Robbie Robertson's Real Name: Jaime Royal Robertson

Quick answer: Robbie Robertson's real name was Jaime Royal Robertson. He was born on July 5, 1943, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and became famous as Robbie, guitarist and chief songwriter of The Band.

[IMAGE: credited photo of Robbie Robertson with The Band or solo, with credit]

Jaime Royal Robertson

Robertson's official site and major obituaries state he was born Jaime Royal Robertson (robbie-robertson.com; Reuters; Canadian Encyclopedia). His mother, Rosemarie Dolly Chrysler, was Cayuga and Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River; his biological father, Alexander Klegerman, died before Robbie was born. Summer visits to the reserve shaped his musical beginnings (official about page).

As a teen he played Toronto bands, then joined Ronnie Hawkins's Hawks with Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson. Bob Dylan hired the Hawks for his electric 1965–66 tours. As The Band they released Music from Big Pink (1968); Robertson wrote or co-wrote cornerstones such as "The Weight," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," and "Up on Cripple Creek" (official about).

The Last Waltz, Scorsese, solo work

The Band's 1976 farewell concert became Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz. Robertson later supervised or composed music for many Scorsese films, ending with Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), which earned a posthumous Oscar nomination for Best Original Score. Solo albums include Robbie Robertson (1987) and Indigenous-focused projects Music for the Native Americans (1994) and Contact from the Underworld of Redboy (1998). Honors include the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (with The Band, 1994), Order of Canada (2011), and Grammy Lifetime Achievement (2008, The Band) (official about).

[IMAGE: credited still from The Last Waltz or a solo performance, with credit]

He died August 9, 2023, in Los Angeles, at 80 (Reuters; NPR).

Amazon note (tag realname1-20): Music from Big Pink, The Band, The Last Waltz, and the memoir Testimony are natural slots.