The group’s best known album, Hair Of The Dog, their sixth long-player, was released in 1975, selling over two million copies worldwide, on the back of the quartet’s cover of Boudleaux Bryant’s ballad Love Hurts, previously covered by The Everley Brothers, which was a Top 10 hit in the US. The album’s title track, also a hit single, was later covered by Guns N’ Roses, on 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?
The singer retired from touring in August 2013, due to health issues. His final album with the band, Rock’n’Roll Telephone, was released in June 2014. Bowing out of the band, McCafferty told Classic Rock, “I could make another record, but getting up to do an hour and three-quarters, and get people to pay money to come and see me – I can’t do that.”
“If you can’t do the job you shouldn’t be there,” he explained elsewhere. “Nazareth’s too big for that.”
Pete Agnew told Classic Rock, “It was Dan himself who said he wanted the band to continue because it’s been his whole life.”
Agnew and McCafferty’s former bandmate Manny Charlton passed away in July.
