Ronnie Hawkins

Ronnie Hawkins, the southern U.S. rockabilly artist who moved to Canada and became godfather to a generation of influential rock musicians, has died at 87.

Hawkins earned himself several nicknames over the years, including Mr. Dynamo, Sir Ronnie, Rompin’ Ronnie and the Hawk. The singer of “Who Do You Love?”, “Ruby Baby” and “Mary Lou” brought many artists under the wing of his backing band the Hawks, several of whom went on to become big names of their own. His wife Wanda confirmed to The Canadian Press that Hawkins died Sunday morning after a long illness.

Ronnie Hawkins, the big, boisterous Southern rockabilly singer who called Canada home and helped mentor the first band from this country inducted into the ...

Hawkins enjoyed that bit of revelry and recognition, as the early 1970s hadn't always been kind. "Loved him, but we needed to go and find out what was around the corner." Hawkins was born on Jan. 10, 1935, in Huntsville, Ark., his family moving to Fayetteville when he was a child. In 1959 Hawkins scored a deal with Roulette Records, leading that year to minor hits Forty Days and Mary Lou, and an appearance on American Bandstand. As described in Helm's autobiography This Wheel's On Fire, Hawkins often had to charm a young musician's parents to fill out his band. Always retaining U.S. citizenship, in 2014 he accepted an honorary appointment as officer of the Order of Canada. For reasons that have been debated — his love of Canada undoubtedly playing a part — Hawkins couldn't fully grasp the brass ring or allow U.S. music industry heavyweights to mould his career. "You know, I don't know anything about Canadian politics, the price of wheat or Niagara Falls," he said in the doc. His highest charting single in the U.S. reached No. 26, and, not a natural songwriter, most of his recorded work consisted of covers. Hawkins, born and raised in Arkansas, got wind of steady work available on the Canadian bar circuit from Conway Twitty, among others. The musician known as The Hawk didn't make his reputation in the studio. His wife Wanda confirmed to The Canadian Press that Hawkins died Sunday morning after a long illness at age 87.

TORONTO — Ronnie Hawkins, the southern U.S. rockabilly artist who sowed the seeds of Canada's music scene after moving north, has died at 87.

He was also an Order of Canada recipient in 2014. In 2002, Hawkins had a cancerous tumour removed from his pancreas, just three months after undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery. It happened one afternoon when Hawkins granted him an opportunity to "sing a tune" on stage. He just played a real pivotal part in all of it." You're not having any fun making my music,'" the Victoria-raised musician said during a 2017 interview. He swore the country was thirsty for bands who were eager to play smaller cities. "So he fired me, but we've remained great friends. He's just one of those guys that attracts good musicians ... We all still bow to him. He's not a great musician, he's not a great singer, he's not a great songwriter — he's a great entertainer and he's full of life and he taught us all a lot." Within a month of the singer announcing his recovery, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Foster and Paul Anka joined a slew of Hawkins's friends for a party in Toronto. The trio sang a tribute version of "My Way" to the rocker. "He was really good at gathering musicians that he thought were the best around," Robertson said in a 2016 interview with The Canadian Press. Though Hawkins clashed with some of his former bandmates, he joined the Band onstage as part of their iconic 1976 farewell show captured in Martin Scorsese's concert film "The Last Waltz." Robertson would later recall in his memoir "Testimony" that inviting Hawkins was, in part, a tribute to his influence.

Ronnie Hawkins, the southern U.S. rockabilly artist who moved to Canada and became godfather to a generation of influential rock musicians, including so ...

— Canadian Forces in (@CAFinUS)May 29, 2022 — The Band: A History (@TheBandPodcast)May 29, 2022 Ronnie Hawkins, the southern U.S. rockabilly artist who moved to Canada and became godfather to a generation of influential rock musicians, including so many in this province, has died at 87.

Ronnie Hawkins, l'artiste rockabilly du sud des États-Unis qui a semé les graines de la scène musicale canadienne après avoir déménagé dans le nord, est.

En 2002, Hawkins s’est fait retirer une tumeur cancéreuse de son pancréas, trois mois seulement après avoir subi un quadruple pontage cardiaque. Il a juste joué un rôle central dans tout cela.” Alors Hawkins prêtait sa voiture, avec des plaques d’immatriculation américaines, aux chefs de groupe dans le but de tromper les agents et les propriétaires de clubs en leur faisant payer des concerts. “La plupart d’entre eux mouraient de faim”, a déclaré Hawkins. “Les agents ne réserveraient pas un groupe canadien.” Beaucoup attribuent à Hawkins – qui avait une affection pour les voitures de créateurs, les grandes lunettes de soleil d’aviateur, les femmes et les fêtes – le mérite d’avoir ouvert la voie aux artistes canadiens en herbe pour entrer sur le marché américain. Né dans l’Arkansas en 1935, Hawkins a rejoint la réserve de l’armée après le lycée alors qu’il travaillait au noir dans les Black Hawks, un groupe formé par son collègue musicien AC Reed.

