Mac Gayden, a trailblazing guitarist and the co-writer of the timeless hit “Everlasting Love,” passed away on Wednesday at his home in Nashville at the age of 83. His cousin, Tommye Maddox Working, confirmed that complications from Parkinson’s disease were the cause.
Despite his pivotal role in shaping Nashville’s reputation beyond country music, Gayden’s most celebrated guitar work—his rhythmically innovative contribution to Bob Dylan’s 1966 album Blonde on Blonde—went uncredited for decades. Only recently did researchers bring attention to his performance on “Absolutely Sweet Marie,” restoring his rightful place in music history.
A self-taught guitarist known for his ability to craft unique moods and rhythms, Gayden became a sought-after collaborator in the late 1960s and early ’70s as Nashville began expanding beyond its traditional country roots. He worked with artists like Linda Ronstadt and the Pointer Sisters, offering a distinctive musical voice that resonated well outside the city’s country borders.
“Mac Gayden was a genius, genius, genius — the best guitar player I ever heard,” said Bob Johnston, the producer of Blonde on Blonde, as quoted in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s 2015 exhibit, Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City.
In 1971, Gayden’s bluesy slide guitar with a wah-wah pedal on J.J. Cale’s “Crazy Mama” created a sound that would influence later tracks like the Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker.” Decades later, Robert Randolph, a prominent steel guitarist in jam-band circles, adopted this very technique.
“A few years ago, a writer called me ‘father of the wah slide,’” Gayden wrote in his 2013 autobiography Missing String Theory: A Musician’s Uncommon Spiritual Journey. “It’s humbling to realize I developed a stylistic approach to playing slide.”
Still, it was as a songwriter that Gayden achieved his greatest and most lasting success. Co-written with Buzz Cason, “Everlasting Love” became a wedding classic and achieved Top 40 status in four different decades. It charted for Robert Knight in 1967, Carl Carlton in 1974, Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet in 1981, and Gloria Estefan in 1995. U2 even recorded a stripped-down version of the song as a B-side to their 1989 single “All I Want Is You.”
Gayden also contributed to Nashville’s late 1960s R&B scene with hits like “She Shot a Hole in My Soul” (1967) for Clifford Curry and “Gotta Get Yourself Together” (1969) for the Valentines. These songs, along with “Everlasting Love,” were later featured in the Grammy-winning 2004 compilation Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues.
Born McGavock Dickinson Gayden on June 5, 1941, in Nashville, he was one of six children. His father, Hamilton Virgil Gayden, was a physician, and his mother, Ann Dickinson Gayden, was an equestrian whose riding career ended prematurely due to a severe fall at Madison Square Garden.
Mac Gayden studied at the Storm King School in New York and graduated from high school in Nashville in 1958. He later attended George Peabody College for Teachers (now part of Vanderbilt University) before joining the U.S. Army Reserve, where he served during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He began his music career in local bands and eventually joined the Escorts, a pop group led by Charlie McCoy. Through McCoy, he was introduced to Nashville’s studio scene and earned the opportunity to play on Blonde on Blonde.
As the music scene evolved in the 1970s, Gayden and former members of the Escorts formed two influential bands: Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry. Area Code 615 gained recognition for “Stone Fox Chase,” a harmonica-driven instrumental that later became the theme for the BBC music program The Old Grey Whistle Test. Gayden’s soulful vocals and guitar work defined Barefoot Jerry’s early sound, although he left the band after one album to pursue a more spiritually focused path.
His solo debut, McGavock Gayden, produced by Bob Johnston and released in 1971, marked the beginning of a new chapter. Gayden next formed Skyboat, a spiritually inspired band whose themes drew from sacred texts such as Black Elk Speaks and The Bhagavad Gita. Skyboat embraced a fusion of jazz, funk, and psychedelic rock, setting the stage for future jam bands.
Skyboat’s second album, Hymn to the Seeker (1976), was recorded at Miami’s Criteria Studios during the same period that the Eagles were working on Hotel California and Fleetwood Mac was recording Rumours. Randy Meisner of the Eagles even contributed vocals to one track.
Though his recording output slowed in later years, Gayden remained creatively active. He released Nirvana Blues in 1996 and returned in 2006 with Cyber Gypsies, a family collaboration featuring his daughter Oceana on vocals and his son Mac Jr. on guitar.
Gayden is survived by his wife of 51 years, Diane Boyte (Haynie) Gayden; three daughters, Oceana Gayden, Kathryn Krispin, and Kimberly Gayden; his son, Mac Jr.; nine grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; a sister, Ida Gayden Ezell; and a brother, Kip. Another daughter, Kellie Nelson — from his previous marriage to Phyllis Phifer — died in 2021.
In 2020, he released what would be his final album, Come Along.
In a 2022 interview with Nashville Scene, Gayden reflected on the spiritual journey that shaped his music and life. “I look at music from a different angle than most people,” he said. “I got into meditation a few years ago, and it’s been really good for me — for my personality and for my vibe, you know? I started looking at music differently when I got into Eastern music, to see where they’re coming from. They look at music as a life’s journey, you know? It changed the way I looked at things.”
Through innovation, soulful expression, and a quiet spiritual force, Mac Gayden helped shape the sound of Nashville and left behind a legacy that transcends genres — a true seeker in both music and life.
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