Slimbob Dunlap was one in a million. The outpouring of love for him here in Minneapolis since the news broke is overwhelming. Everyone has a story where he's kind and funny. No one has a bad word to say about him.
I was lucky enough to have Slim take me under his wing and show me the ways of a touring band. In 1997 Slim got a chance to tour as the opening act for Son Volt, but his regular bassist couldn't make the trip. He asked me to do it, never mind that I'd never played bass onstage before in my life. My first gig, after one short rehearsal, was at Irving Plaza in New York. I hope no one noticed me.
Everywhere we went he had what seemed to be close friends. I wondered how is this possible? Could he have met all these people just in the handful of tours he did with the Replacements? I eventually realized that he just had that rare gift of putting everyone at ease and making them feel valued. People adored him everywhere we went.
I watched the faces of the young crowd at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston as Slim started his set with me plunking along on bass, looking over his shoulder. The Son Volt fans started out bored and even a little hostile, but as Slim worked his magic, the faces softened, smiled and laughed. He truly was a master entertainer.
Sadly, since 2012 he's been lying on his back, unable to even hold a guitar. He could barely communicate, but his mind was still sharp. He remembered personal details about his friends, and asked for updates whenever we'd visit.
I'll miss him forever, but I'm glad Slim's magnificent spirit no longer has to be tethered to that crumpled, fragile body. The love between him and Chrissie is lesson for us all.
You're right, he wasn't ever rolling in dough, but he was like Minneapolis' George Bailey - the richest man in town.
Best,
Terry Walsh
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In the 1980s, I played guitar for a loud LA-based post-punk act that
was trying to get signed. However, live mixing and various tech crew
jobs in television production paid my rent.
In December of '87, I was mixing FOH for an act that opened up for the
Replacements at the Palladium in Hollywood. I was a huge fan of the
Replacements -- wore the vinyl out and had seen them perform both
brilliantly and sh*t-faced. And here I was, a kid with a dream and in
the same room as his heroes.
During the interminable sound checks, the 'Mats new guitar player Slim
Dunlap was killing time sitting on his amplifier. I struck up a
conversation and shared a ciggie with the man during what was an
impromptu smoke break. He was affable and demure, and I probably told
him more about my aspirations than he wanted to hear.
While talking about the music business and his new-found fortune as
the lead guitarist for the darlings of College Radio, he cut me off.
He pointed across the stage to his guitar tech.
"See that guy over there?" he asked. I nodded. "He tunes my guitars.
And he makes more money than I do."
I eventually got signed in 1990, but when that went sideways in 1994,
I went back to mixing sound full-time—only in television, not rock and
roll. I got out. Music was too much of a grind and too little of a
return.
Last March, 37 years after my star-struck talk with Slim, I retired as
the Audio Mixer on Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
I took those jobs because I never forgot Slim's lesson on the
Economics of the Music Business.
Godspeed, Slim Dunlap. You were a Gentleman and a Savant. And one f*ck
of a guitar player.
Cole Coonce
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I knew Slim. I represented Slim . I loved Slim.
I met him for the first time when the Mats were touring behind " Pleased To Meet Me " . I was a friend of their then manager and went to see them in Houston . I arrived early with the intent of saying hi to them before the show. When I met Slim, I knew he was the real deal by his shoes. He wore "old man" shoes, beaten to hell lace up black oxfords with white socks and old man trousers. It was about 2 in the afternoon, he was drinking a Heineken out of the bottle, and it was pretty evident it was not his first of the day. We talked for half an hour about this and that and I was taken by not only how comfortable he was in his new roll, but what a perfect fit he was with being a Mat. It was years later when the band imploded and Slim recorded his debut album that we reconnected and I wound up as his booking agent. I told him how much I loved the first track, " Ain't Exactly Good " and how it was the best sounding Stones album they never made. He laughed while casually mentioning that he made the record in a cheap minneapolis home studio in a couple of days for a cost of about 1000.00. His follow up album, " Times like this " was just as easy to listen to. But talk about a frustrating position to be in. Here was a guy who was essentially the midwest version of Keith Richards only he couldn't get arrested. I don't think the guy ever made more than 5k off any one show. But he was a genuinely good unassuming guy who happened to have an average voice, write better than average songs , and could play the rock n roll guitar like very very few.
