Lonnie Mack photographed on May 3, 1985 in Chicago, Il.
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A musician whose instrumental recordings influenced guitar players including Stevie Ray Vaughan has died in Nashville, Tennessee. Lonnie Mack was 74.
Alligator Record Label said in a statement that Mack died on Thursday of natural causes. He lived in Smithville, Tennessee, about 65 miles east of Nashville.
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Born Lonnie McIntosh in West Harrison, Indiana, Mack played sessions for record labels in Cincinnati with blues and R&B greats such as James Brown, Hank Ballard and Freddie King.
His 1963 recording of Chuck Berry‘s “Memphis” became a radio hit, and he followed that with “Wham!”, which inspired the nickname “whammy bar” for the tremolo bar he had on his Gibson Flying V.