Traffic’s Dave Mason: ‘On one level, I could hate every one of them’

Small wonder he has never fully put them behind him. Though Mason went on to release a string of gold and platinum hits as a solo artist, including a note-perfect solo debut, Alone Together in 1970, he makes clear in a brutally frank new memoir that, for him, Traffic remains the one that got away. He even goes so far as to cast his entire career as a frontman – which has now lasted at least 20 times longer than his days with Traffic – as a default for his true love, which is getting lost in the dynamics of a classic band. “As someone once wrote years ago, ‘Differences combine to form beauty,’” Mason said of an ideal band’s interplay. “Unfortunately, they also combine to drive people apart.”