Delaney Bramlett, 1939-2008

Famous guitarist, frontman and collaborator Delaney Bramlett passed away Saturday at age 69. He passed away in the hospital following complications from gallbladder surgery and what his wife Susan Lanier-Bramlett reports as “seven hard months” of ill health.”

Famous guitarist, frontman and collaborator Delaney Bramlett passed away Saturday at age 69. He passed away in the hospital following complications from gallbladder surgery and what his wife Susan Lanier-Bramlett reports as “seven hard months” of ill health.”

“I held him and he held on up until the last breath with which he went in peace to the light and on into eternity,” she said.

Mississippi-born Bramlett first hit the music scene with Delaney and Bonnie, a duo he formed with his first wife Bonnie Lynn in 1967. The duo signed to both Elektra and the Beatles’ Apple label.

Bramlett also played guitar for famous friend and “sideman” Eric Clapton, who would sometimes sing backing vocals for Delaney and Bonnie. In addition to providing live guitar for Clapton, Bramlett produced and co-wrote Slowhand’s 1970 self-titled debut.

Other friends and collaborators included Dave Mason and George Harrison, the latter of whom Bramlett taught to play slide guitar, inspiring the Beatles hit “My Sweet Lord.”

Delaney and Bramlett divorced and split musically in 1972, but not without any hits-1971’s “Never Ending Song of Love” was one of their biggest commercial successes.

Despite the breakup, Bramlett continued releasing new music up until his 2008 solo album A New Kind of Blues.