re: Is Robbie Robertson the biggest douchebag in rock history?

Robertson stated in the Last Waltz that he didn’t want to die on the road and I assume he didn’t want his band mates to meet that fate either. Also you have to take into account the deaths of Jimi and Janis whom he also references in the film. I think he saw the road as the financial source that would continue to feed his band mates out of control drinking and drugging lifestyle and so he decided that by breaking up the band and ceasing to tour would somehow save them.

What I don’t think he anticipated was that instead of cleaning themselves up, they turned on him once they had all blown through their money. They had habits to feed and there was Robbie with his money, but in their eyes he was too greedy and selfish to tour or record. The resentment just grew from there to he stole all of the publishing. If you watch the Levon documentary he’s very resentful because he felt that Robbie basically wrote a lot of those songs about him or about the stories Levon would tell. Levon felt he should get writing credits because they were his stories, but he never claims he sat down and wrote them. I think they even mentioned that Levon was not ignorant of how writing credits actually worked but he had this irrational resentment towards Robbie over this issue. Basically his attitude was without me and my stories you would have never written those hits and therefore you stole my publishing.