Legendary Huntsville musician ‘Microwave’ Dave Gallaher passes away at the age of 79

The Huntsville music community has lost a true legend, as “Microwave” Dave Gallaher passed away Friday at the age of 79. Gallaher was still actively playing gigs around town right up until his death, and had been a musical staple in Huntsville and North Alabama.

Remembering Microwave Dave

Gallaher leaves behind a life of legendary music and service.

Born in Chicago and raised in Texas, he started out playing the ukulele, then the guitar, trumpet and French horn. And this was all while he was still an adolescent.

His family moved to Atlanta, and he attended school at Georgia State College where he formed the Majestics to play horn-driven R&B. The band worked the college circuit and eventually landed a standing gig at Atlanta’s Royal Peacock. There, he and his band backed up Carla Thomas, William Bell, The Tams, Billy Stewart and an up-and-coming R&B artist named Aretha Franklin.

After being drafted into the Air Force in Vietnam, he returned to the U.S. and enrolled at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. There, he honed his guitar craft and joined a band called Cameron, with whom he would move to Florida and enjoy almost a decade of success.

His longing for blues and soul music led him to Huntsville in the mid-80s. Which is where he produced a local blues radio program as his alias, “Microwave Dave.” Microwave Dave & The Nukes were formed shortly after.

Some interesting facts about Microwave Dave:

• During his sophomore year in high school, he started playing drums in the school band and landed a job in the Houston Oilers’ dixieland band (the Supersonic Philharmonic) during the AFL’s inaugural season.
• Her served in Vietnam in the Air Force as an intelligence specialist.
• Novelist Stephen King is a big Microwave Dave fan, and even wrote the forward for a biography on Dave, “I’m a Roadrunner: Life and Times of a Bluesman.”
• Microwave Dave & the Nukes backed Jerry ‘Boogie’ McCain and Bo Diddley.
• Dave was an accomplished woodworker and had a woodworking business when he first moved to Huntsville.

What makes Microwave Dave a true local legend is not just how he plays the guitar. It is also how much he has given back to the local community here and throughout the state through his involvement with the Microwave Dave Music Education Foundation.

The foundation has brought music education to classrooms all over the area since the early 2000s, working with local musicians, educators and music teachers to support and promote music education in North Alabama.

“Though he was a master of his craft, Dave remained profoundly humble and kind. To everyone who knew him, his warmth, generosity, and wit were just as legendary as his signature slide work.

The music may have paused last night , but the star and heavens will shine a little brighter as Dave’s soul and his voice will continue to resonate in our hearts—and in the lives of the students he inspired—forever.

We know he is ‘Talkin’ and Singing the Blues’ now on a much grander stage.”

Statement from the Microwave Dave Music Education Foundation

Donations to the foundation can be made HERE.

Want to stay in the know about what’s new and happening in and around Huntsville? Follow us on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.