Last surviving member of The Band, Garth Hudson, dies at 87

The Band's virtuoso keyboardist and all-around musician, Garth Hudson, has passed away at the age of 87. 

Hudson incorporated a conversational element into rock standards such as "Up on Cripple Creek," "The Weight," and "Rag Mama Rag" by drawing from a distinctive palette of sounds and genres, as NBC News reported.

Hudson, the senior and final surviving member of the influential group that once supported Bob Dylan, played a significant role in the development and evolution of contemporary American music.

The Band's social media accounts confirmed his death on Tuesday, but they did not contribute any further information. Hudson had been living in a nursing facility in upstate New York.

Hudson's Background

Hudson was a self-educated Greek chorus and classically trained performer who was characterized by a sprawling beard and an expansive forehead.

He communicated his incredible talent through the use of piano, synthesizers, horns, and his preferred Lowrey organ.

Through years of performing as unknowns, the Band honed their craft. They began as the backing band for Hawkins, transitioned to Levon and the Hawks, and ultimately became the unwary targets of outrage after developing a relationship with Dylan in the mid-1960s.

Joining The Band

Hudson, born in Windsor, Ontario in 1937, was the son of musicians and received formal training at a young age.

Although he had soured on classical music by his early 20s and was participating in a rock band, the Capers, he was already performing on stage and writing before he was even a teenager.

He was the last to join the Band and was concerned that his parents would disapprove. The solution was to have Hawkins employ him as a "musical consultant" and pay him an additional $10 per week.

“It was a job,” Hudson said of the Band in a 2002 interview with Maclean’s. “Play a stadium, play a theater. My job was to provide arrangements with pads underneath, pads and fills behind good poets. Same poems every night.”

Recent Troubles

Hudson encountered financial difficulties in recent years. He had surrendered his stake in the Band to Robertson and ultimately declared bankruptcy on numerous occasions.

In 2013, he was unable to make payments for storage, which resulted in the auction of a significant number of his possessions and the loss of one property to foreclosure. In 2022, Hudson's wife, the vocalist "Sister" Maud Hudson, passed away.