Rick Danko
| Rick Danko | |
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Danko performing at Woodstock Reunion, September 7, 1979
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Richard Clare Danko |
| Born |
December 29, 1943 Blayney, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | December 10, 1999 (aged 55) Marbletown, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1956–1999 |
| Labels | |
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| Notable instruments | |
Richard Clare "Rick" Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter and singer, best known as a member of The Band.
Danko was born on December 29, 1943 in Blayney, Ontario, a farming community outside the town of Simcoe, the third of four sons in a musical family of Ukrainian descent. He grew up listening to live music at family gatherings and to country music, blues and R&B on the radio. He especially liked country music, and often his mother would let him stay up late to listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio.
His musical influences included Hank Williams, the Carter Family and, later, Sam Cooke. He also drew inspiration from the music of his eldest brother, Junior. Danko's second-eldest brother, Dennis, was an accomplished songwriter, and his younger brother, Terry, also became a musician.
He made his musical debut playing a four-string tenor banjo for his first-grade classmates.
Danko formed the Rick Danko Band at the age of 12 or 13. By age 14, Danko had left the Simcoe Composite School and started playing local dance halls with his band the Starlights. At 17, already a five-year music veteran, he booked himself as the opening act for Ronnie Hawkins, an American rockabilly singer whose group, the Hawks, was considered one of the best in Canada. For years, it was erroneously reported that Danko was born on December 29, 1942. "It was a mistake and it just kept being reprinted," Danko said. "Nobody ever corrected it."
Although he was born on December 29, his actual year of his birth is 1943. According to Rick's eldest brother, Maurice, Rick was born at home, and his parents did not file for a birth certificate right away. When they did get the certificate, it had the wrong year, 1942. The family did not get around to changing it, and young Rick used this earlier date to his benefit: It meant that he could get a driver's licence earlier, get into bars earlier, etc. As the birth certificate was never changed, Rick's driver's licence also contained the same date. And since those two official IDs contained the erroneous year, his headstone was marked with the same date, since there was no other official confirmation of the real date. Another brother, Terry, also confirmed that Rick was born in 1943.
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