FILE – Musician Robbie Robertson arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Robertson, the lead guitarist and songwriter for The Band, whose classics include “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” has died at 80, according to a statement from his manager. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

One of rock’s greatest songwriters and musicians, Robbie Robertson, has died at 80. His manager said he died Wedensday in Los Angeles, surrounded by family. As the guitarist and lead writer for The Band, Robertson mined American music and history for such classics as “The Weight” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” He later worked on the soundtracks for several Martin Scorsese movies, including “The Departed” and “The Irishman.” Robertson was a self-taught musicologist and storyteller who absorbed everything American from the novels of William Faulkner to the scorching blues of Howlin’ Wolf to the gospel harmonies of the Swan Silvertones.