Band member Rick Danko dies at 56

Rick Danko

It was not immediately known what caused the death of the Canadian born musician, which came a day after his 56th birthday.

The cause of death was not considered suspicious, Ulster County, New York, Medical Examiner Walter Dobushak told Reuters.

Levon Helm, Danko's partner in The Band and neighbor in Woodstock, told JAM! Music the bassist died in his sleep.

"I just heard. I just heard right now. He didn't wake up this morning, and that's the only good thing about it," a shaken-sounding Helm said when contacted at his home in Upstate New York.

"I really don't feel like talking right now."

Singer Ronnie Hawkins, who discovered Danko when he was a teenaged butcher's apprentice in Simcoe, Ont., told JAM! Music he had recently reunited with Danko for the taping of an upcoming episode of CBC's "Life And Times" series on Hawkins' life, to be broadcast in January.

He said Friday that Danko had ballooned to over 300 lbs. in recent years and was "nervous" during the taping, "but he appeared as healthy as a bull."

"He lived fast, loved hard and died young. But he left a beautiful memory," Hawkins said during a phone interview Friday.

"Levon called me this morning. He said I got some more bad news," he said, adding Helm called him when band members Richard Manual and Stan Szelest passed away in previous years.

"The boys are getting to be pretty near 60 years old. They lived a pretty good life, considering the pace they set," Hawkins said.

He said Danko had just returned from a tour date in Chicago and had found backers for a new recording project that would have re-teamed him with Helm, who is recovering from a recent battle with throat cancer. Hawkins said he had recently come upon film of Danko when he was 17, on his first trip to New York City with Hawkins, visiting the Empire State Building.

Hawkins said he was so attracted to Danko's talent, he took him on as a practising member of his group, The Hawks, before there was even a spot for him in the group.

""The whole Danko family was musical. He just had that ear. They could all harmonize real good ... He was gifted. I saw that when I brought him into the band. Man, the days of the Le Coq D'Or Tavern (in Toronto), we would practise seven days a week and play every night. They were really sharp, man.

"Ricky got lots of respect from lots of artists. He didn't do bad at all. They did pretty good with all the things they done. (The Band) didn't do what they could have done, because they chose to have a little too much fun and not take care of business as much as they should have. But they still left their mark."

Hawkins said Danko had been married to his long-time partner, Elizabeth, and the pair had children from previous relationships.

Original members of The Band -- Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and the late Richard Manuel -- were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Born into a musical family in Simcoe, Ont., Danko quit school at 14 to play in rock 'n' roll bands. At 17, he joined Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, whose members included the musicians who would later become The Band.

The group spent the early 1960s touring the bar and club circuit in Canada and the U.S. South. After splitting up with Hawkins in the mid-60s, Danko and his bandmates played backup for Bob Dylan after the folk musician unveiled his "electric" sound that launched the folk-rock era.

During the Dylan years, Danko rented a pink house in West Saugerties, N.Y., near Woodstock. The group's debut album as The Band -- Music From Big Pink -- was recorded there and became a hit after its 1968 release.

Vocals by Danko, Helm and Manuel contributed to The Band's unique sound, and Danko sang on the group's signature songs such as The Weight, Up On Cripple Creek and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

The Band went on to play musical festivals including the original Woodstock in Bethel in 1969.

"I remember landing -- I never flew in a helicopter before -- and seeing 500,000 people sitting in the field," he told The Associated Press this year.

After The Band split up following its famous Last Waltz concert in 1976, Danko went on to a solo career. The Band stayed retired until 1983, when all the original members except Robertson began to tour again. Three years later, Manuel hanged himself in a Winter Park, Fla., hotel room.

In recent years Danko, Helm and Hudson reformed The Band at various times. Their last recording was Jubilation in 1998.