Dave Mason

May 10, 1946 – April 19, 2026

Story and pictures by author.

Waking to the news that Dave Mason had passed set off a flood of memories for me. Fifty years became yesterday recalling my first tour through Asia as a young Navy journalist. One of my very first assignments for Armed Forces Radio in Tokyo was to seek out and interview touring musicians for broadcast to our troops stationed overseas. As luck would have it, Dave Mason was just wrapping up his tour through Japan and after I reached out, he graciously agreed to sit and talk.

To say that Mason was an exceptional musician, singer-songwriter and stage performer is factually correct, yet an understatement of massive proportions. And it wasn’t an act that was just Dave Mason; he wasn’t flashy or attention-seeking, just straight forward and down-to-earth. ‘This is what I do so let’s just play and enjoy the time we have.’ Case in point – Mason performed and recorded with literally, EVERYONE! Iconic collaborations with Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Leon Russell, Fleetwood Mac, and of course, Traffic…you get the point. And yet in our conversations when pressed on those accomplishments, he’d just smile. “Well, that was just the 60s in London…everybody was just hanging out…the Beatles, the Stones. We’d all hang out together or be in a club somewhere together.”

Make no mistake Dave Mason was different, but what made him legendary was his generosity. He would contact Armed Forces Radio every time he came back through Tokyo just to say hello, come on the air and talk about his tour or new projects directly with our men and women in uniform throughout the Far East. He didn’t have to, he just did. The following interview came from two of those encounters; the first in 1977 and again in 1980.

Let’s go back to the beginning for you, that area of the UK map around Birmingham-Worcester produced an incredible amount of musical talent. “It started in Worcester which is only 25 miles from Birmingham and Jim Capaldi lived about 12 miles away in a place called Evesham. Mick Ralphs who played with Bad Company lived about eight miles from me. Robert Plant and John Bonham come from Kidderminster, about another ten miles away.”

Tell us about the Jaguars. “The Jaguars was the first band, when I was 16. It was mostly all just instrumental; Shadows stuff, the Ventures and things like that. And Jim (Capaldi) was in another group called the Sapphires. He used to do a great Elvis Presley with the black shirt and the pink tie and the white jacket.”

When I look at your touring schedule, it’s unreal. What is it about the road; do you still enjoy it or ever tire of it? “Yeah, you need to keep touring. I like to tour anyway, because I like to play to people. I don’t like the traveling, but I like to play and it keeps me in touch with what’s going on with audiences. Especially, there’s a lot of people who grew up with me, you know together, the same ages…so I think it’s good to keep going out there letting everybody know once they get past thirty, they don’t have to stop rock and rollin’!” (laughing) “It’s okay to have a good time, folks!” (laughing) “In fact the keyboard player that’s playing with me now, is Mark Stein who used to be with the Vanilla Fudge. And we do ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ on stage. We’re going to go and rehearse this afternoon and I think we’re going to add ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ to the set too, I think.”

It seems your playbill has no limitations. “About a month ago I was in New York and I got to meet this guy, Tom O’Horrigan who did all the choreography for ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and the original ‘Hair’ and the Lenny Story. And I’m going to put together a musical collage and the title of the show is going to be ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy.’ It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, to put music and dance together with a group and music. Not to make a point just something to enjoy.” (laughing)

What do you remember about the Basement Floor, wasn’t it like a cottage or rehearsal space? “The Basement Floor, that was when Traffic was first starting and we used to go to London and this guy, Paul Medcalf…on the original ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ cover there’s a guy leaping around with the white Kabuki face, that was him and we’d go down to London. He was just a struggling artist then and a few nights we’d be sleeping on the floor.” (laughing)

Prior to Traffic, you and Jim Capaldi had a project, ‘Deep Feeling?’ “Oh yeah, a couple of years before that, actually…we used to do a lot of Nina Simone songs and Oscar Brown, Jr. songs. Very obscure stuff for those days. Martha and the Vandellas stuff, Bob and Earl the Harlem Shuffle, things like that. They go way back.”

