The Strange Case Of Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac & The Children Of God

One of the sixties most successful bands, Fleetwood Mac had more than their fair share of Rock Bottoms. The most notorious of these concerns their brilliant lead guitarist and vocalist, Peter Green.

Green had served his musical apprenticeship with such bands as John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and had established himself as a master of the craft of Blues Guitar. It is said that BB King himself once declared Green to be the “only one that brings me out in the cold sweats”.

Green’s success came with strings attached however, as he became more and more uncomfortable with the trappings of success. He wrote and performed the one of the band’s most successful singles “Albatross” which reached the top of the UK single charts in February 1969. 

Fame and fortune followed, as most rock stars would wish for, but Green wanted none of it, at one point trying to convince his fellow band members that they should give their money away.

The events which led to Green leaving the band were more complex though, and remain the subject of controversy. In March 1970 Fleetwood Mac had arrived at Munich in Germany where they were touring and were met by members of a commune, (highfisch commune).

It seems that Peter was taken to the commune where he jammed with other musicians and, it has been suggested, was given large quantities of strong drugs, probably LSD.

Whatever happened at that time, and it is unclear as to the fine details, Peter didn’t seem the same afterwards and soon after he left Fleetwood Mac and, to all intents and purposes, disappeared from the music scene altogether.

During his years away from the business, Peter was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and was treated in psychiatric hospitals with various treatments including the highly unpleasant electroconvulsive therapy. His condition did not improve very much and he was arrested in 1977 for threatening his accountant with a shotgun, an incident which resulted in his being once again confined to a psychiatric hospital.

Finally, however, with the help of a very supportive family and some good friends, he did begin to emerge as a musician again in the late 1970’s. His brother Michael was particularly supportive and helped Peter to secure a recording contract in 1979 with the PVK label. 

It is said that he also made an appearance on Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” album which was released that year although his contribution, (to the song “Brown Eyes”) was not credited.

Since then, Peter has toured extensively, first with his band “Splinter Group” and subsequently “Peter Green & Friends” and he remains active to this day.

Fleetwood Mac has been a massively successful enterprise spanning 5 decades but not without it’s problems. Peter’s departure and subsequent illness apart, they have had numerous problems to deal with including the disappearance of guitarist Jeremy Spencer during a tour of the USA in February 1971.

It transpired that Jeremy had joined a religious movement, the “Children Of God” and would not be playing with the band any more. Fleetwood mac were able to complete the tour however as Peter Green agreed to stand in for a limited time until a replacement was found. 

Please see the following posts for more details of this and other Fleetwood Mac RockBottoms.

• Jeremy Spencer disappears and joins religious group
• Never work with children, animals or your spouse!
• Will the real Fleetwood Mac please stand up

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