Peter Green Caricature

Peter Green Caricature, illustrated here at Chess Records Studio in June 1969, age 23 with his 1959 Les Paul.

Peter Allen Greenbaum is an English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist and a co-founder of Fleetwood Mac.

Green was a major figure in the “second great epoch” of the British blues movement. B.B. King commented, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.” Eric Clapton has praised his guitar playing; he is noted for his use of string bending, vibrato, and economy of style.

He began playing professionally by the age of fifteen. He first played bass guitar in a band called Bobby Dennis and the Dominoes. Green had the opportunity to fill in for Eric Clapton in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers band for three concerts. Soon after, when Clapton left the Bluesbreakers, Green became a full-time member of Mayall’s band.

In 1967, Green decided to form his own blues band and left the Bluesbreakers. Green’s new band, with former Bluesbreaker Mick Fleetwood on drums and Jeremy Spencer on guitar, was initially called “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer”. By September 1967, John McVie had replaced Bob Brunning on bass.

Their second studio album Mr. Wonderful was released in 1968 and continued the formula of the first album. In the same year they scored a hit with Green’s “Black Magic Woman” (later covered by Santana), followed by the guitar instrumental “Albatross” (1969), which reached number one in the British singles charts.
More hits written by Green followed, including “Oh Well”, “Man of the World” (both 1969) and the ominous “The Green Manalishi” (1970). The double album Blues Jam in Chicago (1969) was recorded at the Chess Records Ter-Mar Studio in Chicago.

In 1970, Green’s bandmates began to notice changes in his state of mind. He was taking large doses of LSD, grew a beard and began to wear robes and a crucifix. After a final performance on May 20, 1970, Green left Fleetwood Mac.

By 1973, Green’s mental illness and drug use had become entrenched and he faded into professional obscurity. Green was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time in psychiatric hospitals undergoing electroconvulsive therapy during the mid-1970s.

In 1979, Green began to re-emerge professionally and produced a string of solo albums starting with 1979’s In the Skies. He also made an uncredited appearance on Fleetwood Mac’s double album Tusk, on the song “Brown Eyes”, released the same year.

As a co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.