Interview: Rick Danko, December 21, 1977

I was a Rick Danko fan from the first note of the first song he sang on Music From Big Pink, “Caledonia Mission.” There was something in his voice that grabbed me immediately, some incredible mixture of twang and soul that was not only inviting but also very honest and very real.

I’d seen Rick play three years before that record came out from a front-row center seat at a Bob Dylan concert in Newark, New Jersey and had been waiting ever since for more, with a John Hammond album and one lone flipside of a Dylan single to tide me over.

This interview took place on Rick’s tour bus that was parked in front of the Bijou Café in Philly, before his show. Rick’s first album had just been released, the Last Waltz had not been released and I couldn’t believe I was on his tour bus and was frankly quite nervous. I’d seen The Band as much as I possibly could and in many ways he was my favorite guy in The Band to watch because he was something of a maniac on-stage, always moving. A roadie took me to …