Background and career
David Thomas Mason (10 May 1946 – 19 April 2026) was an English musician who came to prominence in 1967 as a founding member of the rock band Traffic. He wrote and sang lead vocals on two of the band's best known songs, "Hole in My Shoe" and "Feelin' Alright?" His song "Only You Know and I Know" became a signature song for Delaney & Bonnie, and his 1977 solo hit, "We Just Disagree", has become a staple of U.S. classic hits and adult contemporary radio playlists. After leaving Traffic, he pursued a solo career and recorded with artists that included Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Wings, the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell, and Cass Elliot. In 2004, Mason started an electric guitar company with business partner and industrial designer Ravi Sawhney. That same year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Traffic.
Mason was born in Worcester, England, on 10 May 1946, the youngest of two children of Edward Mason and Nora Wilson, who ran a sweet shop. He attended Christopher Whithead Boys' School, in the St.John's area of the city. He became infatuated with the electric guitar at an early age, becoming an avid follower of Hank Marvin, Buddy Guy and Elmore James. In his teens, he formed his own band, The Jaguars, which, with funding from his parents, recorded the 1963 single "Opus to Spring".
In 1964, Mason joined another Worcester band, The Hellions, which included drummer Jim Capaldi. In August of that year, the band was hired to back singer Tanya Day at the Star-Club in Hamburg, where they stayed at the same hotel as the Spencer Davis Group. Mason and Capaldi struck up a friendship with the Spencer Davis Group's keyboardist Steve Winwood. When The Hellions returned to England, they were a polished act and were in great demand, on their own and as a backing band for such singers as Adam Faith and Dave Berry. By the end of 1964, they had become the house band at London's Whisky-A-Go-Go Club. They were quickly spotted by producer Kim Fowley and songwriter Jackie DeShannon, who offered them a song and helped arrange a recording contract with Piccadilly Records. In 1965, they released the DeShannon song "Daydreaming Of You" which Fowley produced, and the first song Mason ever wrote with Capaldi, "Shades of Blue". Neither song was a success but the band went on a UK tour with P. J. Proby. Another song, "Hallelujah", was released but it too failed to chart. In 1966, the band returned to Worcester. Mason made ends meet by playing with local groups, and by working as a roadie for The Spencer Davis Group. Capaldi pulled together a band called Deep Feeling, which recorded 12 songs, none of which were released. Sunbeam Records released the set in 2008, as the album Pretty Colours.
In 1967, The Spencer Davis Group broke up and, with Winwood available, Capaldi gathered a new group, Traffic, which consisted of himself, Winwood, Mason and Chris Wood. They began jamming in Birmingham, then moved into a house in Berkshire. They began recording and produced a top-five hit, "Paper Sun". Their next song, the first that Mason wrote alone, was "Hole In My Shoe", which, with Mason's liberal use of the sitar, became one of the most successful and memorable songs of British psychedelia. It reached No. 3 on the UK charts and established Mason as a songwriter and singer. Traffic's first album, Mr. Fantasy, released in late 1967, was a huge success but Mason left the band soon after and moved to the United States. In early 1968 he released a solo single, "Just For You," with other Traffic members backing him. The group invited him back when they began recording their next album, a self-titled effort, in the spring of 1968. According to some sources, he was fired only six months later just after its release. Traffic then broke up. The group's 1969 compilation album, Last Exit, includes Mason's solo single "Just for You." Traffic would go on to re-form without Mason, although he did join them on the live album Welcome to the Canteen during the band's 1971 summer tour. In his time with the group, Mason usually wrote alone. Steve Winwood later recalled, "We all tended to write together, but Mason would come in with a complete song that he was going to sing and tell us all what he expected us to play. No discussion, like we were his backing group." For the album Traffic, Mason wrote the song "Feelin' Alright?" which was released in September 1968 as the album's only single, but failed to chart. In 1969, the song was covered by Joe Cocker for his album With a Little Help from My Friends. Mason subsequently incorporated elements of the arrangement from Cocker's version into his own live performances of the song.
Mason did some session work on Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland (September 1968), playing 12-string acoustic guitar on "All Along the Watchtower". He played the shehnai and bass drum on "Street Fighting Man" on the Rolling Stones' 1968 album Beggars Banquet. Mason appears on George Harrison's 1970 solo set All Things Must Pass. Also in 1970, he played on early studio sessions for Derek and the Dominos, including the Phil Spector production of "Tell the Truth", which was released on Eric Clapton's 1988 box set Crossroads. For Capaldi's 1971 album Oh How We Danced, he co-wrote "Big Thirst" and played harmonica on that track, plus the guitar solo on "Don't Be a Hero".
In 1969, then settled in Los Angeles, Mason released the single "Just for You". On the B-side, he was backed by the band Family on "Little Woman", following his production of Family's first album in 1968, Music in a Doll's House, which included the original Mason song "Never Like This". He also played lead guitar with a rock and soul ensemble fronted by Delaney and Bonnie. In the meantime, Steve Winwood had founded Blind Faith with Eric Clapton. Delaney & Bonnie and Friends would go on to tour with Blind Faith as their opening act. Mason recorded his debut solo album, Alone Together, in 1970. It included the track "Look at You, Look at Me" and the hit tune "Only You Know and I Know", which reached No. 42 on the Billboard chart. When Delaney and Bonnie recorded it the following year, the song charted even higher, reaching No. 20.
