Dan McCafferty, the longtime lead singer of Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, has died aged 76.
McCafferty’s bandmate, bassist Pete Agnew, announced the singer had died Tuesday in a Facebook post shared on the band’s page the same day.
The musician, who co-wrote many of the band’s songs throughout the 1970s, is best known for his searing vocals on Nazareth’s top 10 covers of the Everly Brothers’ song Love Hurts, which became a staple of powerful ballads.
Latest Song: Dan McCafferty, the longtime lead singer of Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, died on Tuesday aged 76; seen in 2016 in Berlin
“Dan passed away at 12:40 p.m. today,” Agnew began, adding, “This is the saddest announcement I’ve ever had to make.
‘[McCafferty’s wife] Maryann and the family have lost a wonderful loving husband and father, I have lost my best friend and the world has lost one of the greatest singers who ever lived,’ he continued, adding that he was, ‘Too upset to say anything more at this time.’
No cause of death was provided. McCafferty had retired from touring with Nazareth in 2013 due to the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
McCafferty, who was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1946, co-founded Nazareth in 1968 with Agnew, along with Manny Charlton on guitar and Darrell Sweet on drums.
The band was inspired to take their name by a line in the band’s classic song The Weight, which refers to the town of Nazareth in Pennsylvania, rather than the town in the Middle East.
Sad news: Bassist Pete Agnew made the announcement later Tuesday. He described the late singer as his best friend. He is survived by his wife Maryann and his two children.
Beginnings: McCafferty co-founded the band in 1968. Although he rose to prominence by opening for Deep Purple and working with that band’s bassist, Roger Glover, the band failed to attract much commercial attention ; photographed in Montreal in 1976
The band’s self-titled debut album was released in 1971, and the band showed a muscular hard rock sound, although it often included more pop covers.
Nazareth raised their profile in rock circles by touring with Deep Purple, and that band’s bassist Roger Glover later lent some of his band’s style to Nazareth’s third album, Razamanaz, from 1973.
Several of the band’s early albums were modest hits in the UK, but they failed to gain traction in the US until the release of their sixth album, Hair Of The Dog in 1975.
The album was carried by the single Love Hurts, a reworked version of the Everly Brothers song, which was not released as a single.
It had been covered before, but Nazareth’s version, which had a harder edge thanks to Charlton’s guitars and McCafferty’s gritty but powerful vocals, peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US, instantly becoming the band’s most identifiable song.
Finally: Nazareth’s 1975 LP Hair Of The Dog was his biggest hit in the US thanks to the Everly Brothers’ cover Love Hurts, which reached No. 8 on the charts and was used numerous times in other media; McCafferty (R) seen in 1973 with Manny Charlton
It has since been used numerous times in film, television, and advertisements, although it is usually deployed for comedic or ironic effect.
The album did well, reaching number 17 on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart thanks to other popular tracks like the title track, which McCafferty co-wrote.
McCafferty’s former teammate Charlton died in July this year.
In addition to her albums with Nazareth, McCafferty recorded three solo albums which were released to mostly lackluster results.
In 2014, he spoke to Classic Rock Here And Now about stepping away from the band due to his COPD diagnosis.
Stepping down: McCafferty was forced to step down from touring in 2013 after being diagnosed with COPD. “I can’t sing on tour like I used to,” he admitted in a 2014 interview; seen in 2008 in the Czech Republic
“I can’t sing on tour like I used to,” he said via USA Today. “I think if you can’t do the job, you really shouldn’t be there…I’m sad about that, but I can’t sing a whole set live anymore.”
In the same interview, McCafferty spoke about the mindset of the band at the start of its existence.
“We weren’t trying to be famous or trying to change the world or anything,” he recalled. “We lived in a small town, loved the music, and all the guys in the band liked different things. It’s everyone’s chemistry that we ended up with in the end.
McCafferty is survived by his wife Maryann and two children.
