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After the charges levelled by former Band-mates, ROBBIE ROBERTSON<\/strong> has his day in court. Lit up with diamond-smuggling uncles, gay pot-dealers, even an actual armed robbery he planned to commit, his Testimony is a wild witness statement from rock’s frontier phase, but vells an aftermath of bitterness and heartache. \u201cLevon made statements that were just blatantly unfounded,” he tells MICHAEL SIMMONS<\/strong>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/The-Truth-The-Whole-Truth-And-Nothing-But-The-Truth.2-scaled.jpg” alt=”Robbie Robertson” title_text=”The Band” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Robbie Robertson in his The Band days, London, 1971.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”|||3px||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n DECKED OUT IN AN ALL-BLACK suit, Robbie Robertson exudes elegance and a well-read intelligence, \u2013 the latter all the more fascinating given his teenage education chicken- pickin\u2019 in honky-tonks where \u2013 in the words of his first major employer Ronnie Hawkins \u2013 \u201cYou had to show your razor and puke twice before they\u2019d let you in the door.\u201d We\u2019re meeting at his small office in a nondescript Los Angeles neighbourhood. Propped against a wall is the Martin D-28 acoustic on which he wrote The Weight and in a corner the Fender Twin Reverb amp that survived Woodstock and The Last Waltz. <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cTalking-one-two, talking-talking-talking,\u201d Robertson says into MOJO\u2019s tape recorder, checking levels in a raspy baritone. The recorder is working and Robertson\u2019s been too. He\u2019s penned a new memoir called Testimony (\u201cpenned\u201d is literal \u2013 he wrote it longhand), its title a statement that the private songwriter-guitarist is going to open up. Robertson\u2019s formative role in rock is unquestioned \u2013 from his beginnings as an adolescent proto-shredding Telecaster master, through his crucial complicity in Bob Dylan\u2019s rock reinvention and the unsurpassed rootsy originality of The Band. But others \u2013 notably Band drummer Levon Helm \u2013 have published their accounts of the era. Helm, in particular, was bitterly critical.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Half-First Nations (ie. Indian), half-Jewish, Robertson grew up in \u2028Toronto, Canada and, like many 1950s kids, his future was determined by a Christmas guitar and Be-Bop-A-Lula on the soda shop jukebox. On a trip north of the border, Arkansas rockabilly raver Ronnie Hawkins first crossed paths with the 16-year-old when the kid was in opening act The Suedes and later hired him as bassist for his backing group The Hawks; Robertson\u2019s rhythm section partner was another Arkansan, Levon Helm. In Testimony, Robertson writes that Hawkins had big plans for the youngster from the start, taking him on a song-hunting mission to New York\u2019s Brill Building. When Robbie asked why he wasn\u2019t taking Levon, Hawkins said of Helm, \u201cHe ain\u2019t a song person.\u201d These five words would have implications later.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cI was writing songs before I knew I was writing songs,\u201d Robertson tells MOJO. \u201cI was trying to figure out a guitar part on a song when I was quite young, and I got so frustrated with it. I thought, The hell with it \u2013 I\u2019ll just make up a song. So I\u2019d just write a song because it was a short cut. I wrote songs \u2019cos I had to. Ronnie says to me, \u2018Levon\u2019ll play it better than anybody, but he isn\u2019t really the kinda guy who goes out in search of songs and cares about it, he\u2019s like, Let\u2019s just play.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Hawkins was adopted as a Toronto rocker in the early \u201960s. The Hawks evolved into Robbie, Levon, bassist\/singer Rick Danko, pianist\/singer Richard Manuel and organist\/saxophonist Garth Hudson. They\u2019d become more than a band \u2013 they would be The Band. But first they\u2019d be the most notorious sidemen in rock\u2019n\u2019roll.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Who Do You Love \u2013 the single Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks cut in 1963 with your hellfire solo \u2013 sounded like it came out of nowhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n (Laughs) It came from a very youthful spirit \u2013 there\u2019s no patience involved. Whenever it was time for me to blow Ronnie\u2019s mind \u2013 to do something that would make him just scream \u2013 I couldn\u2019t wait. And so, that energy, that excitement, that teeth-grinding screaming guitar was something that takes a certain amount of youth.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n There\u2019s that famous Dylan quote, calling you a \u201cmathematical guitar genius\u201d. What do you think he meant by \u201cmathematical\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It\u2019s having a structure [that\u2019s] improvised and at the same time you have a sense of dynamics \u2013 when to rise, when to fall, when to shimmer, when to growl. When The Hawks hooked up with Dylan, he found this explosive, dynamic thing. Because of his intensity, it raised everything up and we didn\u2019t come down enough and people were saying this music is so loud we can\u2019t hear the words. Part of that was he wanted that raging spirit on these songs.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n We got booed all over North America, Australia, Europe, and people were saying this isn\u2019t working and we kept on and Bob didn\u2019t budge. We got to a place where we would listen to these tapes and say, \u201cYou know what? They\u2019re wrong. And we\u2019re right.