R.I.P.: Dan McCafferty, Nazareth Vocalist and Founding Member

 

Dan McCafferty (1946-2022)

✞Dan McCafferty, the original vocalist for the hard rock band Nazareth, has died. He was 76, reports USAToday.

Pete Agnew, the band's bassist, announced on the Nazareth Facebook page Tuesday that McCafferty died "at 12:40 today." He did not provide a cause of death.

“This is the saddest announcement I ever had to make," Agnew continued. "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. Too upset to say anything more at this time."

McCafferty was a founding member of Nazareth, which formed in 1968, alongside Agnew, guitarist Manny Charlton and drummer Darrell Sweet. He retired from the band in August 2013.

In a 2014 interview with Classic Rock Here and Now, McCafferty opened up about life with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which Mayo Clinic describes as a chronic inflammatory lung disease that obstructs airflow from the lungs.

"We weren’t trying to be famous or trying to change the world or anything," he once said. "We lived in a small town, loved music, and all the guys in the band liked different things. It was the chemistry of everybody that we eventually ended up with."