Also in those early days, is it true you did some ‘roadie’ work? “Yeah for a couple of months, I was.” And didn’t you play on a few Spencer Davis recordings, ‘I’m A Man’? “Yeah, I’m singing on that and in fact I’m singing on ‘Somebody Help Me’ with Steve, ‘I’m A Man,’ ‘Gimme Me Some Lovin.’ And Traffic was happening then, it was more or less starting.”

Traffic was so groundbreaking for its fusion of Jazz and Psychedelic Rock n’ Roll. “Yeah, it was. It was kind of strange because that was the first group that I, once that I started writing; the things that I was writing about were not the things I’m writing about now. They were the hit songs at the time for the band and it caused a little rift which eventually led to them not wanting me to be in the band anymore so that’s why I left. I don’t know, my things they said were a little too pop-oriented. But I wasn’t even thinking of it that way, I figured if you’re out there making music for the people you might as well make things you can enjoy. I don’t know, sometimes people try to be too hip. I like music to be happy, just have a good time.”

Do you feel your solo efforts reflect more of that? “Yeah, I just sort of talk about or sing about things that everybody goes through, but this isn’t the end of the world approach to things.” (laughing)

When you left Traffic the first time, you started producing more? “Yeah, I did ‘Music in a Doll’s House’ the Family’s album. They were definitely a cult following and it was all done on four-track, that whole thing. Yeah, that was 1968 and I knew all those guys and they wanted me to do the album so I thought it would be a good chance for me to learn that part of the whole thing, you know?”

You worked on some of that generation’s most inspired and iconic sessions…The Stones ‘Beggars Banquet…’ “Well, that was just the 60s in London, which was great. Everybody was just hanging out…the Beatles, the Stones. Anybody that was in that place and we’d all hang out together or be in a club somewhere together and I just got to know all these people. That’s how playing with them came about, you know? Hendrix and I used to hang out a lot. We’d sit up all night and play. Actually, ‘All Along the Watchtower’ came out of listening to that Basement album (Bob Dylan) that he put out with ‘The Mighty Quinn.’ And the John Wesley Harding album was out and we were listening to that at somebody’s house one night; me, Jimi and Brian Jones and he wanted to do ‘All Along the Watchtower.’ That’s when I wasn’t with Traffic and Noel Redding had left Jimi’s band and I was actually going to play bass with Hendrix and the band, but management put a stop to that.” (laughing)

What is it with you and management? (laughing) “I have a thing with all middle men. They become the mouthpieces for things, you know? Probably should have nothing to do with what really should be happening. I don’t know, they just want to protect their interests, I guess.”

Let’s talk about ‘Feeling Alright?’ “That came about pretty easily. I was just trying to write the simplest song I could and the simplest was just two chords that just kept changing back and forth; which is what the song really does. Musically, that’s why I wrote it, lyrically was to do with a lot of other things.”

Seems everybody has recorded that song, from Joe Cocker and Three Dog Night to Mongo Santamaria and Gladys Knight. “I know. I know! I wish I’d have been older and wiser and kept the publishing on it!” (laughing)

After Stevie Winwood left Traffic, didn’t you get together with the other members briefly? “Yes, Mason, Capaldi, Wood and Frog (laughing) ‘Wooden Frog’ was the name of the band. (Keyboardist Mick Weaver was Frog) That was a real short-lived thing.”

You wanted to mention something else about Hendrix? “There’s going to be another movie coming out on Hendrix from the Albert Hall in London. We did the show with him and there’s a sequence with me playing with him on that, and Chris Wood, too. I think that’s coming out next year sometime. I’d like to see it, I haven’t seen it. A blast into the past as Hendrix would say.”

(Editor’s Note: That film ‘The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live at the Royal Albert Hall was recorded February 24, 1969.)

Gram Parsons. “Yeah, we played together. Gram, when I first moved to L.A. in ’69 and he introduced me to Cass Elliot. Everybody would go and hang out at her place, you know? That’s how that album came about. She lived on Woodrow Wilson (Laurel Canyon) in fact it was the house that Ringo had that just burned down last year. So, that’s gone.”

