The death of Robbie Robertson on Wednesday (Aug. 9) has put a spotlight on The Band, the ground-breaking group in which he teamed with Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel.
The Band was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 1989. Those are the key lifetime career honors presented to artists at the Juno Awards and the Grammys, respectively.
The Band is one of just five acts – and the only group – to receive both of these honors. The Band and two of the other four acts have also been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which we’ll include here, though our focus is on the career honors linked to the Junos and the Grammys.
The Grammys have a backlog of worthy artists to receive lifetime achievement awards and also trustees awards, which are presented to people whose main contributions are behind-the-scenes. Neil Young, who was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982, still hasn’t received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy. (Memo to the Academy: What are you waiting for?) Neither have such other Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees as Hank Snow, Paul Anka, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Rush, Shania Twain, k.d. lang, Alanis Morissette and Sarah McLachlan. Some, but certainly not all, of these artists will likely one day receive the good news from the Recording Academy.
Likewise, producers David Foster, Daniel Lanois and Bob Ezrin, all of whom have been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, have yet to receive trustees awards.
Here are the five artists who have received lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy and are members of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
