Lasse Wellander, guitarist for Swedish pop icons ABBA, dies at 70
Lasse Wellander, stage and studio guitarist for legendary Swedish pop combo ABBA, has died at the age of 70, the group confirmed.
Wellander passed away last Friday (April 7), after a short battle with cancer.
“Lasse was a dear friend, a fun guy and a superb guitarist," ABBA wrote in a statement posted to their social media pages today (April 10). "The importance of his creative input in the recording studio as well as his rock solid guitar work on stage was immense.
“We mourn his tragic and premature death and remember the kind words, the sense of humor, the smiling face, the musical brilliance of the man who played such an integral role in the ABBA story. He will be deeply missed and never forgotten.”
Though never an official member of the band per se, Wellander was a key part of ABBA's sonic equation from shortly after their inception through to their breakup in 1982. He later reunited with the band in the studio to play on their 2021 comeback album, Voyage.
Born in 1952, Wellander grew up in the village of Skrekarhyttan. Inspired by The Beatles' appearance on the Swedish show, Drop In, Wellander first picked up the guitar in 1963, and cut his teeth with a number of local pop, rock, and, later, blues groups.
By 1969, Wellander had become an in-demand session guitarist in his native country, a line of work that also made him a first-call choice for pop stars looking to assemble a live band. It was his onstage performances with Swedish singer Ted Gärdestad that brought Wellander to the notice of ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.
"Björn and Benny were very involved in Ted’s career, and they had heard our band play in a club in Stockholm called Alexandra’s," Wellander told Guitar World in a 2022 interview. "They liked what and how we played, even if our own music was very different from Ted’s."
"Then they came to a rehearsal sometime in ’74 and asked me if I wanted to do an ABBA session. If I remember rightly it was Intermezzo No. 1, Tiger, and two or three other numbers.”
From then on, Wellander became an integral part of the "core" of studio aces who played on ABBA's remarkable string of hit singles from the mid-'70s through to the early '80s.
Though he used a ’57 Les Paul Goldtop on some of ABBA's early hits, Wellander later moved to a ’62 Strat and, occasionally, a Gibson ES-175.
He was also able to bring a surprising amount of his tougher-edged rock side to ABBA's live performances, making the group's laboratory-like, ever-radio-friendly hits just a tad looser live.
“If you listen to the Live At Wembley Arena album, for example, it was much looser than on the records," Wellander explained to Guitar World. "Of course, we played the things that belonged to the song, but there were parts where it was much looser. It sounded rockier live than on the record, and there were some solos.”
Eagle, Wellander told Guitar World, was his favorite ABBA song to play live.
"I liked Eagle because I had a long guitar solo in that song," he said. "I enjoyed it all, actually, but I looked forward a bit more to that number. It was amazing being out on the road. We played six days at Wembley Arena, full house."
Even during ABBA's reign, and especially following their dissolution, Wellander remained an active session player, eventually racking up – according to him – over 6,000 session credits, spread across 1,698 different albums.
The guitarist also released a number of solo albums, the most recent of which was Lasse Wellander 2017/2018.
Wellander received the Albin Hagström Memorial Award from The Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2005 and the Swedish Musicians Union’s prestigious Studioräven Award in 2018, for his extensive session discography.