Ronnie Hawkins, l'artiste rockabilly du sud des États-Unis qui s'est installé au Canada et est devenu le parrain d'une génération de musiciens rock ...

Son épouse a confirmé à La Presse Canadienne que Ronnie Hawkins est décédé dimanche matin des suites d’une longue maladie. Ronnie Hawkins, l’artiste rockabilly du sud des États-Unis qui s’est installé au Canada et est devenu le parrain d’une génération de musiciens rock influents, est décédé à l’âge de 87 ans. Le chanteur Ronnie Hawkins est décédé à 87 ans

Ronnie 'The Hawk' Hawkins, a musician and impresario who helped discover and develop The Band and numerous other musical acts that emerged out of Toronto ...

As a musician, he also had his own hits. Hawkins was also an actor with roles in several notable films. “He was a sweet sweet guy, very kind, and very very funny. “Believe it or not, there was a philosopher side to him,” said Thall, who said he stayed up through Saturday night into Sunday morning holding vigil. “Ronnie, he did a lot for people,” said Nelson Thall, a longtime friend. In the 1960s, he played an instrumental role in the flourishing Toronto music scene where many prominent artists including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, the Band, Rick James, Gordon Lightfoot, Daniel Langois and others played.

Besides performing, he mentored other musicians, including stars like Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and Rick Danko, who went on to form the Band.

Mr. Hawkins did other acting, including a supporting role in Michael Cimino’s disastrous 1980 western “Heaven’s Gate,” and he morphed into a respected elder statesman of Canadian music. He had modest hits with “Forty Days,” his revised version of Chuck Berry’s “Thirty Days,” and “Mary Lou,” a Top 30 hit on the U.S. charts. “Ninety percent of what I made went to women, whiskey, drugs and cars,” he said. Mr. Clinton also paid tribute to Mr. Hawkins in a 2004 documentary entitled “Ronnie Hawkins ’Still Alive and Kickin.’’ While in the Army, he fronted a rock ‘n’ roll band, the Black Hawks, made up of African American musicians, a daring and usually welcome effort in the segregated South. He also became known as a one-of-a-kind character and raconteur. Mr. Hawkins was more than just the consummate rockabilly road warrior. But Mr. Hawkins was not so sure, as he watched clean-cut teen idols like Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Bobby Rydell take over from their more rough-hewed progenitors. Ronald Cornett Hawkins was born on Jan. 10, 1935, two days after Elvis Presley, in Huntsville, Ark. When he was 9, his family moved to nearby Fayetteville, where his father, Jasper, opened a barbershop and his mother, Flora, taught school. His backup musicians of the early 1960s, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko, went on to form the Band, which backed Bob Dylan and became one of the most admired and influential bands in rock history. Over the years, his trademark became the camel walk, an early version of what became Michael Jackson’s moonwalk decades later. Before long, something new was added, the beginnings of rock ‘n’ roll, which was percolating out of Sam Phillips’s Sun Records studio in Memphis.

— Influenced careers and lives of countless musicians including Robbie Robertson and other members of the Band, John Lennon, Kris Kristofferson, and Beverly D' ...

— Acting credits include "Heaven's Gate" and the Bob Dylan-produced pseudo-documentary "Renaldo and Clara," in which Hawkins played the part of Dylan. — Hosted a number of television shows including "Honky Tonk" in the early 1980s. — Recorded over 25 albums including "The Hawk and Rock," recorded live in London, England in 1982.

Ronnie Hawkins, a Southern rockabilly artist widely credited with inspiring the Canadian music scene, died Sunday morning at age 87.

He just played a real pivotal part in all of it.” .Five members of the Hawks, including Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson, would later form the Band. “He was really good at gathering musicians that he thought were the best around,” Robertson said in a 2016 interview with The Canadian Press. “It was like a bootcamp for musicians to go through, learn the music and when to do certain things and not do certain things.

The brash rockabilly star from Arkansas became a patron of the Canadian music scene and recruited a group of musicians later known as the Band.

For 10 billion dollars, I couldn’t name one song on ‘Abbey Road.’ I have never in my life picked up a Beatle album, and listened to it. “When the music got a little too far out for Ronnie’s ear,” Robertson told Rolling Stone in 1978, “or he couldn’t tell when to come in singing, he would tell us that nobody but Thelonious Monk could understand what we were playing. But Hawkins wasn’t selling many records and the Hawks outgrew their leader. I thought Yoko’s was (silly). To this day, I have never heard a Beatle album. He first performed in Canada in the late ’50s and realized he would stand out far more in a country where homegrown rock still barely existed. But the big thing with him was that he made us rehearse and practice a lot.

TORONTO — Ronnie Hawkins, the southern U.S. rockabilly artist who sowed the seeds of Canada's music scene after moving north, has died at 87.

