Before There was Stevie Ray - There was Lonnie Mack

The Trout's exclusive interview with Holly Mack, Lonnie Mack's daughter in this episode of Vinyl to Viral on the The Trout Show.

Lonnie Mack (1941–2016) was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter widely recognized as the father of blues-rock guitar.

Born Lonnie McIntosh on a sharecropper’s farm in southern Indiana, he began playing at age seven, blending Merle Travis–style country picking with the black gospel and R&B he heard on late-night radio. By his teens he was a first-call session player in Cincinnati, backing Hank Ballard, Freddie King, and James Brown.

In 1963, Mack recorded the instrumental “Memphis,” an electrifying reworking of Chuck Berry’s song that reached #5 on the Billboard pop chart and introduced aggressive whammy-bar technique and rapid-fire picking to rock audiences. Its B-side, the original “Wham!,” was equally ferocious. Both tracks, cut on his 1958 Gibson Flying V (“Number 7”) through a Magnatone amp, are considered foundational recordings of blues-rock.

His debut album The Wham of That Memphis Man! (1964) remains a cornerstone of American roots music. Over the decades Mack recorded for Fraternity, Elektra, Alligator, and Epic; guested with The Doors; and in 1985 released the Stevie Ray Vaughan–produced comeback Strike Like Lightning. Though he repeatedly stepped away from the spotlight to fish and hunt in rural Indiana, his influence on Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, and countless others is undisputed. 

Lonnie Mack died in 2016 at age 74, leaving behind one of the most powerful and soulful bodies of guitar work in rock history.

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