1938 – 2026
Wayne Moss
“Wayne Moss was a guitarist of dexterous skill and sophisticated taste. Listen carefully to Bob Dylan’s ‘I Want You’ or Roy Orbison’s ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ or Waylon Jennings’s ‘Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line.’ You’ll hear innovative electric lead parts that drew attention to Nashville’s world-class musicianship. As a studio owner, his doors were equally wide open to pop, rock, and country music. Wayne was a musical torchbearer and a creative pathfinder who left his own resounding stamp on music history.”
—Kyle Young, CEO
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
About Wayne Moss
Wayne Moss, who died Monday at the age of eighty-eight, was a quiet, self-effacing titan of Nashville’s music industry. Over his decades in Nashville, he proved himself a distinctive and versatile session guitarist, welcoming studio owner, and skilled recording engineer. His iconic guitar riffs helped forge the identifiable sound of classic country and rock hits, such as Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” Bob Dylan’s “I Want You,” and Waylon Jennings’s “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line.”
Inspired by Country Music Hall of Fame members Chet Atkins and Earl Scruggs, Moss began developing his fingerstyle technique on guitar, and by his teens was performing on radio and in bands in Charleston, West Virginia. Shortly after moving to Nashville at age twenty-one, he befriended fellow musicians Kenny Buttrey and Charlie McCoy, whom he would continue to work with in bands and on recording sessions for many years.
Moss also became a founding member of two of Nashville’s earliest rock & roll bands, the Casuals and the Escorts (Charlie McCoy’s group). Later, Moss was a key member of Nashville’s groundbreaking country-rock bands Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry.
As a session guitarist, Moss played on top hits by George Hamilton IV, David Houston, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride. His non-country work included sessions with Joan Baez, the Steve Miller Band, the Monkees, Linda Ronstadt, and soul singer Joe Simon.
Moss also owned Cinderella Sound, the oldest independent recording studio in Nashville, opened in 1961 by Moss and originally furnished with sound equipment from a defunct nightclub. Cinderella hosted thousands of master recordings featuring artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Jackie DeShannon, Grand Funk Railroad, the James Gang, Tracy Nelson, and Mickey Newbury.
Wayne Moss was interviewed in 2009 in a Nashville Cats program at the Museum, a clip of which is shown.