NAZARETH ANNOUNCE DEPARTURE OF LEAD SINGER.
Iconic rock band Nazareth has confirmed that singer Linton Osborne has parted ways with the band. Bassist and original member Pete Agnew confirmed the news:
“Linton had a very memorable, if short, period with the band and although things didn’t work out as well as everyone hoped, we would like to thank him for his contribution and wish him all the best for the future.
Nazareth will of course continue and hope to be back on the road in the very near future with a new singer in place and look forward to the next phase of the band’s evolution.”
The band are currently filming a documentary about the complete history of Nazareth -including interviews with legendary singer Dan McCafferty – for release in June 2015 together with a live session filmed in November at Metropolis Studios (Exact release date TBC)
READ MORE: Dan McCafferty, frontman for rock group Nazareth, dies at 76
Dan McCafferty, the longtime lead singer of the Scottish rock band Nazareth whose searing vocals propelled a cover of the ballad “Love Hurts” into a 1970s hit, has died, his longtime bandmate announced.
McCafferty was 76, Nazareth bassist Pete Agnew said on the band’s official Facebook page.
“This is the saddest announcement I ever had to make,” Agnew wrote Tuesday. “Maryann and the family have lost a wonderful loving husband and father, I have lost my best friend, and the world has lost one of the greatest singers who ever lived.”
The raspy-voiced McCafferty certainly had one of the most distinctive and powerful sets of pipes in rock, and he was an inspiration to other heavy metal singers, like Axl Rose of “Guns N’ Roses.”
“If it wasn’t for Dan McCafferty and Nazareth I wouldn’t be singing,” Rose said in a 1988 interview.
McCafferty was a founding member of Nazareth, which was formed in 1968 and took its name from the Pennsylvania city that was featured that year in a song by The Band called “The Weight.”
While Nazareth did not enjoy the same worldwide success as rival rock acts that emerged in the 1970s, like Black Sabbath or Deep Purple, McCafferty and his bandmates carved out a niche in the music world with very heavy cover versions of other artists’ songs.
“Love Hurts,” a ballad first made famous by the Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison, as well, became an international hit for Nazareth in 1974.
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