How Martin Scorsese and Robbie Robertson diffused a hostage situation: “Something had gone terribly wrong”
Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese were long-time friends, frequent collaborators, and former coke buddies, but they added the most unexpected string to their respective bows when the pair ended up acting as impromptu hostage negotiators, with the Hells Angels at the root of the problem, obviously.
It sounds like something ripped right out of a movie, but the reason the duo became so heavily involved in trying to diffuse the situation is that they were being held responsible. The first time Robertson and Scorsese worked together was on The Last Waltz, the documentary following the so-called ‘farewell concert’ of the former’s group, The Band.
The film featured plenty of guest appearances from other big-name musical artists, poets, and cultural figures, including Bill Fritsch, who went by the name Sweet William, professionally. He was a member of the aforementioned motorcycle organisation, and when he reached out to The Last Waltz filmmakers to see how his work would be incorporated into the picture, things quickly went sideways.
He was invited to a screening at MGM’s offices, and when he didn’t take too kindly to how prominently he was featured in The Last Waltz, the shit hit the fan. As Robertson recalled in his posthumously published memoir, Insomnia, production assistants Ava Megna and Sylvia Lovegren were in the midst of a maelstrom.
“Around the time the screening was supposed to end, the phone at Marty’s rang, and I picked up. It was Ava and Sylvia, calling from our office,” he wrote. “I could tell right away by the sound of Ava’s voice that something had gone terribly wrong. She said that after Sweet William’s performance in the movie, he went berserk. He started ripping seats out of the theatre and screaming at the top of his lungs.”
The terrified PAs told Robertson that “William and his Hells Angels buddy have locked the doors and are holding Sylvia and me hostage. They are threatening us and making demands. Please help. We’re being held like prisoners.” Needless to say, he and Scorsese were hardly qualified to resolve this kind of thing, but they gave it their best shot anyway.
Sweet William felt like he’d been harshly treated by the way The Last Waltz had been edited, with Robertson conceding that “it went on a little long,” so they had to “tighten it up, give some punch to it, make it dramatic, outrageous” for maximum impact, which had somehow snowballed into hostage taking.
His demands were simple: “My partner and I need, delivered immediately, one thousand bucks, an ounce of cocaine, and for you to put my whole poem in the movie,” otherwise they’d harm Megna and Lovegren. Scorsese, ever the auteur, was deep in thought.
“We have to get the girls out of there safely,” he agreed. “But we can’t use the whole poem. It’s very long. That’s impossible.”
In the end, after Robertson suggested bringing in fellow Hells Angel, Sonny Barger, as an intermediary, Sweet William instead demanded that Scorsese “cut me out of the movie.” They agreed, as you’d expect, and the hostage situation was suddenly over. Befitting a legendary director, the bushy-browed legend still had one major concern: “We’ll have to see what this does to the structure.”
