The story of Robbie Robertson and The Band is straight out of a VH1 “Behind the Music’’ installment, with one important difference: There was no second act.

The Band — four Canadians and an Arkansan — parlayed the skills they honed as road warriors with Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan into a highly successful solo act that included groundbreaking albums, headlining appearances at major rock festivals, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

But they were a drug-riddled and fractious bunch of millionaires when they took the stage on Nov. 25, 1976, for “The Last Waltz,” their farewell concert, Mr. Robertson says in “Testimony,’’ his pungent new memoir. The concert was filmed by director Martin Scorsese.

As The Band’s chief songwriter and de facto leader, Robbie Robertson admits it had been his decision to pull the plug on the group’s 16-year run. His band mates were Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Levon Helm.

“I loved these guys beyond words, until it hurt inside,’’ Mr. Robertson said. “But this beast was wounded, and we were unsure of its recovery.’’

Mr. Robertson glosses over some of the ugliness, such as his strained relationship with drummer Levon Helm, who died in 2012 of throat cancer. Mr. Manuel and Mr. Danko both died in the 1990s. Instead of a point-by-point rebuttal, Mr. Robertson simply tells his side of the story while repeatedly calling Mr. Helm his best friend.

Mr. Robertson is a natural storyteller. He says it’s a skill rooted in his heritage. The son of a Mohawk woman and a Jewish card sharp, He spent part his childhood on the not-so-mean streets of 1950s-era Toronto and on the Six Nations Indian Reserve in Ontario, where he learned the art of storytelling from a tribe elder.

“When he told a story, it sent a charge through me — the cadence of his voice, the power, the violence, the righteousness,’’ Mr. Robertson said. “I only hoped someday I could tell stories like that.’’

“Testimony’’ shines in the opening chapters, as Robbie Robertson recounts his early years running down the Southern juke joints and Canadian supper clubs as a teen-age guitarist with Ronnie Hawkins, the Arkansas-based rockabilly star. He tells an especially funny tale about the night Bo Diddley came to his hotel room and tried to steal his girl. He also reveals that he secured his job with Mr. Hawkins only after surviving a guitar duel with backwoods gunslinger Roy Buchanan.

“Roy had more tricks up his sleeve than Houdini: his fast runs and extreme string bending, his rhythm and soloing at the same time, like it was two guitars,’’ Mr. Robertson says. He prevailed not necessarily on merit but because Mr. Hawkins was spooked by Mr. Buchanan’s feral eyes.

“I’m half human and half wolf,’’ Mr. Buchanan explained.

Mr. Robertson was hanging out in Manhattan in the summer of 1965 when his friend John Hammond Jr. took him to a recording studio and introduced him to Bob Dylan, a folk artist in the midst of reinventing himself as a rocker. Dylan played Mr. Robertson a recording of his new single, “Like a Rolling Stone,’’ and then invited Mr. Robertson to play guitar on a few concert dates. Thus began a decadelong musical association that changed the course of pop music.

After their whirlwind 1966 world tour, Dylan and The Band teamed up in rustic Woodstock, N.Y., for the Basement Tapes sessions, homemade recordings or original compositions and old folk and country songs. “The Basement Tapes,” along with The Band’s 1968 debut album, “Music From Big Pink,’’ changed the pop music landscape. Overnight, psychedelia was out, and roots music was in.

Robbie Robertson wisely chooses to end “Testimony” with reminiscences from “The Last Waltz,” a five-hour bacchanal of rock-star excess most remembered for Neil Young’s sauntering on stage with a cocaine rock dangling from his nose.

Reflecting on his decision to end the Band and go solo, Mr. Robertson said in a song from his most recent solo album, “Walking out on the boys was never the plan … we drifted off course. This is where I move on.’’

Steve Halvonik is a former Post-Gazette reporter and editor.

First Published: November 20, 2016, 5:00 a.m.