Really? That's a new one on me.

Old Man Mose was a character in the "Li'l Abner" strip. He was a hermit who lived in a cave, way up in the mountains, and the residents of Dogpatch believed him to have paranormal powers, and went to him for advice and predictions.

The problem was, it was a long, tedious walk to his cave, and he was VERY old, so there always a certain amount of apprehension that he might have 'kicked the bucket' since he was last visited.

So the title character in the song is clearly the same dude, but was the song based on the comic strip character or vice-versa?