Gibbons, not surprisngly, is quick to sing Green’s praises. King - and I don’t want that to be forgotten.” Fleetwood Mac, like Billy and ZZ Top, started off playing blues shuffles and emulating our blues heroes - Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Eddie Boyd, B.B. “Talk to Billy Gibbons and he’ll tell you that, much like himself, Fleetwood Mac’s members had grown up listening to American blues and that African-American culture was a connective way before we met. “It kind of hit me at the concert that not only was it connected to Peter - someone I knew really well, musically and personally - but that everyone on that stage was connected to Peter, whether they knew him (personally) or not. “I have a quite lovely, presumptive feeling that George might well have walked on that stage, played ‘Sun King’ and explained how it influenced The Beatles,” said Fleetwood, who spent several years planning the tribute in between his tours with Fleetwood Mac. It was later cited as a direct inspiration by George Harrison for The Beatles’ similarly atmospheric “Abbey Road” album song, “Sun King.”įleetwood, who was Harrison’s brother-in-law for most of the 1970s, is convinced that - had the former Beatle not died in 2001 - he could very well have volunteered to perform a song at the 2020 concert honoring Green. Witness Fleetwood Mac’s dreamy 1968 instrumental, “Albatross,” which topped the singles charts in England. The music that resulted influenced artists on both sides of the Atlantic, from the young Carlos Santana in San Francisco to The Beatles in London. By 1968, he began to deftly add elements of Latin music, rockabilly, jazz and more. Green quickly established the new band, whose first album was credited to “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac,” as one of England’s top blues attractions.
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“There was no inclination to form Fleetwood Mac when any of us were in the Bluesbreakers,” the 73-year-old drummer said, speaking from his home in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. But Fleetwood is quick to stress that he, Green and McVie never had a plan to leave Mayall, who also performed at last year’s tribute concert. Green named the new band after Mayall’s soon-to-be-former rhythm section of drummer Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. Green formed Fleetwood Mac in 1967 with two other members of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the band in which the then-teenaged guitarist had replaced Eric Clapton in 1965 and again in 1966. King once told Fleetwood that Green was the only English guitarist whose playing “made me sweat - he had the sweetest tone.” Thankfully, there is much to celebrate about Green’s short but inspirational musical heyday. That his music endures is as undeniable as the fact that Green, sadly, started his downward spiral as a young man and never recovered in his lifetime. 1,” which has been covered by everyone from Haim and Aerosmith to Jason Isbell and the late Tom Petty) and “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown),” which has been covered by such bands as Judas Priest, The Melvins and Corrosion of Conformity. As a young man, he wrote and sang such enduring Fleetwood Mac classics as “Black Magic Woman,” which became a worldwide hit for Santana, “Oh Well, Pt. “Peter Green was most likely unaware of how significant his contributions remain, yet there are legions of us who still follow the path he trod so early on,” Gibbons said via email.Ī famously troubled soul, Green was 73 when he died in his sleep in July. Gibbons, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Oasis co-founder Noel Gallagher to The Who’s Pete Townshend, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, original Fleetwood Mac guitarist Jeremy Spencer and three current members of the band Green once led - Fleetwood, Christine McVie and Neil Finn.
It debuts April 24 on-demand on and is released April 30 in Blu-Ray, CD and vinyl formats. He is saluted by an all-star lineup in the new concert film, DVD and double-album, “Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green and the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac,” which was held in 2020.
Few music legends have burned as brightly or faded as quickly and tragically as the late Peter Green, the brilliant guitarist, singer and songwriter who in 1967 founded the English blues band Fleetwood Mac and steered it to rock stardom before quitting in 1970.