“A pioneer of music and an innovator who left an indelible mark on the history of music": Nashville session legend Wayne Moss has died, aged 88

It’s been announced that the veteran Nashville session guitarist Wayne Moss has died. He was 88 and had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The news was broken last week on Roy Orbison’s official Instagram page (yes, the Big O is on Instagram, despite dying decades before the invention of social media..). Moss played on Oh Pretty Woman, Crying and a number of Orbison classics.

Moss was born in South Charleston, West Virginia, but having started playing the guitar aged 8, had no intention of staying there. “There was noth­ing to do up there but work in a chem­ical plant or a coal mine,” he said in an interview with Nashville radio station WMOT. “My dad worked at Carbide, and I didn’t want black lung, so I got out of there.”

He headed for Nashville and began to pick up session work. Sheila by Tommy Roe was the first Number One record he played on and after that came a steady stream of work from both country, rock and pop artists, including Patsy Cline, the Everly Brothers, Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn, Nancy Sinatra and Linda Ronstadt.

When Bob Dylan ventured to Nashville to record Blonde On Blonde, Moss was in the band that he hired. A few years later, Moss contributed a wonderful rhythm guitar part to one of the most covered and beloved songs of all time: Dolly Parton’s Jolene.

Dolly Parton - Jolene (Official Audio) - YouTube

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Moss also found the time to found one of Nashville’s oldest independent studios – Cinderella Sound, which has been used by the Steve Miller Band, Linda Ronstadt, Grand Funk Railroad and many others.

"We're not even in the phone book, you know?" Moss told Sound On Sound in 2011. "So unless you know somebody that knows somebody, you can't even get in here. But Steve Miller did and Ronstadt did and Leo Kottke did and a lot of folks. So we've had the business, despite the fact that you can't even find us, you know? You can't Google us.”

Kyle Young, the CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, paid tribute to the guitarist who was in the so-called Nashville A-Team of session players. "Wayne was a musical torchbearer and a creative pathfinder who left his own resounding stamp on music history," he said in a statement

"Listen closely to I Want You by Bob Dylan, Oh, Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison, or Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line, by Waylon Jennings. You will hear the innovative electric guitar solos that brought attention to Nashville's world-class musical talent. Wayne Moss was a pioneer of music and an innovator who left an indelible mark on the history of music."