Ronnie Hawkins, a rockabilly artist from the southern United States who moved to Canada and became the godfather of a generation of influential rock musicians, has died at the age of 87.
His wife Wanda confirmed to The Canadian Press that Hawkins died Sunday morning after a long illness.
“He was calm and looked as handsome as ever,” he said in a telephone interview.
Known for his lively personality and enthusiastic presence on stage, the “Ruby Baby” singer, “Mary Lou” and Bo Diddley cover “Who Do You Love” earned him several nicknames such as Mr. Dynamo, Sir Ronnie, Rompin ‘Ronnie and the Hawk.
Hawkins was the godfather of a generation of influential artists, including the musicians he hired for his backing band, the Hawks, who would go on to play for Bob Dylan on his infamous 1966 tour when the folkster embraced the electric guitar.
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Five members of the Hawks, including Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson, would later form the band.
Although Hawkins clashed with some of his former bandmates, he joined the band on stage as part of his iconic 1976 farewell show captured in Martin Scorsese’s concert film “The Last Waltz “. Robertson will later recall in his memoirs “Witness” that inviting Hawkins was, in part, a tribute to his influence.
“It was great to bring together musicians who I thought were the best,” Robertson said in a 2016 interview with The Canadian Press.
“It was like a bootcamp for musicians to pass by, learn music and when to do certain things and not do certain things. It just played a key role in that. “
Read more: ‘The Hawk’ Ronnie Hawkins returns to his musical roots in Fayetteville, Arkansas
Born in Arkansas in 1935, Hawkins joined the Army Reserve after high school while doing moonlight at the Black Hawks, a band formed by fellow musician AC Reed.
After finishing his time in the military, he opened the Rockwood Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which became a popular stop for artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty.
Eventually, he was given the full bill and started playing as Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, creating a bad boy look with black hair and sideburns.
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Dismayed by several years of false beginnings in his own musical career, the singer and songwriter received advice from Twitty to embark on a Canadian tour in 1958. He vowed that the country had seven bands that were eager to play in smaller cities. .
Without a recording contract in his homeland, Hawkins saw Canada as “the promised land”: an untapped market to sell his Memphis sound and build its reputation to the point of crossover success in the United States. . His instincts were right, and by the end of the decade Hawkins had two singles on the Billboard Top 100 and appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.
In his memoirs, Robertson recounts the first time he saw Hawkins play at Toronto’s Dixie Arena. His local band, The Suedes, was hired to open the concert, but he admits that the man who would become his mentor easily stole the show from him.
“It was the most violent, dynamic and primitive rock ‘n’ roll I’ve ever seen and it was addictive,” Robertson wrote.
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Many attribute Hawkins, who had a fondness for designer cars, large aviator sunglasses, women, and parties, to paving the way for evolving Canadian artists to enter the U.S. market.
“Most of them were starving,” Hawkins said. “Agents would not book a Canadian group.”
So Hawkins would lend his car, with American license plates, to the band leaders with the goal of tricking agents and club owners into paying for concerts.
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“They would tell them they were from Scarborough, Tennessee,” he added.
Some called Hawkins “the father of Canadian rock ‘n’ roll” in part because he accepted the idea of bringing young musicians into his circle.
One of them was a teenager, David Clayton-Thomas, who attended Hawkins’ shows at Le Coq d’Or Tavern on Yonge Street in Toronto in the hope that the fire musician would invite him to sit with his band. .
He spent an afternoon when Hawkins gave him a chance to “sing a tune” on stage. The performance led the bar owner to offer Clayton-Thomas a longer concert years before he became the Grammy-winning lead vocalist for Blood, Sweat & Tears.
“That’s how it all started for me,” he said Sunday. “Ronnie was very supportive.”
Later that year, when the Clayton-Thomas teen band disbanded, Hawkins quickly offered his support.
“It was Christmas and Ronnie said, ‘Well, you can’t be out of work for Christmas. Come on, work with my band. It ended up becoming a two-month concert at Le Coq d’Or singing with Ronnie’s band: Levon, Garth and the Boys. “
Not everyone was so lucky. Hawkins also had a reputation for rejecting performers or subordinates who did not fit in well with his band.
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Grammy-winning producer David Foster was one of many that Hawkins pulled off for not meeting expectations.
“He said,‘ You look like a corpse on stage, I want people to look like they’re having fun. You’re not having fun making my music, ‘said the Victoria-raised musician in an interview in 2017.
“So he fired me, but we’ve continued to be great friends. He’s just one of those guys who attracts good musicians … We still reverence him. He’s not a great musician, he’s not a great singer, he’s not a He is a great composer, he is a great animator and he is full of life and he taught us all a lot. “
In 1969, the year John Lennon and Yoko Ono organized their famous “bed” in Montreal to campaign for peace, the couple stayed at Hawkins Farm in Mississauga, Ontario, for a couple of years. weeks. Hawkins was later taken on a train trip to Ottawa to see then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Lennon also recruited Hawkins as an emissary of peace and together they went to China.
Throughout his career, Hawkins wrote approximately 500 songs and received numerous accolades and awards.
In 1982, he won a Juno for Best Male Country Vocalist for the album “Legend In His Spare Time”. He was honored with a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame in October 2002, where Rob Baker of Tragically Hip thanked Hawkins for taking “aspiring musicians and marinating them.”
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He also received the Order of Canada in 2014.
In 2002, Hawkins had a pancreatic cancer removed just three months after undergoing quadruple bypass cardiac surgery. The story was captured on the 2004 television documentary “Ronnie Hawkins: Still Alive and Kickin ‘” in which he reflected on the one-day encounter “The Big Rocker in the Sky”.
A month after the singer announced his recovery, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Foster, and Paul Anka joined a large number of Hawkins’ friends for a party in Toronto. The trio sang a tribute version of “My Way” to the rocker.
“It brought me and my band together like a family,” actor and singer Kris Kristofferson said in a 2002 tribute to Hawkins.
“If there’s a rock ‘n’ roll god, I know he looks like that guy.”
From 1962 to 2017, Hawkins called a 175-acre property, including the 5,600-square-foot house, on Stoney Lake north of Peterborough House. He sold most of the property for nearly $ 4 million and he and Wanda moved to Peterborough.
2:10 Hawkins Manor for sale Hawkins Manor for sale – July 25, 2017
More will come.
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