For years, Westerberg seemed set against a reunion, as a point of pride. But in 2012, Slim Dunlap, who played guitar in the Replacements from 1987 to 1991, suffered a severe stroke. Dunlap had been essential in stabilizing the band after the split with Bob Stinson, and is a beloved figure in the Minnesota music scene. Westerberg and Tommy Stinson came together in Minneapolis to record Songs for Slim, a five-song covers EP that included two of Dunlap’s songs, with sales going toward raising money for their former bandmate’s medical care. “He’s been in and out of the hospital maybe 40 times,” says Westerberg. After that, the reemergence of the Replacements didn’t seem so crazy. “We were talking to Slim when he was in the hospital,” says Westerberg. “And I was like, ‘Should we play?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, play.'”
via The Replacements: The Greatest Band That Never Was | Rolling Stone.