It was really sad when he had his stroke and just as sad hearing of his passing. It reminds me of when I heard of John Prine passing , and I said " we're all just a little worse off without John in our lives " . Today, we're all a little worse off without Slim Dunlap.
Scott Weiss
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I worked his second solo record Times Like This. Before the Chicago show I introduced myself and said it should be a great show tonight. Slim responded with, "As long as I make enough money to buy cigarettes and cat food I'm good."
The Old New Me is a GREAT record.
Rest Easy Slim
Kenny Schnurstein
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The band I was in at the time, The Casual Ts, opened for The Replacements in 1987 in Tallahassee. While Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson were living up to the 'Mats myth, Slim, who was quite a bit older than the others, was upbeat, very friendly, and seemed to genuinely enjoy our set. After the 'Mats delivered an incendiary set at the roadhouse we played (the long gone Kent's Lounge) we mentioned to Paul how much we thought Slim added to the band, Paul replied, with utter sincerity, that Slim had saved the band, and that they couldn't believe that he was playing with them. Slim was a local legend in Minneapolis, playing for many years with singer Curtiss A. and with other bands in the area. It was a great scene in many areas back then, where the local legend was a big thing. He was a treasure. Rave on, Slim Dunlap.
Bob Anthony
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Appreciate your mentioning Dunlap here. A lot of this is, as I think you're suggesting, about "you had to be there," and there's nothing good or bad about that really.
I grew up in the 1980s and the Mats were important to most everyone I knew. Part of all this was seeing them live, and for a while, not knowing what band you were going to get onstage. I finally did see them during their last tour in 1991, at the Marquee in London no less, and it was utter magic. Didn't matter than Chris Mars wasn't onboard for this one, or that Bob Stinson wasn't either. Slim was great, gracious, and an excellent foil for Westerberg.
Marshall Armintor
_______________________________________
Thanks for your post about Slim Dunlap. As for "getting" the Replacements, well, you kinda had to be there. And by "there" I mean the gigs. You never knew what those guys would or could do at any moment….sometimes blow your mind, sometimes break your heart. But they were always human and always unpredictable and Westerberg's tunes spoke directly to the heart of those of us who were Paul's age and basking in the fun and intensity of the post-punk live rock scene in the 80s. I saw every NYC Replacements show from February 1985 to the final 1991 tour. Those were damn good times. I'm sure Slim and Bob Stinson are jamming, entirely unrehearsed, in the afterlife.
Mitch Goldman
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The Replacements - in all incarnations - were another one of those bands that shifted my early life flight pattern. Seeing Slim play with them numerous times as a late teen was a near-religious experience - they were my dirtbag Beatles.
Godspeed Slim. And thank you.
Timothy J. Smith
_______________________________________
Please check out Songs for Slim, a tribute album consisting predominantly of covers of The Old New me by Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Jeff Tweedy, John Doe, Joe Henry and the Replacements amongst others.
It was to raise funds after Slim had his stroke.
You were far from alone in your love for Slim Dunlap.
Warm regards from Sydney,
David Ryan
https://open.spotify.com/album/3P7rxkTzsJRvXjle2fm1AF?si=heHnUT5LSca2rbE6SEXNqA
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Not forgetting the great "Times Like This" , a great version by Frankie Lee and Steve Earle. " It's times like this that you learn what you really miss " . Simple and timeless wrapped up in a gorgeous melody. RIP Slim
Blair Morgan
Christchurch, New Zealand
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"Don't Tell A Soul" is a fantastic album with great songs. If you still don't get it, that's on you. Listen to "Achin' To Be" and tell me that isn't one of the best songs you've ever heard. Yes, they lost the drunken shambolic edge they had on previous albums, but in my opinion it was for the better. Westerberg's songwriting was maturing and Slim Dunlap brought some much needed professionalism to the proceedings.
Jonathan Lee
_______________________________________
I've read that Westerberg didn't like the final cuts of Don't Tell a Soul or All Shook Down. Now, the earlier mixes are on Spotify. The album is, appropriately, Dead Man's Pop. Maybe it would help you understand.
https://open.spotify.com/album/026UE0OpdLYl0UUWh6npYf?si=hu9NA7NyTB6MQA0T6lVhtQ
Ray Jepson
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Here's the one Replacements song that you should really hear - "Can't Hardly Wait". It's got horns and it's just...indelible. From their last indie album "Pleased To Meet Me".
