Rick Danko

Rick Danko earned lasting recognition as bassist and one of the three vocalists in the Band. He handled most lead vocals on their debut album, entered the lineup second during its earlier phase as Ronnie Hawkins’s backing unit, and became the second member to die.

Born Richard Clare Danko on December 29, 1943, in Greens Corner, Ontario, Canada, near Simcoe, he grew up in a region settled by many families of American Southern origin. Local speech and music carried strong traces of that heritage, especially country styles. Music filled his household; by first grade he already performed banjo for schoolmates. As a child he absorbed Hank Williams and other late-’40s and early-’50s country artists, along with gospel and R&B, later citing Sam Cooke and Fats Domino as key teenage influences. He left school in his mid-teens to pursue music professionally and, at seventeen, joined the Hawks, Hawkins’s group. Guitarist Robbie Robertson had already belonged for two years; Danko began on rhythm guitar, soon mastered electric and upright bass, switched instruments, and quickly developed exceptional skill on both.

He participated in the Hawks’ break from Hawkins, stayed when the musicians became Bob Dylan’s backing band, and remained through their renaming as the Band. When the group reached prominence in 1968, the members stood as equals in the public eye, though Robertson’s songwriting gradually brought him extra attention. Danko’s bass lines stood out, yet he also contributed vocals alongside Levon Helm and Richard Manuel; his singing dominated Music from Big Pink. Shortly after that album’s release he suffered a car accident that fractured his neck and back in nine places and required months of traction. He returned for the Band’s second album, The Band, and emerged as one of rock’s most distinctive new voices of the era, delivering searing performances on “When You Awake,” “The Unfaithful Servant,” and “It Makes No Difference.”

Over the Band’s peak years, Manuel and Helm assumed larger vocal roles while Robertson maintained firm control of songwriting. Eventually the members chose to pursue separate careers. In 1977, less than a year after the Band’s supposed farewell concert, Danko signed with Arista Records; his self-titled solo debut appeared in 1978, close to the release of the concert film and album The Last Waltz. Positive reviews failed to overcome the timing, and by 1980 he lacked a contract. He later rejoined Helm, Manuel, and Garth Hudson for a re-formed Band tour without Robertson, captured in a concert video. That lineup proved short-lived: pianist and singer Richard Manuel, long battling alcohol and drug issues, died by suicide in early March 1986.

Danko resurfaced in the mid-’80s through various ensembles, appearing with Helm, Hudson, and Manuel in the film Man Outside and collaborating with Paul Butterfield and Jorma Kaukonen. He and Helm joined Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band and took part in Roger Waters’s Berlin presentation of The Wall as well as the Band’s reunion segment at Bob Dylan’s 30th-anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden.

Despite steady activity, Danko’s health had long been fragile. Early signs of addictive tendencies appeared after leaving Hawkins, and the 1968 accident worsened an underlying psychological vulnerability. He managed these conditions, yet the cumulative toll persisted. In 1993 he joined American folk artist Eric Andersen and Norwegian singer-songwriter Jonas Fjeld on the album Danko/Fjeld/Andersen. That same year the re-formed Band issued Jericho, followed three years later by High on the Hog. Ridin’ on the Blinds, a sequel to the Danko/Fjeld/Andersen project, appeared the next year, and Jubilation followed in 1998, marking the final studio project uniting the three remaining original members. Occasional touring grew difficult as his weight rose and stamina declined; he was arrested attempting to bring heroin into Japan and disclosed during the trial that he had become addicted while seeking relief from pain dating to the 1968 crash.

On strong nights or in favorable studio settings he could still summon earlier brilliance. The live album Rick Danko in Concert, drawn from two 1997 performances, displayed his voice and bass work at full strength, while Live on Breeze Hill, recorded with Garth Hudson, contained standout moments such as his reading of “Crazy Mama.” A brief late-1999 tour signaled approaching decline. On December 10, 1999, just under three weeks before his fifty-sixth birthday, Rick Danko died in his sleep of heart failure.