Peter Green,the co-founding guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, passed away in his sleep in the early morning hours today. One of the most highly regarded guitarists of his time, Green started playing guitar at 10, but he played bass in his first two bands and started in his third, the Tridents, as the bassist before turning some heads when he got to play lead guitar filling in for Eric Clapton on a short string of dates in 1965 with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. When EC left the Bluesbreakers the following year, Mayall brought Green in on a full-time basis. In 1967 Green parted ways with Mayall to form Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer and dummer Mick Fleetwood.

 

Among the songs Green wrote for the early era Fleetwood Mac are Black Magic Woman, Oh Well and Albatross.

He left the band after joining a commune in Germany during a 1970 European tour, but rejoined for a 1971 reunion tour that also included Spencer, who had left the band at about the same time Green had.

 

Following that tour, Green resumed a reclusive life for the better part of the decade and was musically engaged on only a sporadic basis through the following decades. It would be 1997 before he resumed a musical career, forming a band with Cozy Powell that released several albums over a seven year period. In 2009, he formed Peter Green and Friends.

 

Last year, Mick Fleetwood organized a tribute to his early band mate.

 

RIP, Peter Green