The guitarist was active as a member of the punk band from 1987 to 1991 and as a solo artist until 2012.
Bob “Slim” Dunlap is dead. The former guitarist for the Minnesota punk band The Replacements died on Wednesday at his home in Minneapolis. He was 73 years old.
Worldly farewell to your own music
As his family told the Minnesota Star Tribune, Dunlap took his final breaths to the sounds of his music: “Bob died at home today at 12:48 p.m. surrounded by his family. We played him his CD LIVE AT THE TURF CLUB (THANK YOU DANCERS!) and he left shortly after hearing his version of ‘Hillbilly Heaven’ – very moving. It’s been a natural decline over the last week. Broadly speaking, it was a result of complications from his stroke.”
Slim Dunlap’s band and solo career
Slim Dunlap began his music career in the early 1970s with Minneapolis bands such as the Spooks. With his performances, Dunlap caught the attention of singer-songwriter Paul Westerberg of The Replacements. Westerberg, in turn, was looking for a replacement for frontman Bob Stinton because he couldn’t get his drug problems under control. Dunlap officially joined the band in 1987.
With The Replacements he recorded their last two albums DON’T TELL A SOUL (1989) and ALL SHOOK DOWN (1990) and remained a member for four years until they split up in 1991. After disbanding, Dunlap released his first solo album THE OLD NEW ME in 1993 and TIMES LIKE THIS in 1996. In 2002 he recorded the live album LIVE AT THE TURF CLUB (THANK YOU DANCERS!), but it was not released until much later, in 2020. The performance took place in front of 350 people at the Turf Club in St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota.
A draining last twelve years
In 2012, Dunlap suffered a massive stroke that has largely confined him to bed ever since. After his health situation became public, Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson (the bassist of The Replacements) reformed to record the EP SONGS FOR SLIM to raise money for their ex-bandmate’s medical bills.