Give it three seconds, the opening riff might close ya.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0NX14YH2t16bwwlJSfXazr?si=824cddd7e8d84344
Daryl Shawn
_______________________________________
The Slim obituary and observation accurately depict the "working musician," the lineage of the Replacements, and what I would say is a "Sadly Beautiful" reality. However, it hurts and the harsh cold winds of our industries live on.
Michael Manas
_______________________________________
I didn't expect a eulogy for Slim Dunlap from you. I remember he and his band playing The Uptown Bar in South Minneapolis in support of the new record. The song that stuck with me that night and still comes back to me from time to time was "Taken on the Chin." It's a good rock song. Coulda been a hit. In fact I texted my buddy to say that Slim had taken the last one on the chin.
Thanks for writing about him; elevating his status. What he did was good and meaningful to a lot of us.
Jim Holm
_______________________________________
I met Slim in Minneapolis in late 1978 when he was playing guitar for Curtis A. Nice guy, and a great player. He was the perfect 'replacement' for Bob. One of the all time great players in Rock and Roll. A natural, if ever there was one. He didn't have to try.
Kenny Vaughan
_______________________________________
Wow you knew Slim Dunlop's solo work? And you mentioned the 'Mats?
If you ever saw them live you would get it. Sober or not, they "rocked like murder!"
Wileen Dragovan
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In addition to this wonderful piece on Slim, you were able to honor Kevin Sutter again! I miss Kevin every time I speak to someone who was close to him or see their name. He was a great mentor to me early in my promotion career. He taught me about being the "mayor of the market" and was always turning me on to music he was excited about when I went to see him in Seattle.
John Butler
_______________________________________
Nice to hear something about Kevin. He was one of my best friends here in Seattle. I really miss him. He was a wealth of musical knowledge also. Saw many great shows with him.
Rick Mercer, Jr.
_______________________________________
Sad news about Slim Dunlap.
I worked with Kevin Sutter and Jeff Laufer at RCA. Those 2 fellas knew how to accrue airplay.
John Sigler
_______________________________________
I knew Sutterman had to be the one to turn you onto Slim. Miss those conversations with Kevin. Life certainly is short!
Be well Bob.
Melissa Dragich
_______________________________________
Slim's dad was a highly respected lawyer in Rochester, helped Sandy Keith become Chief Justice of Minn Supreme Court. His parents and family were proud of him and he was a G.E.N.T.
Hope you saw him at Bogarts in Long Beach on the Old New Me tour because he all but burned that honky tonk down.
Dennis Pelowski
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Brands aren't bands...
Social media comets have no grit, grime, struggle, passion forged by "all of it," let alone real swagger or honest charisma.
The 'mats were the new punk losers set to stun drunk on their own sense of self, but they were committed.
And the songs? I always thought they were more a girls band (except for Bill Holdship, who ALWAYS believed) -- because everyone I knew who loved them was female.
But it was rock & roll on two wheels, possibly into the wall. Reckless, dangerous, real, bleeding and not caring.
And Slim? He was the one whose guitar churled it all forward...
Westerberg was in love with my best friend Emily in the '90s, in that corruptible way of his. Those words? Who could resist?
But Slim was a deeper, more desperate kind of heart. That's what you got, what you wanted, what most of us couldn't be raw enough to claim.
I'm glad you loved him. I'm glad you remembered. For a moment today, this weekend, you will make listen -- and that is good.
Here's to what music gives us: that's what made Slim burn the way he did.
Holly Gleason
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Thanks for your wonderful words about Slim Dunlap. You just brought attention to his talent to thousands who never knew the name. I appreciate your honesty about the "Mats" definitely an acquired taste but those of us who love them will always keep them in our hearts and minds, much like a crazy uncle or friend who was way more cool than sane.
I was on air talking about "Swinging Party" from the amazing remix of "Tim" from Ed Stasium today. Westerberg and the boys had a way of bringing cheap bar fly life to music, they had to be Bukowski's favorite band. Never heard that Slim Dunlap album before, at least on our tiny station in Traverse City Mi it will get played tomorrow.