He was also an Order of Canada recipient in 2014. In 2002, Hawkins had a cancerous tumour removed from his pancreas, just three months after undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery. He just played a real pivotal part in all of it." It happened one afternoon when Hawkins granted him an opportunity to "sing a tune" on stage. You're not having any fun making my music,'" the Victoria-raised musician said during a 2017 interview. He swore the country was thirsty for bands who were eager to play smaller cities. "So he fired me, but we've remained great friends. He's just one of those guys that attract good musicians ... We all still bow to him. He's not a great musician, he's not a great singer, he's not a great songwriter — he's a great entertainer and he's full of life and he taught us all a lot." In 1969, the year that John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their famous "bed-in" in Montreal to campaign for peace, the couple stayed on Hawkins's farm in Mississauga, Ont., for a couple of weeks. "He was really good at gathering musicians that he thought were the best around," Robertson said in a 2016 interview with The Canadian Press. Though Hawkins clashed with some of his former bandmates, he joined the Band onstage as part of their iconic 1976 farewell show captured in Martin Scorsese's concert film "The Last Waltz." Robertson would later recall in his memoir "Testimony" that inviting Hawkins was, in part, a tribute to his influence.

Hawkins achieved success as a solo rock 'n' roller, but was best known for a version of his group the Hawks that featured all five future members of the ...

During the last decades of his life, he earned several industry honors. Levon Helm, a drummer in the Helena, Ark., area, joined the Hawks while he was still in high school. He befriended Bill Clinton before he became governor of Arkansas; Hawkins would later play Clinton’s presidential inauguration in 1993. He also joined his friend Kris Kristofferson in Michael Cimino’s western “Heaven’s Gate.” Over the years, numerous musicians cycled through the Hawks, including such notable guitarists Roy Buchanan and Pat Travers, yet they were all overshadowed by the lineup he assembled in the early 1960s, which featured all five future members of the Band: Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson. By the mid-’60s, they had parted ways with Hawkins, but their subsequent fame helped elevate Hawkins’ profile. A fiery performer who earned the nickname “Mr. Dynamo” — he also would be known as “The Hawk” and “Rompin’ Ronnie” — Hawkins made his reputation on the road, delivering blues, R&B and rock ’n’ roll covers with grit and gusto.

Arkansas-born showman – known as 'The Hawk' – cut his teeth on the South's tough 50s circuit but settled in Canada where he nurtured local talent.

“When the music got a little too far out for Ronnie’s ear,” Robertson told Rolling Stone in 1978, “or he couldn’t tell when to come in singing, he would tell us that nobody but Thelonious Monk could understand what we were playing. For $10bn, I couldn’t name one song on Abbey Road. I have never in my life picked up a Beatle album, and listened to it. He first performed in Canada in the late 50s and realised he would stand out far more in a country where homegrown rock still barely existed. But Hawkins wasn’t selling many records and the Hawks outgrew their leader. I thought Yoko’s was (silly). To this day, I have never heard a Beatle album. “He was not only a great artist, tremendous performer and bandleader, but had a style of humor unequaled,” Robertson said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Fall down funny and completely unique. Music wouldn’t be the same. He received several honorary awards from his adopted country, and, in 2013, was named a member of the Order of Canada for “his contributions to the development of the music industry in Canada, as a rock’n’roll musician, and for his support of charitable causes”. And he will live in our hearts for ever. “At that particular time, I thought I was doin’ them a favor,” he later told the National Post. “I thought the Beatles were an English group that got lucky. But the big thing with him was that he made us rehearse and practice a lot. In a tribute to Hawkins on Sunday, the Band’s Robbie Robertson said Hawkins had taught him and his bandmates “the rules of the road”.

Ronnie 'The Hawk' Hawkins, a musician and impresario who helped discover and develop The Band and numerous other musical acts that emerged out of Toronto ...

As a musician, he also had his own hits. Hawkins was also an actor with roles in several notable films. “He was a sweet, sweet guy, very kind, and very, very funny. “Believe it or not, there was a philosopher side to him,” said Thall, who said he stayed up through Saturday night into Sunday morning holding vigil. “Ronnie, he did a lot for people,” said Nelson Thall, a longtime friend. In the 1960s, he played an instrumental role in the flourishing Toronto music scene where many prominent artists including Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, the Band, Rick James, Gordon Lightfoot, Daniel Lanois and others played.

Ronnie Hawkins, the Southern rockabilly singer who helped shape and launch the Band and other Canadian rock artists, died Sunday after battling a long-term.

In 2014, he accepted an honorary appointment as an officer of the Order of Canada. In 1959, Hawkins scored a deal with Roulette Records, leading to hits like “Mary Lou” and an appearance on “American Bandstand.” His mentorship of Garth Hudson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson would eventually lead the band to back Bob Dylan for his around-the-world 1966 tour.