Tribute to Lonnie Mack

River View Cemetery Presents A Tribute To Lonnie Mack

Aurora, Indiana July 10, 2023 – Lonnie McIntosh known as Lonnie Mack, is known to many in the tri-state area. One of five children, he was born to parents Robert and Sarah Sizemore McIntosh on July 18, 1941, in West Harrison, Indiana and spent many years in Aurora.

He began playing guitar at the age of seven, after trading his bicycle for a "Lone Ranger" model acoustic guitar. His mother taught him basic chords, and he was soon playing bluegrass guitar in the family band.

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 (bluesrock), 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-andarrow, 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 April 21, 2016, Mack was buried in River View Cemetery, 3635 E Laughery Creek Road. The River View Cemetery Board of Directors is paying tribute to Mack with a tribute Saturday July 15, 3 days before what would have been his 82nd birthday. The jam session will include several of Mack friends and bandmates that played alongside him through the years. The tribute will be from 11am-2pm at the chapel uphill from Macks burial site. Everyone is asked to park outside the cemetery gates on Riverview Drive (old SR56). Please bring your own chair.