Tribute to Lonnie Mack Takes Place July 20 in Aurora

The event will be held two days after what would have been Mack’s 83rd birthday.

(Aurora, Ind.) – Community members are invited to celebrate the life and music of Lonnie Mack.

The River View Cemetery Board of Directors presents a Tribute to Lonnie Mack on Saturday, July 20 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The event will take place at River View Cemetery at the chapel uphill from Mack’s burial site and will feature a jam session made up of Mack’s friends and bandmates that have played alongside him through the years.

Parking will be available outside the cemetery gates on Riverview Drive. Attendees are encouraged to bring your own chairs.

Lonnie Mack began playing guitar at the age of seven after trading his bicycle for a “Lone Ranger” model acoustic guitar.

According to the New York Times, Mack’s guitar style was “a seminal influence on a long list of British and American” rock guitar soloists.

Those who have claimed Mack as a major or significant influence include Stevie Ray Vaughan (blues rock), Jeff Beck (blues rock, jazz-rock), Neil Young (hard rock; country-tinged folk rock), Ted Nugent (hard rock), Dickey Betts (Southern rock), Warren Haynes (Southern rock), Ray Benson (Western swing), Bootsy Collins (funk), Adrian Belew (impressionist rock), Wayne Perkins (multi-genre), and Tyler Morris (multi-genre). According to a variety of sources, Mack similarly influenced guitarists Joe Bonamassa (blues-rock), Eric Clapton (blues-rock), Duane Allman (Southern rock), Gary Rossington (Southern rock), Steve Gaines (Southern rock), Dan Toler (Southern rock), Mike Bloomfield (blues-rock), Jerry Garcia (psychedelic rock), Jimi Hendrix (psychedelic blues-rock), Keith Richards (blues[1]rock), Jimmy Page (blues-rock), and Danny Gatton (blues rock; jazz rock).

Mack was closely identified with the distinctive-looking Gibson Flying V guitar that first appeared in 1958. When he was seventeen, he bought the seventh Flying V off the first-year production line, naming it "Number 7". Mack, who was part Native American, had spent his youth with bow-and[1]arrow, and was viscerally attracted to the arrow-like shape of the guitar. Mack played "Number 7" almost exclusively throughout his career. The title of Mack's final album, Attack of the Killer V, was a reference to his guitar.

Upon his death in April 2016, Mack was buried in River View Cemetery.

The RVCA Tribute will be held two days after what would have been Mack’s 83rd birthday.