Can you talk a little about Delaney and Bonnie. “Well Delaney and Bonnie was when I first went to America, the person that was managing me then, was managing them. I wasn’t doing anything so I went and played guitar with them. It was on that tour in ’69. Clapton wasn’t in the band, he was with Blind Faith. Delaney and Bonnie were the opening act for Blind Faith.”

You release your debut solo album, ‘Alone Together’ in 1970. “I don’t remember too much about doing that album. (laughing) I really didn’t know what I was doing, I just wanted to make an album, you know? All these people like, Leon Russell, Larry Knechtel, who else was on there, Jim Gordon, Jim Keltner and so many. All these guys were up from Tulsa, they were all the session guys and then they all became famous, which then split all of them up, which is what happens. Everything’s fine until success comes and then for some reason it just all goes…psthfft. But I guess that’s just the way it goes.”

You did a few shows with Cass Elliot and then the album. “We did just two dates with Cass, really, and the album. We did a couple of shows, one in New York and one in L.A.”

Your productivity in 1971 was amazing. ‘Welcome to the Canteen.’ There were live recordings from the Troubadour in L.A. and the release of ‘Headkeeper.’ “‘Welcome to the Canteen’ again was when I was back in England. I thought we could give it one more shot and put the band back together again. And ‘Headkeeper’ was really something I didn’t want out. That was a record company trip. It was an unfinished album; it was supposed to be a double album. One original studio album and one live album and we ended up putting one side live and one side studio but they were all unmixed tapes, they weren’t even mixed. They took some rough copies and slapped an album together and threw it out there. There are some good things on there, but I never got to really finish it. I really wanted it to be a double album.”

You’ve performed with so many artists over the years, is there anybody you’d really like to play with that you haven’t had the opportunity as of yet? “God, a lot I suppose! Most of the people I want to play with are a little out of my league, I think. I don’t really think of myself as a musician at all. I’m very limited in terms of what I can do on guitar. I go for a sound; I know how to put it all together to make up a whole thing. Jim Krueger is what I would call a guitar player (laughing) with my band. He’s a great guitar player; I don’t really think of myself that way at all.”

Michael Jackson played on your album ‘Old Crest on a New Wave.’ “They put out ‘Save Me’ with Michael and they hit the R&B charts with it too.”

How did that even happen? “Well, I gave him an award with Bonnie Pointer on the American Music Awards, and that’s where I met him. And he was in Studio B in the Studio where I was cutting this record and we were doing this track and I needed somebody to hit a high note, so I thought I’ll just go ask him if he wants to sing on it. He said, ‘Sure, I’d love to sing on it!’ He just popped in out of the session, stood there and bopped away. It sounds like a real odd combination, but it works.”

Let’s go back just a minute because the last time we talked you had just released your sixth solo album “Let it Flow.” That album was on the Billboard charts like 49 weeks and the track ‘We Just Disagree’ peaked at #12 in the U.S. “That was a good album, a big album.”

Then the album before that ‘Certified Live’ I think you mentioned had been mixed aboard a ship? “Yeah, we mixed the album on a boat. Yeah, we took a boat for ten days down to Mexico, anchored near an island somewhere. It was great, it was perfect. No phones, no one to bother you, no hassles.” (laughing)

Mike Finnigan played on your latest album too. He was touring with you the last time you came this way. Finnigan has also been playing with Les Dudek and Jim Krueger in DFK. It’s like six degrees of Dave Mason. “Dudek wrote one of the last songs on the album, ‘Get It Right.’ I played with Les before and Finnigan is playing with Stephen Stills now. He’s been playing with him for a couple of years. Finnigan had a real good time over here.” (Tokyo) “A big six foot Kansas boy. (laughing) It was funny; I never thought he would enjoy it as much as he did, but he loved it over here in Japan. I don’t know how he got on the beds at the New Otani…I imagine his legs hanging off the end of the bed!” (laughing)

