Bruce Langhorne, inspiration for ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ dead at 78

LOS ANGELES — Bruce Langhorne, an influential session guitarist who often collaborated with Bob Dylan and inspired his song “Mr. Tambourine Man,” has died. He was 78.

Langhorne died Friday at his home in Venice, California, of kidney failure, Cynthia Riddle, a family friend, said Sunday.

The musical prodigy was born in Tallahassee, Florida, but from the age of 4 lived in New York City’s Spanish Harlem neighborhood with his mother. He studied classical violin before taking up guitar at 17.

Langhorne is perhaps best known for his work on Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home.”

A mainstay of the Greenwich Village folk rock music scene in the 1950s and 1960s, Langhorne played with the likes of Joan Baez, Gordon Lightfoot and Buffy Sainte-Marie, among others.

He’s survived by his wife of 29 years, Janet Bachelor.