Bucky Baxter, Guitarist for Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Dead at 65

By Jackson Maxwell
published

Baxter was a member of Dylan's live band from 1992 - 1999, and played on his acclaimed 1997 album, 'Time Out of Mind.'

(Image credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for Bonnaroo Arts And Music Festival/Getty Images)

Bucky Baxter, a veteran guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who performed with Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Ben Folds and many more, has died at the age of 65, according (opens in new tab) to his son, Rayland.

“He is my everything and now he is an angel," Rayland wrote. "My heart is broken yet I am blinded by joy." No cause of death was revealed.

Baxter was most well-known for his time with Bob Dylan. He served as a guitarist and versatile multi-instrumentalist in Dylan's live band from 1992 - 1999, and played (opens in new tab) acoustic guitar and pedal steel on Dylan's critically-acclaimed, Grammy-winning 1997 album, Time Out of Mind. 

Baxter also co-founded Americana legend Steve Earle's backing band, The Dukes, and played on a number of Earle's formative albums in the late '80s and early '90s, including his hit 1988 record, Copperhead Road.

Over the course of his long career, Baxter also performed with Ben Folds and Joe Henry, and lent pedal steel to R.E.M.'s 1988 track, "World Leader Pretend."

His only solo album, Most Likely, No Problem, was released in 1999.

BUCKY BAXTER i s g o d s m o s t b e a u t i f u L i n v e n t i o n [•] h e i s m y f a t h e r [•] h e i s m y e v e r y t h i n g [•] a n d n o w h e i s a n a n g e L [•] m y h e a r t i s b r o k e n [•] y e t i a m b L i n d e d b y j o y R A Y L A N D B A X T E R (opens in new tab)

A photo posted by @raylandishere on May 26, 2020 at 2:12am PDT

Jackson Maxwell
Jackson Maxwell
Associate Editor, GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com and GuitarPlayer.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.