Richard Manuel is the name of the pianist in the “Hawks,” which were on the verge of changing into “The Band.” He committed suicide in 1986, not a mere few months after the Basement Tapes rehearsal, as Dolby Disaster reported in the February 8th post. I fully believe in not letting the truth get in the way of a good story, but also this prior allegation would have disallowed for Manuel’s appearance in The Last Waltz, and I’m pretty sure he was the one who was like, ” …And then we were just THE BAND!”