Slim Dunlap, the Minnesota musician best known as the Replacements' lead guitarist, has died. He was 73.
According to a statement made by his family to The Minnesota Star Tribune, Dunlap died at home early yesterday (December 18) afternoon due to "complications from his stroke," in February 2012, after which he was mostly bed-bound with limited speech. They added that he had declined naturally over the last week and they had played his Thank You Dancers! live album — recorded in 2002 and released in 2020 — as he passed.
Born and raised Bob Dunlap in Plainview, MI, the guitarist started serving as a utility player in some local Twin Cities bands and playing in various projects led by Curtiss A (a.k.a. Curt Almsted), which helped him catch the ear of the Replacements' Paul Westerberg. Westerberg approached Dunlap to replace founding guitarist Bob Stinson, who had been ousted from the group due to substance abuse issues — and, after initially turning it down, Dunlap took the gig in 1987, citing his admiration for the frontman's songwriting. (Westerberg also gave Dunlap his "Slim" nickname to avoid confusion with the prior Bob.)
Dunlap played on the Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me, poised to be their commercial breakthrough thanks to bolstering from Warner subsidiary Sire Records. While critically acclaimed, the record never hit the mainstream the way they had hoped, but Dunlap stuck around through until the band's 1991 breakup, playing on and touring behind 1989's Don't Tell a Soul and 1980's All Shook Down despite having a wife and three school-age children at home. (His daughter Emily, a teenager at the time, was a big Replacements fan.)
After that, Dunlap toured with Dan Baird — former Georgia Satellites lead vocalist — before the guitarist released his rootsy debut solo album, The Old New Me, in 1993 on the Replacements' manager Peter Jesperson's Medium Cool label. Bruce Springsteen was a noted fan of the LP, as well as its 1996 follow-up Times Like This.
Dunlap suffering his stroke in 2012 prompted his former bandmates to reunite: Westerberg and Tommy Stinson joined forces to record the 2013 benefit EP Songs for Slim to help cover the guitarist's medical expenses, with Chris Mars helming the cover art. A subsequent benefit compilation featured covers of Dunlap's songs by Jeff Tweedy, Lucinda Williams, Soul Asylum, Frank Black, Steve Earle and more.