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
I think the world of Chuck Berry.
Some people love some music, and they hear it a year later and they think, 'What was I thinking?'
I try not to think the song to death. The main criteria is if it's working on an emotional level.
I think, some countries, you have to be dead to have your picture on a stamp.
I think that there's always great music being made. Always has been, always will be.
When I was younger, I thought I was too young to really be personal. I thought that what I was feeling and thinking might be half-baked.
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.
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.
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.
People think I left The Band and spoiled this whole thing, and that's not what happened. Nobody broke up The Band. Nobody ever said, 'That's it, we're done.'
I've always been in love with that Delta-flavored music... the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.
Cowboys had guitars. And they sang country 'cause they lived in the country.
My mother told me when I was a toddler and in the crib that they would have music playing, and the thing when I lit up was boogie-woogie or something out of the Louie Jordan period of sometimes big bands, and then all kinds of things.
I thought of a lot of people from the same era when I was making a lot of records that had continued making a lot of records. A lot of it didn't seem terribly inspired.