\u201d Eight years later, we do a tour, the [1974] Dylan\/Band tour, we play the same way, same intensity and everybody says, \u201cWow, that was amazing.\u201d The world came around \u2013 we didn\u2019t change a note.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n There\u2019s a line in your book, \u201cThis wasn\u2019t the folk traditionalist Dylan; this was the emergence of a new species.\u201d What did you learn from Bob in 1965 and \u201966?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The obvious thing we learned \u2013 that everybody learned \u2013 was there was a new way of songwriting. There was a much more colourful, descriptive, humorous, outrageous thrill ride of wordplay. We hadn\u2019t seen this before \u2013 this was breaking some big rules. I remember saying to Bob one time, \u201cMaybe there\u2019s too many verses in this\u201d (laughs), and he said, \u201cThere probably are, but that\u2019s what I was thinking about when I wrote it.\u201d His spirit was on fire, and he was knocking down the boundaries that had been built up around music. It excited me to be part of this revolution.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Levon didn\u2019t like it at first and left The Hawks for a while. Besides the booing, what didn\u2019t he like?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t like the music, he didn\u2019t like the songs \u2013 at that time. He didn\u2019t like the fame game that was going on with Dylan because it didn\u2019t feel real to him. He wasn\u2019t comfortable in New York City, he wasn\u2019t comfortable around that many Jews. I write about this when he\u2019s telling me he wants to leave and he says, \u201cI don\u2019t like this goddamn music, I don\u2019t like Albert Grossman, and I don\u2019t like being surrounded by all these goddamn\u2026\u201d And he stopped himself, but I knew where he was going and I thought, You don\u2019t get it, or you don\u2019t want to get it.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/The-Truth-The-Whole-Truth-And-Nothing-But-The-Truth-scaled.jpg” alt=”Hudson, Manuel, Helm, Band on the Veranda: (L-R) Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko, 1971, London.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n FOLLOWING THE DYLAN TOUR\/ORDEAL OF 1966, The Hawks retreated to a basement in Woodstock, New York. Music From Big Pink and The Band of 1968 and \u201969 followed \u2013 a one-two knockout punch. The first filtered American roots music through an ethereal dream state, the second was more literal \u2013 an American history lesson conjured by Robertson and Manuel\u2019s songs and told through the eyes of fictional participants. The records irrevocably changed the trajectory of rock.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the emotional content of Robertson\u2019s songs \u2013 steeped in tradition, filled with boisterous sexuality, defiant pride and inconsolable regret \u2013 had precedence in his own life. His First Nations mother carried stories and rituals from before the white man\u2019s conquering of North America, while his blood father\u2019s brother was mobbed-up in murky, illegal rackets involving black market diamonds \u2013 with a prominent family in Toronto\u2019s Cosa Nostra as partners. This led to Robertson\u2019s close-call as a would-be mob bagman, delivering diamonds for his uncle. The deal was aborted, as was a later caper when he and Levon planned to knock over an illicit card game. Armed and masked, the two future Band-mates arrived at the scene of the proposed crime, only to find the game had been cancelled. Robertson\u2019s memoir reveals someone who was clearly more than a dilettante with a library card.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In 1968, Music From Big Pink was so different to anything else. It still is.<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Something happened in that basement. We weren\u2019t playing to an audience, we were playing to one another, and we were in a circle. If you couldn\u2019t hear somebody singing, it meant you were playing too loud. So we found a subtlety, it made you hold your breath \u2013 ahhh. Energy and power and excitement and violence had a lot to do with our music. Now, there was a different sensibility. And the songs that I was writing, if you played too hard, it was out of context. All of these things started to have a new kind of grace. Everybody else was getting louder and we\u2019re going to this other place and there was a delicacy to it. Little things meant more than the obvious. All of these musicalities we heard \u2013 fife-and-drum blues, mountain music, Delta, Anglican choirs, rockabilly, Johnny Cash \u2013 the simplicity is exquisite. The Staple Singers when they sang gospel and it\u2019s just the voices and Roebuck\u2019s guitar\u2026 Curtis Mayfield. And jazz \u2013 Charles Lloyd. All of this we\u2019re gathering and all of it makes this new music.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n There\u2019s also something spooky about it \u2013 otherworldly, impenetrable.<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It was cinematic. You not only could hear it, you could see it. It had a sound that we had never heard before. Voices were used in a way that we hadn\u2019t heard before. Instruments were played with a delicacy that pulled at your heartstrings and it had this beautiful sadness to it. The more we got lost in that movie, Big Pink, the more comfortable it felt.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Big Pink comes out and The Beatles and Clapton come banging on your door. Did you realise you\u2019d created something special?