Mark Moffatt, the lifelong musician and producer who devoted his life to music, died September 6, 2024, in Nashville, Tennessee. He had battled pancreatic cancer for a more than a year.

Moffatt was one of the most experienced and respected producers to emerge from Australia. He was also an accomplished musician (guitar, pedal steel), engineer, writer and a Grammy nominee. Producing more tracks in the APRA Top 30 Songs of All Time than any other single producer, Moffatt produced an astonishing 15 ARIA Hall of Fame inductees.

A proud Australian, Moffatt chased his musical passions from his hometown of Maryborough to Brisbane, then hopped a boat to the UK to work on London’s famed Denmark Street for several years. When he found himself back in Brisbane in 1976, the stars aligned and Moffatt’s production of The Saints’ “I’m Stranded” kicked his burgeoning career into overdrive.

Production stints with EMI and TCS Studios in Melbourne led him to Sydney in 1980, where he became Festival Records’ director of artist development / in-house producer, working on some of the biggest names in Australian music for more than a decade. That year saw Mark’s first nomination as “Best Producer” and the beginning of steady chart success through the 80s and 90s.

Moffatt relocated to Nashville in 1996 and quickly became part of its prolific music scene, helping countless Aussie artists as a mentor, producer, studio musician, and all-around coach. A fresh-faced Aussie artist coming to Nashville could find no better cheerleader and teacher than Mark Moffatt. As director of A&R at Ten Ten until 2001, he worked extensively in the development of superstar Keith Urban. Mark was a leader in the emerging Independent sector of the Nashville Industry, achieving the highest number of independent Music Row chart entries in 2005.

As a writer he had two #1 Australian country singles, two Top 10 pop singles, two Top 10 UK & European singles, and composed scores for seven major motion pictures and TV series. Production credits include Keith Urban / The Ranch, The Saints, Yothu Yindi, the Divinyls, Neil & Tim Finn, Ross Wilson, Slim Dusty, Tony Joe White, Stacey Earle, O’Shea, Jasmine Rae, Deana Carter, Leslie Mills (with John Shanks & The Dust Brothers), Gloriana, Adam Gregory, Jason Aldean remixes, and many more.

Moffatt’s overriding focus for the past two decades was to bridge the international divide on behalf of the Americana Music Association, serving as its Board President for three terms, and educating everyone in his musical orbit on the complexities and history of this storied genre of music. He was a founding board member of the Americana Music Foundation, served for ten years as APRA’s Nashville Ambassador, and was awarded the CMA Global Achievement Award for his remarkable international efforts.

At the time of his death, Moffatt was putting the finishing touches on a full album for KILO, a band he formed with Australian rock singer John “Swanee” Swan, for which they have already released an EP and several music videos.

On the very day of his passing, Australian magazine The Music released an article hailing Moffatt as “an unsung hero of Australian music.” From The Saints to Keith Urban to Tim Finn to Yothu Yindi and well beyond, Mark Moffatt has influenced the Australian—and world—music sphere in innumerable ways, and done so with the quiet confidence that only he could bring.