodstockwhich places them among the elite of American rock.

The addiction issues of various band members meant that by the middle of that decade, the band experienced serious internal problems and Robertson himself disbanded the formation.

In 1976, The Band performed a massive Thanksgiving concert in San Francisco that was included in the documentary “The Last Waltz” (1978), directed by Martin Scorsese.

Along with his bandmates, Robertson was inducted into Canada’s Juno Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Although the band reunited to record three new albums in 1990 and were without Robbie Robertson, died on Wednesday at the age of 80.