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Notable session musician David Lindley, a multi-instrumentalist known for his prolific work and collaborations in the 1970s and 1980s, has died at the age of 78, Rolling Stone confirmed. No cause of death was given.
An active musician since the Sixties, Lindley was a popular session musician whose skills in playing stringed instruments such as the violin and guitar made him an indispensable collaborator for the likes of Jackson Browne, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Toto, Rod Stewart and Joe Walsh.
“The loss of David Lindley is a great one,” said singer Jason Isbell wrote on twitter. “Without his influence, my music would sound very different. I was really obsessed with his playing from the first time I heard it. The man was a giant.”
Graham Nash also took to social media on Friday to pay tribute to Lindley. “One of the most talented musicians ever,” Nash wrote. “David could play just about any instrument thrown at him with incredible versatility and expression.”
Lindley was often found in the studio collaborating with other members of The Section, a crew of session musicians who shaped the soft rock sound of the 1970s. “They were some of the most creative musicians out there,” David Crosby, who hired Lindley in 1975, told Rolling Stone in 2013. “You never had to tell them what to play. You sang them a song and got the fuck out of their way.”
“I listened to a song and saw what worked. The song is the center of everything. If the song is about a deceased friend of Jackson’s, play something appropriate for it,” Lindley told Rolling Stone in 2010. “You don’t play a Chuck Berry solo in the middle of ‘Song for Adam.’ A Chuck Berry solo is great, but not for now.”
Lindley stood out among the other session musicians not only for his mischievous demeanor but also for his raw talent. Known as one of the legendary rock ‘n’ roll sidemen of his era, the musician played in Browne’s band for most of the ’80s and made a name for himself beyond the studio. In turn, Browne produced Lindley’s 1983 album El Rayo-X.
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Reminiscing about his time with Browne, Lindley shared a story from one of his first meetings with Rolling Stone: “Jackson was playing there and I borrowed a violin and sat with him. That was the beginning. He liked the way it worked. Then I went to England and played with Terry Reid. Jackson came to London after the first album came out and we played some gigs there. A friend of mine had a club in Cambridge. We played the club and it was fun. Then it was like, ‘Let’s do a band thing!’ I thought, ‘This is going to be fun.’”
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Lindley and Browne reunited for a series of live shows, first in 2006, then again in 2010. “Why didn’t I think of this before? Take him where he doesn’t speak the language and he MUST leave the gig and come to the restaurant or club with you,” Browne shared in a statement in 2010, recalling his time with the musician in Spain. “This was an unexpected strategic breakthrough in a pursuit that has come to be known to a legion of friends, students and admirers as ‘Stalking the wild Lindley.'”
Lindley has also played with James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, as well as in his own bands including Kaleidoscope and the 80’s band El Rayo-X. He has toured with Hani Naser and Wally Ingram and has appeared on over 50 records including his own solo releases and appearances on albums by Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Warren Zevon, Jimmy Barnes and others.