Bob “Slim” Dunlap, a guitarist and singer-songwriter best known for his tenure in the alternative band the Replacements during the final years of their original ’80s/’90s run, died Wednesday at age 73.
The cause of death, according to a statement from his family, was “complications from his stroke,” which befell him in early 2012, causing severe health complications over the last nearly 13 years.
Dunlap joined the Replacements after founding member Bob Stinson was kicked out of the band, adding a more stabilizing presence to the group while keeping the musical rowdiness high. He was officially billed as Slim at frontman Paul Westerberg’s request, to avoid any confusion with the Bob he was replacing.
Dunlap’s somewhat rootsier but equally loud style could be heard on the tour behind 1987’s “Pleased to Meet Me,” the last to feature Stinson on guitar, and then on the Replacements’ final two albums, 1989’s “Don’t Tell a Soul” — which featured the rock radio hit “I’ll Be Me” — and their less successful swan song, 1991’s “All Shook Down.”
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In a statement published by hometown paper the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Wednesday night, Dunlap’s family wrote: “Bob passed at home today at 12:48 p.m. surrounded by family. We played him his ‘Live at the Turf Club (’Thank You Dancers!)’ CD, and he left us shortly after listening to his version of ‘Hillbilly Heaven’ — quite poignant. It was a natural decline over the past week. Overall it was due to complications from his stroke.”
In 1993, the Minnesota native released his first solo album, “The Old New Me,” followed in 1996 by a follow-up, “Times Like These.” Although he had not participated in the Replacements as a songwriter, more than a few fans and critics were surprised to find out he was skilled as a frontman— including Bruce Springsteen, who years later called Dunlap’s two solo albums “just beautiful rock ‘n’ roll records… deeply touching and emotional.”
Born in 1951 as the son of a Minnesota state senator, Dunlap grew up idolizing Chuck Berry, James Burton, Buddy Holly, Scotty Moore and Chet Atkins, by his own recollection. In 1976, he joined the band Thumbs Up, which evolved into Spooks, the group he was playing in when Westerberg first came across him.
Of his time in the Replacements, Dunlap said in a 2023 interview with Perfect Sound Forever, “No one could replace Bob. I learned his parts but did it my way… It was both exhilarating and depressing— a roller coaster ride. It fulfilled a lot of my dreams and opened doors for me. I’m incredibly grateful to Paul and Tommy (Stinson) and Chris (Mars) for giving me a chance.”
The stroke he suffered in 2012 left him incapacitated and marked an end to Dunlap’s music career. In 2014, when a new incarnation of the Replacements was finally hitting the road, Westerberg told Rolling Stone that they had gotten his blessing to continue — and noted that he had been “in and out of the hospital maybe 40 times” at that point.
In 2013, an all-star cast of musicians began covering songs from his solo records under the banner “Songs for Slim,” as a fundraiser for his medical needs. Westerberg and another former member of the Replacements, Tommy Stinson, reunited to record material for the project, preceding a Replacements reunion tour in the mid-2000s. Others who recorded Dunlap material as part of that effort included Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Jeff Tweedy, Soul Asylum and Frank Black.
In the 2023 Perfect Sound Forever story, his wife, Chrissie Dunlap, said, “He is paralyzed and can only move his head. He will never play again. He remains in good spirits despite his disability and pain. He has been hospitalized over one hundred times and as long as he is home with me, he feels pretty good.”
Following his death at home on Wednesday, Dunlap’s daughter, Emily Boigenzahn, a musician, told the Star Tribune, “Seeing his music career be kind of reignited like that [by the covers and tributes] really kept him going and provided him moral support — in addition to my mom’s love, which was everything to him.” Dunlap is survived by his wife, Chrissie, along with Boigenzahn, two other children, Delia and Louie Dunlap, and six grandchildren.