Garth Hudson, The Band’s last surviving member, dead at 87

Hudson’s death was confirmed Tuesday by The Canadian Press, which cited Hudson’s friend, Jan Haust. Additional details were not immediately available. Hudson had been living in a nursing home in upstate New York.

Robbie Robertson, the band’s guitarist and lead songwriter, died in 2023 after a long illness. Keyboardist-drummer Richard Manuel hanged himself in 1986, bassist Rick Danko died in his sleep in 1999 and drummer Levon Helm died of cancer in 2012.

The Band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

members of The Band

The Band’s last surviving member, Garth Hudson, left, has died. The other members were, from left, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko. (Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)

Hudson was born in Ontario and became musically trained at a young age. By his teens, Hudson was writing and performing music.

He was the last member to join The Band, which was formed in the 1960s.

The Band was originally called The Hawks and featured the Arkansas-born Helm and four Canadians recruited by Helm and Hawkins: Hudson, Danko, Manuel and Robertson. Richard Manuel plays the keyboard

The Band performs onstage in June 1976. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

The Band mastered their craft through years of performing as unknowns – then as the unsuspecting targets of outrage after hooking up with Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s.

They all joined Dylan on his historic tours of 1965-66 (Helm departed midway), when he broke with his folk past and teamed with the Band for some of the most stirring and stormiest music of the time, enraging some old Dylan admirers but attracting many new ones. The group would rename itself the Band in part because so many people around Dylan simply referred to his backing musicians as “the band.”

Garth Hudson at Hall of Fame

Garth Hudson from The Band also played with English band, the Call. (Eric Charbonneau/WireImage)

Hudson also played with the Call, an English band, along with different variations of the Band.

The keyboardist also worked on records by Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen and Emmylou Harris.