(CelebrityAccess) — Peter Green, the English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist who co-founded Fleetwood Mac and struggled with mental health, has died. He was 73.
A statement from a representative for his family said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Peter Green announce his death this weekend, peacefully in his sleep.”
“A further statement will be provided in the coming days.”
Green, who hailed from East London, formed Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood in 1967 after the two musicians met in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
Green penned some of the group’s best known early hits, including “Albatross,” “Black Magic Woman,” and “Oh Well.”
However, as the band gained acclaim, Green began experimenting with psychedelic drugs such as LSD and left the group abruptly after a performance in 1970. He was later diagnosed with chizophrenia and spent time in a mental institution where he underwent electroconvulsive shock therapy.
In the 1980s, he began to re-emerge professionally, and by the next decade, he formed a new band The Peter Green Splinter Group with Nigel Watson and Cozy Powell.
The group released nine albums but parted ways in 2004 after Green dropped out of the group ahead oa tour and in the midst of recording a new album.
He next agreed to tour with the The British Blues All Stars bgut the tour was canceled following the death of saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith.
More recently, he performed with Peter Green and Friends, which included the likes of Mike Dodd, Geraint Watkins, Matt Radford, Andrew Flude, and Martin Winning. The group toured Europe and the UK in 2009 but did not record.
Green was briefly married to Jane Samuels and the couple had a daughter together before divorcing in 1979.
As a co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, Green was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
