Hudson fell asleep at a nursing home in Woodstock in the state of New York, confirms his estate administrator for the newspaper.
Hudson was born in Windsor, Ontario, but grew up in London in the same Canadian province.
According to the Toronto Star, Hudson was recruited by Ronnie Hawkins and Levon Helm in 1961 to the band The Hawks – the precursor to The Band – which also functioned as Bob Dylan's touring band in the 1960s. The group also collaborated with Bob Dylan on several studio albums.
The debut album as The Band, "Music from Big Pink", from 1968, established them as one of the era's top rock bands, writes Variety.
Hudson was the only band member who never contributed vocals on stage or recordings.
In a rare interview with Hudson from 2003 for the magazine Maclean's, he downplayed his own presentations as a band member.
It was a job, he said, and gave the impression that he was only a background figure "behind great poets".
Robbie Robertson, the band's guitarist and songwriter during its heyday, made a different assessment in his memoirs from 2016.
"He played brilliantly, in a more complex way than anyone we had ever jammed with", he wrote, among other things.
Robertson himself passed away in August 2023.
The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
