Two-hundred-and-eight pages is quite slim for a septuagenarian rock ‘n’ roller’s memoir. Especially for the amazing career Dave Mason has. Yet that’s the length of Mason’s book “Only You Know and I Know,” titled after his 1970 solo hit and set to publish later this year.

It’s a small miracle they got 208 pages though. The press release for Mason’s book accurately describes this British-born, current Nevada resident as a “quiet giant.”

During our recent phone interview, he’s often as careful with words as he is with superfluous notes in the many emotive guitar solos he’s played since rising in the ‘60s with Traffic, the British jam-band Mason was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame with in 2004. That said, during our chat, Mason opens up a bit more when recalling musician friends who’ve passed on.

Mason’s talents are undeniably huge — and so’s his history. He’s been a part of so many timeless music moments, he’s kind of the Forrest Gump of classic rock.

However, unlike Forrest Gump, the fictional bumpkin who stumbled into numerous pivotal ‘60s events, Mason was there because he was among fellow elite rockers. He elevated all music he touched.

As a member of Traffic, Mason wrote and sang “Feelin’ Alright?,” first heard on Traffic’s 1968 self-titled sophomore album and one of rock’s most enduring tunes. Asked what he remembers about writing it, Mason says, “Basically the song is just an unrequited love song, is what it is.” And the guitar he wrote it on? “It was probably some cheap Epiphone [acoustic], I think.”

Acts ranging from Three Dog Night to Gladys Knight & the Pips have since cut “Feelin’ Alright.” Interpretations often drop the question mark from the song’s title.

However, the definitive version is by bluesy belter Joe Cocker, from Cocker’s 1969 album “With a Little Help From My Friends,” its title track also the definitive version of The Beatles song of the same name.

“Until [record producer] Denny Cordell played it for me,” Mason recalls, “I didn’t even know Cocker was doing it.” Asked about the financial impact royalties from Cocker’s popular version of “Feelin’ Alright” has had on him, Mason says, “Well, it’s been covered by about 50 major artists, and everybody in the grandmother has played it — and still does. It’s been in movies, commercials, all kinds of stuff.”

Savvy fans know Joe Cocker, like Linda Ronstadt, was primary a stylist who mostly interpreted songs written by others. But does it bother Mason that perhaps millions of less-informed listeners think Cocker wrote “Feelin’ Alight?” and have no idea Mason did? “It terms of doing the song, it’s a Joe Cocker song,” Mason says with a good-natured laugh.

Being at the center of the creation of timeless music’s a recurring theme in Mason’s arc. In ‘68, he was with The Rolling Stones at London’s Olympic Studios for the recording of “Street Fighting Man,” which became a signature hit for The Stones and fixture of that band’s concerts ever since.

On “Street Fighting Man,” Mason played the shehnai, a reeded Indian instrument heard along with Stones guitarist Brian Jones’ sitar in the song’s post-chorus interludes and outro.

“That just part of it,” Mason says. “Most of the stuff I’m doing on there is playing drums. He and Charlie [Watts, Stones drummer] and Brian are basically the drum track on there. Jimmy Miller was the producer, who was [also] brought over to produce Traffic.”

Mason says back then, most English rockers used the same studios because there weren’t that many there: “Pretty much everybody knew everybody. I knew Brian pretty well, and I was just at the session, and it was like, ‘Hey, grab something and start playing.’”

Same year, same studio, Mason was part of recording sessions for Jimi Hendrix’s shimmering cover of Bod Dylan song “All Along The Watchtower.” He played the dramatic acoustic guitar that accents Hendrix’s version so brilliantly.

“I knew Hendrix,” Mason explains, “and had sort of palled around with him a little bit, different times when we were able to. I guess he’d heard the ‘John Wesley Harding’ album [by Dylan, containing the original ‘All Along The Watchtower’], and decided he wanted to it. Nothing was really planned that much in terms of all that sort of thing. It was just like, ‘Hey, I’m going to the studio. You want to come along?’”

During those sessions, for Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” album. Mason also ended up singing background vocals on another Jimi track for the ages, “Crosstown Traffic.” Intriguingly, Mason says, “There’s some other tracks I did with him, playing bass and sitar, that that I have no idea what happened in them.”

Despite his wild onstage performances and drug-related 1970 death, Hendrix, “in the studio he was all work,” Mason says. “Very, very creative.”

“Beggars Banquet,” the Rolling Stones album that contains “Street Fighting Man,” was the first Stones LP produced by Miller, who’d also steer the band’s next three — “Let It Bleed,” “Sticky Fingers,” “Exile on Main St”. It’s a run widely regarded as rock’s greatest tetralogy.

Before that though, Miller helmed Traffic’s ‘67 debut LP “Mr. Fantasy.” As heard on tracks like “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” an ode to the escape provided and price-paid by pop stars, the album mixed psychedelia, R&B, folk, world music, jazz into a buzzy rock brew.