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n We realised that it was touching people in the way that we hoped, but at the same time we were suspicious of success. Most of the stuff we really liked, not a lot of people knew about it and that\u2019s what was golden about it. So when we put out \u2026Big Pink, on one hand you think, Isn\u2019t it wonderful that people are embracing this, but at the same time we would never look at the charts. That\u2019s where you go wrong, when you start thinking about this as a popularity contest. So sure enough, at a certain point we became successful and things changed and it hurt people personally. The more successful we got, the more self-destructive we got.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n On the second album, you write about things you couldn\u2019t have known about \u2013 like turning 73. Of course, you\u2019re now 73. Where did these songs come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n On The Band record, I wasn\u2019t writing personal songs, I was telling stories. We\u2019d be driving down a highway and I\u2019d see a little house off in a field, and I\u2019d think there\u2019s a light on there \u2013 what\u2019s going on in that house? Some of it was reflective of periods in the South because I was 16 years old when I went from Canada to the Mississippi Delta and it made a huge impression on me, \u2019cos I thought, I\u2019m going to the Holy Land, I\u2019m going where this stuff grows out of the ground. It was like writing a movie script.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n One of the stories in the book is you and Levon attempting an armed robbery.<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In the world that we ran in, we knew so many people from dark places, criminals that were really good at it, thieves [who] took great pride in their gift. They were friends of ours, they came to where we played. Now this is big cities up north. In the South was a different kind of criminal. I tell the story about when Levon and I score some grass with this guy that\u2019s got fingers missing. He takes us out into the country and these two old guys are out there\u2026<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The gay pot dealers?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Yeah, and the guy\u2019s shooting heroin in his neck. They weren\u2019t feminine. They were guys who had spent most of their life in prison \u2013 for them, it\u2019s a different kind of gay. It\u2019s like, I fuck whatever I can, whether it\u2019s you or a tree. All of these characters [we met] \u2013 playing for Jack Ruby in his club with a one-armed go-go dancer and then a month later he kills Oswald. The circles we ran in made this idea of Levon and I doing this robbery not that far-fetched. We weren\u2019t that different from these people. On both sides of the tracks, they like breaking the rules, they like getting away with stuff that\u2019s naughty.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n ROBERTSON\u2019S TESTIMONY ENDS WITH THE LAST Waltz in 1976 \u2013 the all-star show at San Francisco\u2019s Winterland that was filmed by Martin Scorsese and turned into a definitive document of rock. But it wasn\u2019t the end of The Band. After various solo projects, the group hit the road again in 1983, without Robertson, and recorded, notably 1993\u2019s Jericho \u2013 a little gem. In 2016, three are too soon gone: Richard Manuel by his own hand in 1986, Rick Danko from heart failure in 1999 and Helm in 2012 from a return of the cancer he was thought to have beaten over a decade before. Robertson has released several solo albums, written children\u2019s books and worked with Martin Scorsese on film music, while Garth Hudson continues to compose and record. <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The Robertson-Helm bond had been one of The Band\u2019s anchors. \u201cThey each shared a part of the other\u2019s soul,\u201d Helm\u2019s ex, Libby Titus-Fagen, told Band biographer Barney Hoskyns. \u201cOne would start a sentence and the other would finish it. They had their own alphabet, their own clock, their own DNA, a Levon-Robbie double helix.\u201d And yet many Band fans have taken sides, some blaming Robertson for alleged transgressions in a relationship whose complexities they know nothing about. When the subject comes up now it\u2019s clear he\u2019s had enough. As he wrote in The Rumor from 1970\u2019s Stage Fright album: \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a lie\/Even if it\u2019s a sin\/They\u2019ll repeat the rumor again.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The big controversy among Band fans is the deterioration of your friendship with Levon. You went to see Levon when he was dying: was there any talk or exchange?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t conscious, so all I could do was sit there and hold his hand and think about all of the amazing things that we had experienced together, and that he was still like the closest thing I\u2019ve ever had to a real brother and that I loved him dearly. The negative thing between Levon and me happened 10 years after The Last Waltz. In all of the times that we were together, some of it\u2019s loving and fabulous and some of it, [Levon\u2019s] heroin [use], got in the way. Heroin will let you defy the truth and I did not understand that in our brotherhood. And it hurt me, you know, [but] I knew I had to learn to accept it.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/The-Truth-The-Whole-Truth-And-Nothing-But-The-Truth.1-scaled.jpg” alt=”Robbie Robertson” title_text=”Robbie Robertson Portrait Session” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Robertson, NYC, 1994<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n But as time went on, something happened and he got bitter and paranoid. It drove the other guys in The Band crazy. They were like, \u201cWhat the fuck now?