Jerry (JC) Coyne
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Saw Slim a couple of times post-Replacements. Somewhere in Boston, The Paradise? With a band opening for Son Volt or Golden Smog. Slim had an old Marshall, a Telecaster, a Les Paul Jr and a Rickenbacker. I turned to my bandmate I was there with and said "that's going to be me someday." He looked at me like I was crazy.
Another time he was performing solo, might have been opening for Blue Mountain or Jayhawks, at the end of the show he asked the audience if anyone wanted to drive back to Minneapolis with him because he didn't want to drive alone and he'd buy your bus ticket back to Boston. I seriously considered it but my 9-5 wouldn't understand if I called in and said "I'm driving to Minneapolis with a Replacement!" There would've been no way to make them understand even though riding into MPLS with a Replacement would've been like showing up at the North Pole, well, not with Santa but maybe Rudolph.
I messaged Slim's family back in 2016 when I was putting together my first solo album and asked if it'd be ok to cover "Hate this town" and I got the greenlight, paid my clearances and all that. "In my dreams I don't hate this town. I'm thinking I'm lucky I live here." Such an amazing sentiment said so plainly. The life he lived versus the life that he might've lived and at the end "didn't want to work in a hardware store anyway..." We should all be so lucky to write a simply beautiful song.
Paul Westerberg might have been my guiding light but Slim showed me that once a musician, always a musician and it's still a job and worth it to go and sing your songs. When I go live with my Tele, Rickenbacker and Les Paul Jr, well, I always think of Slim in that regard and how I wish I had taken that long, cold ride back to Minnesota with him.
~Bobbo Byrnes
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I'm a friend of Slim's daughter Emily and her husband, Charles. Slim had an incredible amount of love and support around him. I visited him and Chrissie in their Minneapolis home in 2022 - heartbreaking situation but I've never seen a stronger family. He was a talented, tasteful musician and will be sorely missed.
bthompson
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I worked with Kevin Sutter on my 2016 release, Lost Soul. I'd been out of the game for ten years and commercially unsuccessful before that, though I'd checked some boxes like playing the Fillmore and the Newport Folk Festival and touring Europe. So Lost Soul wasn't my first rodeo and I knew how hard it was to break into AAA radio. Still, I had some Kickstarter money and wanted to give it a shot, knowing full well that there were no guarantees beyond sending the music to the right people and following up with phone calls. The investment didn't break the bank and the alternative was doing nothing.
Predictably, the "big" stations ignored us, which was fine since I was 99% sure that's what would happen. The one little blip was that WYEP was always about to discuss it in their weekly meeting but it kept slipping through the cracks. This went on for, like, a month and a half and I couldn't get closure. Who knows, maybe they'll get to it after the holidays in early 2025.
I also let myself be convinced to do a "clean" version of the catchy lead track, I Think I've Taken Enough Sh*t From You This Year, since Kevin thought it was exactly the kind of song AAA would go for. I knew - KNEW - this was pointless but went along with it. In for a penny, in for a pound! The feedback was that the clean version still implied unclean.
In the end, I was satisfied since we managed some airplay here and there and my strategy was to bottom feed anyway. An interview with whatever random site was something I could talk about on Facebook and Twitter or in my newsletter: proof of life.
I reached out to Kevin about another project a few years later, mostly because I liked the guy and wanted to hear his pitch. He said the competitive environment was even more challenging than it had been. Counterintuitively, he followed up with an email along the lines of "I hope our conversation convinced you to move forward." It had done the exact opposite!!!
As far as I can tell, Kevin Sutter was one of the good ones. He had to make a living but was realistic, knew what he was doing, and did what he said he was going to do. I would have recommended him and worked with him again under the right circumstances.
I had a way worse experience with a publicist on my "noise folk" project with guitarist Gerry Leonard, Bob Hillman & Spooky Ghost. Again, I knew there were no guarantees, but you hope they'll leverage their relationships to generate…something. But they generated nothing and I'm not convinced they even followed up. Literally, I got more publicity for another project around the same time just by emailing sites on my own. There was one site they said had passed that I then emailed myself and landed a video premiere. At the end, the publicist proposed solving the problem by throwing more money at it and seemed surprised and even a little angry when I said I couldn't invest further when the original investment generated zero ROI.
I know where I stand as an "artistically successful" independent artist but still crave musical connection and receive occasional signals that it's possible. The question becomes, can anyone really open doors? Lately, I'm thinking not.
Bob Hillman
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