04/24/2026
He cooked dinner with his wife Winifred on Sunday night. Something amazing, they said. Then Dave Mason sat down in his favorite chair, his little Maltese named Star curled at his feet, and took a nap.
He never woke up. Seventy-nine years old. The Carson Valley he loved stretching out around him. A storybook ending, his family called it. On his own terms.
This is the man who co-founded Traffic in 1967. Who stood beside Jimi Hendrix on "All Along the Watchtower." Who wrote "Feelin' Alright" before Joe Cocker ever touched it. People still argue about whose version is the real one.
But it's the way he left that keeps sitting with me. The dinner. The dog. The chair. What's the song of his that never quite let you go?
