Bob “Slim” Dunlap, who joined the Replacements as lead guitarist within the late Eighties after the pioneering rock group fired founder Bob Stinson, died Wednesday at his house in Minneapolis. He was 73 years previous.
His dying was introduced in statement from his family to the Minnesota Star Tribune, who stated the trigger was issues from a stroke he suffered in 2012.
Nicknamed Slim by Replacement frontman Paul Westerberg to keep away from confusion with the man he was changing, the tall, lanky Dunlap performed guitar on Replacement’s final two studio albums, 1989’s “Don’t Tell a Soul,” which generated an alternate n. 1 -rock radio hit within the rousing “I’ll Be You” and its 1990 follow-up, “All Shook Down,” which earned a Grammy nomination for various music efficiency. Dunlap’s fashion introduced out the novel influences in Westerberg’s writing, as within the vibrant “Achin’ to Be.”
“I needed somebody extra bluesy, who was hip to nation music, as a result of that is the place I imagined the band going,” Westerberg advised writer Bob Mehr in Mehr’s 2015 biography, “Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Substitutions”.
The son of a Minnesota state senator, Dunlap was born in 1951 and raised within the farming neighborhood of Plainview within the southeastern nook of the state. His older sisters uncovered him to rock ‘n’ roll, and he moved to Minneapolis in his late teenagers to pursue music.
“I performed in each little band I may play in, each band that needed me,” Dunlap advised the Times in 1993, not lengthy after embarking on a solo profession following the breakup of the Replacements in 1991. “Slowly however absolutely , I’ve a repute of being a man who may play something. One night time you’ll see me taking part in bluegrass in a bit of pizza place, the following night time it might be onerous rock.
In addition to his gigs as a musician, Dunlap labored as a cab driver and as a janitor at Minneapolis’ historic First Avenue nightclub, the place Replacement performed in the course of the band’s famously turbulent debut and the place Dunlap met his spouse, Chrissie, who was a expertise booker at membership. In 1987, Replacement kicked out Stinson – the band’s different founding members have been drummer Chris Mars and Stinson’s youthful brother Tommy on bass – because of the guitarist’s alcohol and drug use. (Bob Stinson died in 1995 at age 35.)
Dunlap’s audition for the Replacements “consisted of a day of beer consuming,” Spin journal wrote in an article in 1987. “Slim is extra like a fourth member of the band than a mercenary,” Westerberg advised Spin . “We initially thought it might be a good suggestion to take a horny guitarist and turn into the understudies and… Joe Blow. As it’s now, it is just like the Replacements with a brand new man who’s not an ideal guitarist, he isn’t an ideal singer, identical to we’re not good at what we do, and he suits in completely. Dunlap joined the band in time to tour behind 1987’s “Pleased to Meet Me.”
After the dissolution of the Replacements, Dunlap toured with Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites and made a pair of solo albums that attracted the admiration of Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle, amongst others. The first LP, 1993’s “The Old New Me,” contained a tune titled “The opening band ballad“, which he based mostly on his recollections of taking part in on the membership circuit in relative anonymity earlier than being chosen for the substitutions.
“People see (the state of affairs in ‘Opening Band’) as a tragic factor, however the man within the tune can play,” he advised the Times when “The Old New Me” was launched. “There are so many nice musicians in America who have not gotten consideration. They have not gotten any acclaim, however there’s one particular factor they try this nobody can contact. Nobody provides them the time of day, however they’re nonetheless on the market doing it. This is what I like. This enterprise is all in regards to the little eccentrics on the market who get misplaced within the shuffle.
“That’s the unhappy factor about so many younger bands at present. They turn into gamers after seeing Nirvana or Replacements, as a result of they assume, “If we’re fortunate, it may occur to us.” You’re higher off shopping for lottery tickets than attempting to make it within the music enterprise. I’m not an individual made or damaged by (my) standing within the business. It’s a giant joke, as a result of all of the improper individuals are doing it.
In 2012, Westerberg and Tommy Stinson reunited for a tour underneath the identify Replacement that included a efficiency with Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day on the Coachella competition; in 2013, artists together with Jeff Tweedy, Lucinda Williams, Frank Black and Jakob Dylan teamed as much as document a tribute album to Dunlap, whose stroke had left him unable to play music. Dunlap launched a stay album in 2020 that documented a 2002 efficiency on the St. Paul’s Turf Club. According to the Star Tribune, Dunlap’s survivors embody his spouse, their three youngsters, six grandchildren and Dunlap’s three sisters.
