Canadian singer-songwriter Robbie Robertson dead at age 80

Robbie Robertson, the Toronto-born frontman of The Band, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a long illness.

The legendary singer-songwriter-guitarist was 80.

During his time with the Canadian-American musical group, Robertson wrote such well-known songs as “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Up On Cripple Creek.”

The Band hit it big in the early 1970s, thanks in part to a collaboration with Bob Dylan and to appearances at the Woodstock, Isle of Wight and Watkins Glen music festivals.

After the group broke up in the mid-’70s, Robertson embarked on a solo career. He also worked with director Martin Scorsese as composer, music supervisor and music producer on a number of Scorcese’s films, including “Raging Bull,” “The Color of Money,” “The Departed,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and “The Irishman.”

Robertson’s time with The Band was memorialized in the documentary “Once Were Brothers” in 2019.

He and his bandmates were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Robertson was enshrined into Canada’s Walk of Fame, both with the Band and on his own.

He received the Order of Canada in 2011.

Robbie Robertson, The Band's guitarist and primary songwriter of "The Weight," "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down," and "Up On Cripple Creek," among other classics, has died at age 80.
His songwriting, musical style, and production have influenced nearly everyone.
Everyone. pic.twitter.com/USXwVtDVdk

— Eric Alper (@ThatEricAlper) August 9, 2023

The loss of Robbie Robertson is heartbreaking. Canada has lost an icon, and music has lost a poet and a scholar.

— Kiefer Sutherland (@RealKiefer) August 9, 2023

Robbie Robertson has passed away. Rest in Peace to one of the most influential artists to ever do it. The Band. Those songs. His talents were so rooted in the soil of this place.

— George Stroumboulopoulos (@strombo) August 9, 2023