Lonnie Mack dead: Blues guitar great dies at 74, Joe Bonamassa says

Lonnie Mack

Lonnie Mack, blues guitar great who inspired everyone from Eric Clapton and Keith Richards to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joe Bonamassa, died April 21 at 74.

Blues guitar great Lonnie Mack is dead at 74, Alligator Records announced late Thursday. According to a press release, he died of natural causes on Thursday at Centennial Medical Center near his home in Smithville, Tennessee.

Mack was among the artists who influenced Bonamassa, who first opened for B.B. King when he was just a 12-year-old kid from Utica. Mack’s early instrumental records also inspired a wide range of other guitarists, including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Duane Allman, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Ted Nugent and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Vaughan once called Mack “the baddest guitar player I know,” according to Team Rock.

Rolling Stone called Mack “a pioneer in rock guitar soloing.” Guitar World said he “foreshadowed the arena-sized guitar heroes to come.” The Chicago Tribune added: “With the wiggle of a whammy bar and a blinding run of notes up and down the neck of his classic Gibson Flying V, Lonnie Mack launched the modern guitar era.”

Mack, born Lonnie McIntosh outside of Cincinnati in 1941, started playing professionally in his teens after reportedly quitting school over a fight with his sixth grade teacher. In 1958, he bought the guitar be became best known for, a Gibson Flying V, serial number 7, and paired it with a Bigsby tremolo bar.

It’s said that Mack’s 1964 album, “Wham!” (also known as “The Wham of that Memphis Man!”), inspired the tremolo bar to become commonly known as a “whammy bar.”

Mack released close to a dozen albums, playing a mix of blues, rock, country, R&B and rockabilly. He was inducted into the International Guitar Hall Of Fame in 2001 and the Rockabilly Hall Of Fame in 2005.

He is survived by his five children and multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.