Bob “Slim” Dunlap, the beloved “alternative Substitute” who joined the band in 1987, has died on the age of 73.
The musician’s household confirmed his dying in an announcement, per the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Bob handed at residence in the present day at 12:48 p.m. surrounded by household. We performed him his ‘Reside on the Turf Membership (’Thank You Dancers!)’ CD, and he left us shortly after listening to his model of ‘Hillbilly Heaven’ — fairly poignant,” learn the assertion. “It was a pure decline over the previous week. General it was attributable to issues from his stroke.”
In 2012, Dunlap, who performed guitar with the Replacements from 1987 to 1991, suffered a extreme stroke. A key half to stabilizing the band after the departure of founding guitarist Bob Stinson, Dunlap featured on the group’s final two albums, 1989’s Don’t Inform a Soul and All Shook Down, launched the next yr. Throughout this time, Dunlap grew right into a beloved determine within the Minnesota music scene.
After the band cut up up in 1991, Dunlap launched two solo albums. His first, The Outdated New Me, debuted in 1993 with Twin/Tone, the Minneapolis label behind the early Replacements albums. He launched dwell album Thank You Dancers! in 2020, that includes music he recorded at St. Paul’s Turf Membership in 2002.
Bruce Springsteen praised Dunlap’s work in a 2014 interview with NPR’s Ann Powers. “Slim Dunlap is unbelievable. He was part of The Replacements and he made two fabulous rock information that have been simply actually, deeply soulful and exquisite,” mentioned the Boss. “I hope I get an opportunity to chop one in all his songs as a result of he’s, it’s simply, these things, take a look at the 2 Slim Dunlap information as a result of they’re simply so stunning, they’re simply stunning rock ‘n’ roll information. I discovered them to be deeply touching and emotional.”
Dunlap’s stroke in 2012 left the artist paralyzed. The yr after, the Replacements reunited to launch Songs for Slim, a five-song profit EP for the guitarist. On the time, it was the group’s first new recording in 23 years, and included two of Dunlap’s songs, with gross sales going towards elevating cash for his or her former bandmate’s medical care.
“He’s been out and in of the hospital perhaps 40 instances,” the band’s frontman Paul Westerberg later instructed Rolling Stone. “We have been speaking to Slim when he was within the hospital,” Westerberg mentioned. “And I used to be like, ‘Ought to we play?’ And he mentioned, ‘Yeah, play.’”
