Dave Mason, co-founder of Traffic who had a star-studded solo career, dies aged 79

Dave Mason, the co-founder of rock band Traffic who also collaborated with Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac and many other A-list musicians, has died aged 79.

A statement from his representative said he died peacefully on Sunday at his home in Gardnerville, Nevada, having settled in the US in 1969. “Dave Mason lived a remarkable life devoted to the music and the people he loved,” the statement added.

Born in Worcestershire in 1946, Mason had an unusual tenure in Traffic: a frontman who wrote and performed some of their biggest hits, but who hopped in and out of the lineup.

The singer and guitarist formed the band with singer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood, the teenage prodigy who had left the Spencer Davis Group after scoring a number of hits. Mason had performed backing vocals with that band, and also played with drummer Jim Capaldi and woodwind player Chris Wood, who together became the Traffic lineup.

Winwood’s pedigree helped them to get signed to Island Records, and they recorded their debut album Mr Fantasy, which included Traffic’s biggest chart hit, Hole in My Shoe which reached No 2 in the UK in 1967, and which was written and sung by Mason.

There was friction in the band, as Winwood later recalled: “Dave would come in with a complete song that he was going to sing and tell us all what he expected us to play. No discussion, like we were his backing group”. Mason left Traffic in 1967, telling the Guardian in 2024: “I realised I needed more life experiences in order to write stuff that would become timeless”.

But he then rejoined, and wrote half of the songs on their self-titled second album. These included another signature track, Feelin’ Alright?, which Mason also sang. It was a moderate hit for Traffic but had an extraordinary afterlife, being covered dozens of times by artists including Joe Cocker, Lulu, the Jackson Five, Gladys Knight and Paul Weller.

Mason then left again, later explaining: “I had to write on my own. There was a conflict between me and Steve; I think he felt threatened.” He told the Guardian in 2024 that he was fired from the group and left “in shock”.

He embarked on a remarkable post-Traffic career, beginning with work with Jimi Hendrix – Mason played acoustic guitar on All Along the Watchtower and backing vocals on Crosstown Traffic – and contributions to the Rolling Stones’ Street Fighting Man. He toured with the duo Delaney & Bonnie, where he came into the orbit of George Harrison, later appearing on his classic album All Things Must Pass; and of Eric Clapton, briefly joining his group Derek and the Dominos. He rejoined Traffic’s Jim Capaldi for the latter’s 1972 album Oh How We Danced, including a co-write on Big Thirst.

Later appearances with others included a spell with Fleetwood Mac in the 1990s, when Mason toured with the band and played on the album Time – though Christine McVie described her professional relationship with Mason as “very acrimonious”.