Dan McCafferty

The Shadettes and a Yellow Suit That Almost Fitted

That band began in the mid-1960s as The Shadettes, a covers group that played venues around Dunfermline in matching yellow suits. McCafferty was not in the line-up at first. He was the roadie. "When one of their singers decided he was leaving on the day of a gig, the boys decided to give me a try," he told Classic Rock in 2004. They had heard him singing in the van. The departed singer's yellow suit "almost fitted me."

In 1968 McCafferty, Agnew, the guitarist Manny Charlton and the drummer Darrell Sweet renamed the group Nazareth, a name taken from The Band's song "The Weight." The manager Bill Fehilly took them on, and in 1970 they moved to London.

Full Time From July 1, 1971

The four kept their day jobs until July 1, 1971, the date Agnew gives for the band turning professional. The two old school friends kept marking it. Every July 1, one would phone the other with the same question: "D'ya fancy giving it another twelve months?"

McCafferty's voice was gravel from the start, and he had a working man's explanation for it. "I'm a blue-collar guy," he said, comparing himself to Bon Scott and Brian Johnson, who "had both worked hard all week. Maybe, like me, they took that aggression out onto the stage with them."

Razamanaz and This Flight Tonight

The breakthrough came in 1973 with Razamanaz, produced by Roger Glover. The album reached No. 11 in the UK, and two singles McCafferty co-wrote, "Broken Down Angel" and "Bad Bad Boy," went into the UK top 10. Later that year Loud 'n' Proud gave them a hit with "This Flight Tonight," a Joni Mitchell song.

He described the aim to NME in 1973: "We didn't want to be a revival band, so what we tried to do was write basic, simple rock songs - which is very hard."

Love Hurts and Hair of the Dog

Nazareth's biggest record in America was a ballad. Their version of "Love Hurts," the Boudleaux Bryant song first recorded by the Everly Brothers, appeared on Hair of the Dog in 1975 and reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1976. It was the band's only US top 10 single. Hair of the Dog reached the US top 20 and was certified platinum in 1992. Classic Rock reported that the single pushed the album's sales to two million.

The title track had a ruder name. The band wanted the album called after its refrain, "son of a bitch," could not get it past the censors, and still refer to the song that way.

The record found a second audience in Guns N' Roses, who covered "Hair of the Dog" on The Spaghetti Incident? in 1993. Axl Rose asked McCafferty to sing "Love Hurts" at his wedding to Erin Everly. McCafferty did not go. "I laughed when Axl asked me to sing Love Hurts at his wedding, because the song seemed to last for longer than the marriage!" he said. "I eventually told them I was busy."

Touring America in those years brought other offers he refused. "I had a wife and kids," he said. "I was so naive I thought I'd instantly become a drug addict." After the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash, Nazareth were briefly reported dead, because Skynyrd's crew had said the band had gone along to a barbecue. "At the next gig, when I phoned the wife she burst into tears with relief," McCafferty recalled.

Solo Records, From 1975 to Last Testament

He made three solo albums. The first, Dan McCafferty in 1975, was mostly cover versions, recorded with Roger Glover and members of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. "We were skint, so I went in and did all the old favourites," he said. Into the Ring followed in 1987, and Last Testament came out in 2019. In 1980 he also sang "Dreaming" on Exiled, an album by Mitchell/Coe Mysteries. Over his years with Nazareth he sang on 23 of the band's albums.

COPD and the End of Touring in 2013

McCafferty smoked for many years. He was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the Press Association's obituary adds that he also suffered a burst stomach ulcer. Nazareth announced his retirement from the band in 2013; uDiscover and Best Classic Bands date his departure to 2014.

He was blunt about why. "I can't sing on tour like I used to anymore," he told Classic Rock. "If you can't do the job then you really shouldn't be there." Linton Osborne replaced him, followed later by Carl Sentance.

November 8, 2022

Dan McCafferty died on November 8, 2022, aged 76. Agnew announced it on Nazareth's Facebook page: "Dan died at 12.40." No cause of death was made public. "This is the saddest announcement I ever had to make," Agnew wrote. "I have lost my best friend and the world has lost one of the greatest singers who ever lived." He added that "Maryann and the family have lost a wonderful loving husband and father." McCafferty was survived by his wife, Maryann, and two children.

No dated estimate of his net worth from Forbes or Bloomberg exists, and his share of Nazareth's catalog income was never reported, so this article gives no figure.

Sources

• Nazareth: The epic story of Axl Rose's favourite Scottish band | Louder
• Former Nazareth frontman dies aged 76
• Original Nazareth Vocalist Dan McCafferty Dies Aged 76
• Dan McCafferty, Nazareth lead vocalist and co-founder dies at 76 | Guitar.com
• Nazareth's Original Lead Singer, Dan McCafferty, Dies - Best Classic Bands
• Nazareth frontman and co-founder Dan McCafferty dies at 76 | Euronews
• Dan McCafferty - Tribute | Now Spinning Magazine
• Remembering Nazareth singer Dan McCafferty