Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson, OC, is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for his work as lead guitarist and primary songwriter for The Band. As a songwriter, he is credited for "The Weight", "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Up on Cripple Creek", "Broken Arrow", "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", and many others. He has been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest guitarists...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth5 July 1943
CityToronto, Canada
CountryCanada
Think about the number of people who do film music, make records and have a Native American heritage - and I may be the only one on the list.
I'm really lucky because I found myself in a position where I can do whatever I want to do. I can make records, produce records, make movies, or I can do nothing. I'm not a slave to the dollar.
That whole lifestyle - make a record, do a tour: I know how to do that. It doesn't interest me.
Record making is an extraordinary experience.
I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it's expected of me.
When you make a record, your own record, and you don't even recognize it yourself, it's hard to think if anybody else is going to recognize.
In 1966, when we were playing that music, ... people were flipping out with anger at that music and hated it.
In a lot of groups, you can change a musician, and it doesn't mean anything.
The Band is probably the ultimate example of people taking all kinds of music, from gospel to blues to mountain music to folk music to on and on and on and on and putting them all in this big pot and mixing up a new gumbo.
After the 'Last Waltz' concert, it just seemed very healthy to me to put making a record as far out of my mind as I possibly could.
In Americana, the facts and the dreams seem to be all the same to me.
Cowboys had guitars. And they sang country 'cause they lived in the country.
I've been really fortunate that I've been at a lot of critical crossroads in my musical journey. When I look back, there are some pretty interesting things to look at.
Do you know what a skin walker is? It's a thing in Indian mythology. There are certain people born with this gift, and they're able to actually get inside you and mess with your feelings and with your mind. And if a skin walker chooses to get a hold of you, there's not much you can do.