Wayne Moss, the Nashville session guitarist whose fingers shaped some of the most iconic recordings in country and rock history, died April 21, 2026. He was 88.
Born February 9, 1938 in South Charleston, West Virginia, Moss made his way to Nashville in 1959 and never looked back. Within a few years he was playing on records that would outlive generations. That electric guitar riff on Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman”? Wayne Moss. The guitar on Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde? Wayne Moss. Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”? Wayne Moss. Waylon Jennings’ “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line”? You know the answer.
In 1961, Moss founded Cinderella Sound in Madison, Tennessee — Nashville’s oldest continuously operating independent recording studio — out of a nightclub’s salvaged equipment and a garage. No Google listing. No tour buses. Just great records. Steve Miller recorded there. So did Linda Ronstadt. So did Grand Funk Railroad and the James Gang. Moss liked it that way.
He co-founded Area Code 615, whose debut earned a GRAMMY nomination, and Barefoot Jerry. He spent 15 years in the Hee Haw house band. His songs were cut by Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Willie Nelson and the Oak Ridge Boys. The Country Music Hall of Fame honored him as a Nashville Cat in 2009. West Virginia claimed him back in 2013 with an induction into its own Music Hall of Fame.
“Wayne was a musical torchbearer and a creative pathfinder who left his own resounding stamp on music history,” said Country Music Hall of Fame CEO Kyle Young.
Roy Orbison Jr. said it more simply: “My dear friend, the great guitarist Wayne Moss, has died. We love you Wayne.”
There are records on your shelf right now that Wayne Moss played on. You just didn’t always know his name. You will now.