Bob “Slim” Dunlap, who replaced Bob Stinson on guitar in cult Minneapolis band the Replacements, has died at 73.
In 2012, Dunlap suffered a stroke. In a statement after his death, his family said he died from complications that arose thereafter.
“Bob passed at home today at 12:48pm surrounded by family,” they said in a statement published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Wednesday. “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.”
Stinson was kicked out of the band in 1987 owing to issues with drugs and alcohol. When Dunlap joined, frontman Paul Westerberg asked for him to go by Slim, rather than Bob, to avoid any confusion.
The so-called “replacement Replacement”, Dunlap played on the band’s final two studio albums, Don’t Tell a Soul from 1989, and All Shook Down from 1991. He first toured with them in support of Pleased to Meet Me from 1987, the last album to feature Stinson.
Dunlap was born in 1951 in Plainview, Minnesota, to Jane and Robert Dunlap, the latter a state senator, and became a fan of rock’n’roll. In 1976, he joined the band Thumbs Up and offshoot Spooks.
When he was discovered by Westerberg, he demurred the offer to join the Replacements owing to the impact of touring demands on his wife Chrissie and their three children, but Chrissie encouraged him to accept the job.
At the time, he had been working at the famous local venue First Avenue as a janitor, where the Replacements had played early shows at the turn of the 80s. He was later honoured with a star on the mural outside the venue in recognition of his contribution to the venue’s culture.
Dunlap released a solo album, The New Old Me, in 1993, and Times Like These in 1996. His own music draw admiration from Bruce Springsteen, who described the records as “deeply touching and emotional”.
Dunlap’s stroke in 2012 left him paralysed, only able to move his head, and brought an end to his music career. When the Replacements toured in 2014, Westerberg said Dunlap had given his blessing for them to continue.
A 2013 fundraiser, Songs for Slim, found artists including Lucinda Williams, Frank Black and Jeff Tweedy recording his songs to raise money for his treatment. In the wake of his death, his daughter Emily Boigenzahn told the Star Tribune that the covers album had “really kept him going and provided moral support”.
In 2023, the family held an estate sale of Dunlap’s personal music memorabilia to raise money for his treatment. Chrissie said that Dunlap had been hospitalised more than 100 times yet remained in “good spirits despite his disability and pain”.
Dunlap is survived by Chrissie, their children Emily, Delia and Louie Dunlap and six grandchildren.
