_photo via Alligator Records_

Genre-spanning guitarist Lonnie Mack passed away yesterday from natural causes, his label Alligator Records announced today. He was 74 years old.

Mack was best known for his influence on several legendary blues guitarists, most notably Stevie Ray Vaughan, with whom Mack recorded his 1985 album Strike Like Lightening, as well as Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page. The resulting 1985 tour around Lightening was famously attended by the likes of Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, Eddie Van Halen and more and featured sit ins from Vaughan, Richards, Ron Wood and Ry Cooder.

Born Lonnie McIntosh in Harrison, IN, in 1941, Mack grew up in the small town learning music and started playing gigs in and around nearby Cincinnati, OH. With his signature Gibson Flying V guitar, Mack even popularized the phrase “whammy bar” for his use of the tremolo bar on his guitar in 1964’s The Wham of That Memphis Man album. The guitarist eventually moved to Texas at the request of Vaughan, who helped Mack revitalize his career in the ’80s.