Highlights
- Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac’s original guitarist, abruptly left the band.
- Green took on menial jobs and shunned material wealth.
- Green’s mental health deteriorated.
With multiple chart-topping hits and a legacy spanning decades, Fleetwood Mac has unquestionably earned its reputation as one of the most successful bands in history. However, that doesn’t mean that the band hasn’t witnessed its fair share of controversy, particularly regarding its all-too-frequent lineup shakeups.
From guitarist Jeremy Spencer, who left the band after allegedly getting kidnapped and brainwashed by a cult, to Lindsey Buckingham, whose 2018 ousting spiraled into a lawsuit, the band has witnessed multiple dramatic exits over the years.
Yet, few luminaries have departed under circumstances quite as bizarre and unsettling as Peter Green; the band’s original guitarist and founder. Just as the band’s music was poised to conquer the mainstream, Green abruptly left, giving away most of his possessions and taking on menial jobs to sustain himself. So, what exactly compelled the now-deceased guitarist to make such a drastic move?
Why Did Fleetwood Mac’s Original Guitarist Peter Green Leave The Band?
Fleetwood Mac might have become increasingly popular in the 1970s, thanks primarily to the soft rock sound brought along by the likes of Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham. But there was a time when the band was known for a completely different sound.
Founded in 1967 by Peter Green alongside Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer, and John McVie, the band’s original iteration, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer, was known for its heavy blues-rock sound that heavily relied on Green’s guitar work.
The band experienced a modicum of success with Green at the helm, particularly with the release of the chart-topping guitar instrumental ‘Albatross’ in 1969. However, that very year, while on a European tour, Green made some choices that dramatically and irreversibly altered the course of his life.
“We were touring Europe in late 1969. When we were in Germany, Peter told me he had been invited to a party,” the band’s manager at the time, Clifford Davis, once said per FarOut Magazine. “I knew there were going to be a lot of drugs around and I suggested that he didn’t go. But he went anyway and I understand from him that he took what turned out to be very bad, impure LSD. He was never the same again.”
At the peak of the band’s success, Green made the drastic decision to walk away. “It was a freedom thing,” the now-deceased guitarist would later share with the Los Angeles Times in a 1996 interview. “I wanted to go and live on a commune in Germany. In the end I never did, but I had to get away. Acid had a lot to do with it.”
Peter Green Took On Menial Jobs For Years After Leaving Fleetwood Mac
Before his dramatic exit from the band, Peter Green had adopted some hardcore religious views, draping himself in robes and crucifixes and shunning all material possessions. The now-deceased guitarist’s adversarial relationship with wealth even inspired his ominous final single with the band, ‘Green Manalishi.’
“I was dreaming I was dead and I couldn’t move, so I fought my way back into my body. I woke up and looked around,” he shared of the single with Mojo Magazine. “It was very dark and I found myself writing a song. It was about money; The Green Manalishi is money.”
Two years after leaving the band, RollingStone reported that the guitarist had started selling off all his possessions. “I don’t know what I’m going to do for the future,” he told the outlet. “My ideas change from day to day. I want to get rid of my money. Money is a drag, it’s being happy that matters.”
According to the outlet, the famed guitarist had completely abandoned music, opting to work as a hospital porter for a measly $50 a week. “Some days this job makes me very happy,” he said at the time.
Green would continue to shun music and material wealth well into the mid-1970s, taking on odd jobs and often having to bed down with friends just to get by.
“It was drugs that influenced me a lot,” the famed guitarist would later say of his erratic behavior, according to Far Out Magazine. “I took more than I intended to. I took LSD eight or nine times. The effect of that stuff lasts so long. I wanted to give away all my money. I went kind of holy – no, not holy, religious. I thought I could do it. I thought I was all right on drugs. My failing!”
Peter Green Spent Some Time In Psychiatric Care After Leaving Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac continued to dominate the charts long after Peter Green’s dramatic exit, and it wasn’t long before their 1960s musical catalogue also became immensely popular with fans. With this increased interest came considerable financial success, which meant that Green was owed some massive royalty checks for his early contributions to the band.
However, the unexpected financial windfall didn’t sit well with Green, only serving to intensify his already hostile relationship with money. Fed up with the ceaseless cascade of royalty checks, Green stormed into Fleetwood Mac’s accountant David Simmons’ office, wielding a shotgun, determined to halt the relentless onslaught of cash. Simmons made the call, and Green was swiftly hauled off to jail.
“I was throwing things around and smashing things up,” Green would later tell The Los Angeles Times of the incident. “I smashed the car wind screen. The police took me to the station and asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital. I said yes because I didn’t feel safe going back anywhere else.”
Unfortunately, Green’s brush with the law was just the prologue to his torment. Throughout much of the late 1970s and 1980s, Green found himself confined to various mental institutions, undergoing some rather intensive treatments for drug-induced schizophrenia. It wasn’t until the 1990s that he was eventually released into the sanctuary of his family’s care, making some tentative comebacks in the 2000s, before yet again retreating to obscurity.
Source: NewsFinale
