Garth Hudson, who was the last surviving member of the iconic Canadian-American rock group The Band, died on Tuesday. He was 87 years-old.
It’s the end of an era in American music, with many thinking The Band was one of the single most influential rock groups ever.
Hudson Passes Away
According to The Toronto Star, Hudson died in his sleep at a nursing home in Woodstock, New York after a long illness.
Hudson was both the eldest and last surviving member of The Band. Keyboardist-drummer Richard Manuel died by suicide in 1986 at the age of 42. Bassist Rick Danko died in his sleep in 1999 at age 55, and drummer Levon Helm succumbed to cancer in 2012 at age 71. Robbie Robertson, the band’s guitarist and lead songwriter, died in 2023 at age 80 after a lengthy illness.
This left Hudson, a true virtuoso keyboardist and all-around musician, as the sole survivor of The Band.
Hudson’s History
Hudson was an extremely talented musician who played organ, piano, accordion, and occasionally saxophone and trumpet for The Band. He is widely regarded as a virtuoso.
“He was so incredibly unlike anyone else,” said Nashville-based producer and musician Colin Linden. “And absolutely everything that he said and everything that he played was like nobody else would have or could have. I treasured every bit of time that I spent with him.”
Born in Canada in 1937, Hudson was raised in London. He came from a musical family and began playing the piano at the age of 5. His parents later sent him to the Toronto Conservatory to study piano and theory and composition.
Hudson soon began playing the organ in the local Anglican church and at his uncle’s funeral parlor.
“He learned so many Anglican hymns, and really came from a Southwestern Ontario tradition,” said Linden. “He always told me, and you could hear it in his playing, that that was sort of a through-line of how his improvisational and compositional sense went.”
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The Band
The Band was originally known as The Hawks, and Hudson joined them in 1961. They linked up with the legendary Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s, and they joined him for his historic tours of 1965-66.
The Band struck out on its own in 1968 with “Music From Big Pink.” At the time, producer John Simon called Hudson the “wild card” that made that album so popular.
“Garth was essentially a colourist. He had an incredible palette,” Simon said in a new interview. “Levon Helm said The Band wouldn’t be The Band without him.”
Hudson helped The Band make 12 albums (nine from the Robertson era), and two tours and six albums with Dylan. The Band would go on to receive inductions to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (1989), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1994) and Canada’s Walk of Fame (2014). The Band additionally received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Watch Hudson himself talk more about The Band in the video below.
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An ‘Uncompromising Gentleman’
Hudson’s longtime friend and colleague Jan Haust remembers him as an “uncompromising gentleman” who loved to both learn and laugh.
“He was always all about the music,” she said.
Hudson was predeceased by his beloved wife Maud, who died in 2022 after 43 years of marriage. They had no children, and Hudson leaves no immediate family.
Rest in peace, Garth Hudson.
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