Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images; Columbia RecordsAs fans of the Band continue to mourn the death of singer-drummer Levon Helm, not surprisingly, so are those who worked directly with him.
Among them: Bob Dylan and Martin Scorsese.
For Dylan, his friendship with Helm began in the mid-1960s when the Band (known as the Hawks at the time) served as the music icon's backing band.
"He was my bosom buddy friend to the end, one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation. This is just so sad to talk about," Dylan wrote on his website in response to Helm's passing. "I still can remember the first day I met him and the last day I saw him. We go back pretty far and had been through some trials together. I'm going to miss him, as I'm sure a whole lot of others will too."
Scorsese, meanwhile, was on hand for the Band's final performance in 1976 and documented the San Francisco show in his concert film, The Last Waltz.
"The late Jim Carroll once said that Levon Helm was the only drummer who could make you cry, and he was absolutely right," the Oscar-winning director said in a statement to E! News. "Levon's touch was so delicate, so deft, that he gave you more than just a beat—he gave the music a pulse. And his high, ringing voice was just as soulful. His bandmate Robbie Robertson wrote "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" for Levon to sing, and I'll never forget how moving it was to watch him sing it during their final performance at Winterland, which is one of the high points of the movie we made from that wonderful show...I consider myself fortunate to have worked with Levon, and I am one among many, many people who will miss him."
Helm passed way on Thursday, just two days after his family announced he was losing a fight to cancer. He was 71.