Mason calls Miller, who died in 1994, “a great producer. His main thing was setting the right atmosphere to work under. He just made the energy very cool.”

In addition to singer/guitarist Mason and singer/keyboardist Steve Winwood, the group’s classic lineup also featured flutist/saxophonist Chris Wood, drummer/percussionist Jim Capaldi.

In the early ‘70s, Dave Mason was in an early version of Derek and the Dominoes, the Eric Clapton supergroup eventually elevated by Southern rocker Duane Allman’s guitar on songs like “Layla.”

Mason also contributed to notable recordings by two Beatles: George Harrison’s 1970 triple-album “All Things Must Pass,” and a 1975 hit single by Paul McCartney’s band Wings, “Listen to What the Man Said.”

During the ‘70s, Mason achieved solo success, too. His hits include infectious hipper-rocker “Only You Know and I Know,” also memorably covered by Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, the husband-and-wife soul-rock duo Mason toured with as their guitarist, as did Clapton.

Mason’s solo debut LP “Alone Together” also include blue pearls “Sad And Deep As You” and “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave.” Later on, his Chablis-hued strummer “We Just Disagree,” written by Jim Krueger, was a big hit, circa 1977.

Today, Mason remains musically active. He recently released a new version of “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” sharing vocals and guitar soloing with blues star Joe Bonamassa. The track is from a forthcoming Mason album called “A Shade of Blues.”

Loosely a blues album with covers of acts like Elmore James, it also contains original songs and at least a couple Traffic remakes boasting Bonamassa, including a bluesy take on “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys,” the title track from a 1971 LP sans Mason.

Mason was in and out of Traffic a few times. Later on, bassist Ric Grech – also part of Winwood’s short-lived band with Eric Clapton, Blind Faith – would join the fold, as would drummer Jim Gordon and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah.

Mason reunited with Traffic in 1971 for a run of shows captured on “Welcome to the Canteen.” A fantastic, underappreciated live album, “Welcome to the Canteen” featured hot runs through Traffic tunes like “Medicated Goo” as well as version of Mason solo songs like “Sad And Deep As You” and “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave.”

“That [live album is from] an attempt to do a [Traffic] album,” Mason says. “It didn’t come off. We did a few shows … I mean, it was a great band.”

Fast-forward to the 1990s. During a time Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were out of Fleetwood Mac, drummer Mick Fleetwood, a friend of Mason’s, asked him to join the Mac on vocals and guitar.

Mason lent his skills to the ‘95 Fleetwood Mac album “Time.” Although hardly essential Mac, the disc does have its moments, including Mason’s rocker “Blow by Blow.”

Asked about the dynamics inside that famously drama-filled band, Mason says, “It was all pretty much pieced together in bits and pieces. I didn’t have anything to do with the tracks that Christine [McVie, Fleetwood Mac singer/keyboardist] did, for one thing. Nothing on there was laid down with the whole band playing — at all.”

That said, Mason does have fond memories of Fleetwood’s grooves during his time in the band. “He has a great feel unique feel, which is basically the most important part for a drummer.” On tour with Fleetwood Mac, Mason says he didn’t copy Buckingham’s signature licks. “I just basically just put my own spin on things,” he says.

Over the years, Mason’s guitars of choice have included a Gibson Flying V and Firebird, Gretsch Country Gentleman, Fender Telecaster and various Stratocasters.

When Traffic did a 1994 reunion album and tour, Mason was not involved. The press release for Mason’s upcoming memoir describes his relationship with ex-bandmate Winwood as “complicated.” When I ask him about this, Mason replies, “I haven’t had a complicated relationship. He might have.”

Mason says the last time he saw Winwood was when Mason and his wife went to one of Winwood’s solo band shows, in San Diego in 2016. Looking back now at what made those early Traffic records special, Mason says it all came down to chemistry. As he puts it, “The right four guys together.”

Mason checks in for our phoner from Nashville, where he’s rehearsing for his upcoming tour, dubbed “Dave Mason’s Traffic Jam.” As one would guess, the setlist is stocked with Traffic and Mason classics, as well as “All Along the Watchtower.” His band includes keyboardist Mark Stein, known for his work with ‘60s band Vanilla Fudge.

The key to playing Traffic songs the right way? Mason says, “The same as playing Dave Mason songs — great musicians.”

Mason wrote his memoir with the help of Chris Epting, who previously cowrite rock books by the likes of Hall & Oats’ John Oates and Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen. “The book is really my journey,” Mason says. “My life until this point.” And what a journey it’s been.

Dave Mason’s Traffic Jam comes to the Oxford Performing Arts Center in Oxford, Alabama 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets start at $30 plus applicable fees via oxfordpac.org. March 29, the tour hits the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre. That show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $32 and up plus fees via ticketmaster.com. More info at davemasonmusic.com.

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