I'm Brian Hyatt. This is Rolling Stone Music Now.

Robbie Robertson, the main songwriter and guitarist for the band,

and a tremendously influential figure in the history of rock, died last week at the age of 80.

Today I'm going to play a brand new edit of the interview I did with Robbie back in June of

2020.

He started as a fire-breat breathing teenage guitar slinger.

Backing up the Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins in the Hawks which is the first

incarnation of what would become the band.

Robbie and his bandmates went on to back up Bob Dylan in 1966,

in what would become one of the most legendary tours

in music history. Getting food every night as they played these absolutely triumphant rock shows.

In Woodstock New York, the band Jam with Bob and recorded what became known as the basement tapes.

I just say no things.

They also found their own identity there with Robbie beginning to write

extraordinary Americano-soaked timeless songs.

It's a feeling about half-past-ed.

I just need some place where I...

It's become a cliche to say this but is true in the age of psychedelia the band

Robertson Garth Hudson, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Leavon Helm

Stripped Rock back down and reconnected it to its roots.

The influence of that was profound.

It shifted the careers of the Beatles, a young Elton John, and many others, and you're

...