From his humble beginnings in Windsor to rising fame as the keyboardist and saxophonist of The Band, Garth Hudson has left his mark on rock music.
According to Variety Magazine, the musician died peacefully Tuesday morning at a nursing home in Woodstock, New York.
Hudson was 87.
Hudson was born in Windsor on August 2, 1937. At three, his family moved to London, where he attended Broughdale Public School and Medway High School before taking music at Western University.
At 12, Hudson began playing in bands around London and later joined The Silhouettes. In 1956, the Silhouettes moved to the Windsor-Detroit area.
Approached by Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helm in 1961, he joined The Hawks. The Hawks split with Hawkins in 1963 and by 1968, had formed The Band.
Hudson was the only member who never contributed vocally when The Band played live or in recording sessions.
In a rare 2003 interview with Maclean's magazine, Hudson was self-effacing about his role, describing it as a job.
Robbie Robertson, The Band's guitarist and songwriter, was much more descriptive in his 2016 memoire saying, "he played brilliantly, in a more complex way than anybody we had ever jammed with. Most of us had just picked up our instruments as kids and plowed ahead, but Garth was classically trained and could find musical avenues on the keyboard we didn't know existed."
Robertson passed in August 2023.
The Band had several hits, including "Up on Cripple Creek" and "The Weight."