Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson (born July 5, 1943, in Toronto, Canada; died Aug. 9, 2023) was the lead guitarist and primary songwriter for the influential music group The Band. Born to a Mohawk mother and a Jewish father, Robertson spent part of his childhood on the Six Nations Reserve, deeply connecting with his Indigenous heritage, which influenced his artistic vision throughout his career. In the early 1960s, Robertson joined Ronnie Hawkins’s backup group, The Hawks, which would later evolve into The Band. In the latter group, Robertson wrote  songs such as “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and **”The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”**—tracks that blended rock, folk, country, and soul. The Band’s collaboration with Bob Dylan during his shift to electric music in the 1960s further elevated their status. After The Band’s farewell concert, captured in Martin Scorsese’s 1978 documentary The Last Waltz, Robertson pursued a solo music career,  and collaborated extensively with Scorsese, scoring films such as Raging Bull, The Color of Money and The Irishman. Robertson received his first Golden Globes nomination for Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).