\u201d He thought everybody was trying to fool him and take advantage \u2013 concert promoters, accountants, lawyers, managers, Bob Dylan, everybody. This thing grew in him and it was like a plague, and I would say, \u201cListen, we\u2019re keeping a real close eye, don\u2019t worry about it, I know this is driving you nuts.\u201d Then he started coming up with things we should do and our advisers said that\u2019s not a good idea \u2013 he wanted us to build shopping centres in Arkansas.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It got to the point where I couldn\u2019t discuss with him what we were going to do next because we weren\u2019t getting anywhere. When it came time for The Last Waltz, a lot of which was done because Richard was in such bad shape that we knew he\u2019s going to die \u2013 we gotta get out of the way. Plus, Levon and Rick were in bad shape. None of us were in great shape, but the three of them were in and out of a heroin thing.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It wore me down \u2013 I couldn\u2019t do it. So I said, \u201cLet\u2019s bring this to a joyous musical conclusion because something has to be done.\u201d And Levon\u2019s thing became like a demon inside of him, eating him up. Everybody was having a lot of trouble with it, and it bothered me as much as anybody because I was the one closest to him. The Last Waltz was a relief \u2013 I didn\u2019t have to babysit this every day [any more]. Levon wasn\u2019t good at taking responsibility for his own part in it. Finally, 10 years after The Band, it became my fault.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n What about Levon\u2019s claims concerning songwriting credits?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n There was never one discussion between the guys in the band about me not writing the songs. That would have been preposterous. I worked my ass off and they knew what I did and came to me and apologised for not holding up their end in that area. [Levon] made statements years after The Band that were just blatantly unfounded, and he\u2019d never said one word to me about that in all of our times together. I chose to not say anything \u2019cos I knew that he was suffering from something and I didn\u2019t want to turn this into anything. It broke my heart, but I knew it was untruthful, and of every song that I ever wrote for The Band, I wrote and brought to them, I never brought a song to them and said, \u201cCan you help me finish this.\u201d I finished some of their songs, but never once did [the opposite] happen. And he played a lesser part in the songwriting than anybody because, as we said earlier, it wasn\u2019t his thing, it didn\u2019t come naturally to him. So, he wrote Strawberry Wine and I helped him finish it, and I gave him credit on Life Is A Carnival and Jemima Surrender \u2019cos he was there, I loved him and I wanted to give him credit.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n There are those \u2013 particularly some punk rockers \u2013 who\u2019ve criticised The Band \u2013 and particularly The Last Waltz \u2013 as representing a tired ethos and being \u2018Dinosaur Rock\u2019. What\u2019s your response?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Was Billie Holiday a dinosaur? Was Charlie Parker a dinosaur? These people changed the world. These people in The Last Waltz changed the fucking world. Some new people have done incredible work, but the jury\u2019s still out on whether they changed the world. And I have great respect for The Clash. I\u2019ve met some of those guys over the years and they worship The Band and told me, \u201cThat\u2019s the stuff that made us wanna make powerful music and do it well.\u201d And Elvis Costello, another one \u2013 and I knew the Sex Pistols, I knew Johnny [Lydon]. So I know you\u2019re using \u201cpunk rock\u201d as just a viewfinder towards something. But don\u2019t ask me \u2013 ask them.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In the book you mention seeing Coltrane perform, calling him \u201canti- showbiz.\u201d That was my reaction every time I saw The Band in the day.<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t play by anybody\u2019s rules and when everybody was going in this direction of wearing big polka dots and silly clothes and screaming hate about their parents, The Band was taking pictures with our parents. We were dressing the way we dressed every day. Not because it was a look, but because we lived up in the mountains and you couldn\u2019t wear polka dotty clothes \u2013 you\u2019d look silly at the hardware store. We came from our own past, our own realness, and our own honesty. And then everybody started dressing like us!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in Issue 278 of MOJO\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Testimony by Robbie Robertson is published by William Heinemann<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Images: Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The TruthAfter the charges levelled by former Band-mates, ROBBIE ROBERTSON has his day in court. Lit up with diamond-smuggling uncles, gay pot-dealers, even an actual armed robbery he planned to commit, his Testimony is a wild witness statement from rock’s frontier phase, but vells an aftermath of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3617"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3689,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3617\/revisions\/3689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cI remember saying to Dylan one time, maybe there’s too many verses in this.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Robbie Robertson\u00a0<\/h3>\n
\nRobertson, Danko” title_text=”The Band” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n\u201cLevon got bitter and paranoid. It drove the other guys in the band crazy\u201d<\/h2>\n
Robbie Robertson\u00a0<\/h3>\n