Last thoughts on Old Crest on a New Wave. “I really tried to make something that was appealing or commercial if you want to use that word, but not selling out. Simple and just back to the guitar and the band playing, just make it fun…just fun. It’s just everybody’s got to have a point. Whatever happened to just having fun? (laughing) I don’t know, you know? I guess when I was 17 or 18 it was more important to do that, then. Now it’s just, let’s make some music and have a good time, you know?” (laughing)

Speaking of creativity, is it easier to write music now? “Well, it used to be easy. I think it was easier when I had something to prove to myself, when I was younger. It doesn’t matter that much now, there’s a lot of good songwriter’s around and there’s a lot of good songs. I just like to perform and I like to play and I like to sing good songs. And if someone has a good song that I can relate to, I’d love to do it. Its like ‘We Just Disagree’ it could have been something I could have written. It fit right in the framework of Dave Mason. I don’t feel like it has to be all my material at all. Every one can’t be a great song.” (laughing)

When you prepare for recording, what’s the mindset? Wired up? Laid back? Hectic? Crazy? “All of that! (laughing) You know, all of those things.”

You’ve spent decades now as an artist, seeing all the changes taking place in the performing arts and music industry, what do you think the future holds? “I don’t know, I mean…I don’t know where it’s all going quite honestly. (laughing) It’s going down the toilet. (laughing)

But you’ve been doing it so long and so successfully…“But also that’s why I don’t have the pressure of having to constantly be on ALL the time. There’s always going to be a point that I can always make a good song and put it out. I like to do things that are timeless, I don’t know. That’s what I feel is important, more than making the money, more than having the fame if you can make a piece of music that leaves people feeling something. It’s like when I put out ‘Alone Together’ I used to get a lot…” Dave pauses to reflect. “When you write a song and go into the studio and you put it onto tape and the tape goes onto the wax and the wax goes into a piece of cardboard and gets sold…I would get letters from guys who were back from ‘Nam and goin’ nuts and they’d tell me, ‘boy I’d put on one of your songs, man and just sort of…’ Dave just shakes his head. “You know that’s, to me, it just made everything…something like that makes it feel it’s worthwhile. To know that a little relief can be brought in that hellhole that somebody sitting out there…from just something that I did. So that makes it really worthwhile.” Dave grins. “Or that somebody could fall in love, two people fall in love…it’s like when anybody has a certain song that happens at a specific time of your life so you relate and you can always go back to that moment.”
They’re playing our song. “They’re playing our song! (laughing) Right! Like those old classic movies, they’re playing our song! (laughing)

After this tour, what’s next for Dave Mason? “I’ve been through a lot of hassles with business and stuff. I’ve got to get back to myself a little bit. It’s been fourteen years of keeping this up, you know? And there’s not that many people around that have been doing it as long as I have. And it’s been hard, you know? So I have to try and just pace it so I don’t lose myself somewhere along the line. I’m going to try to put this show together for Broadway. The Beacon Theater, they’re going to let me use to do the show, so I want to put this together. I want to take the time to get back to writing a bit more and I think I’m going to be coming out this way (Tokyo) more. All I’ve been doing is playing in America for the last ten years and nowhere else. I’d like to go to some other places and then come back here and work in the Far East a little bit more. From here maybe jump off and go to Australia where I’ve never played. Just go to some places where it’s new for me. So going to some fresh places would be good for me. Sort of rejuvenate myself a little bit.”

As these snippets of time reflect, Dave Mason was not only a skilled and talented musical storyteller but a kind and caring individual. Long after these conversations, Dave continued to give back to the military community. In 2015, he co-founded ‘Rock Our Vets’ with Ted Knapp in support of veterans, their families and the families of fallen first responders. He also collaborated with the non-profit organization WVFV – Work Vessels for Veterans that provides direct services in support of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thank you Dave: for your heart, your humanity and the soundtrack of our youth. Rest in Peace.