‘‘God has really looked after me, baby, for sure,” said rockabilly wildman Ronnie Hawkins a few years ago. “Can you believe I’ve lived this long with all the things I did … smoking two packs of cigarettes in a day for almost 50 years. Smoked two or three joints and had a small bottle of Cognac every night before I went onstage to get my false courage up. I played seven nights a week most of the time, up to four hours a night. I kept on playing for nearly 63 years and had a lot of fun doing it. It was always new people every night, and for somebody to accomplish what I’ve done and gone as far as I have...
“I was always a little short on talent, pecker and money — and boy, that’s a handicap if you want to be good rockabilly frontman,” he said, laughing, “but I always had good bands that could really entertain. The one I put together that became The Band, was probably at one time the very best rock and roll band in the world.”
Shortly after Hawkins died on May 29, Robbie Robertson, former lead guitarist and chief songwriter for The Band, fondly remembered the man who mentored five inexperienced young musicians during their tenure in Hawkins’ group, The Hawks. “Ron prided himself in always having top-notch players: Levon Helm, his drummer, Rick Danko on bass, Richard Manuel on piano, and Garth Hudson on organ and sax. He had us rehearsing constantly into the wee hours. We balked about it, but we got better and better. After we went out on our own, we joined up with Bob Dylan, became The Band, and the rest is history — but Ronnie was the godfather. The one who made this all happen.”
Ronnie Hawkins was born January 10, 1935, in Huntsville, Arkansas, just two days and.
