David Gilmour’s Concern About Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green

Despite the intense drama they’ve gone through throughout their long-term career spanning over five decades, Fleetwood Mac has somehow managed to stay together. The famous band has established itself as one of the most prominent rock acts over the years thanks to their highly commercially successful albums, which brought them widespread acclaim and worldwide recognition.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that if it were another band, it probably wouldn’t have survived to this day, considering the turbulent times and the mishaps that Fleetwood Mac has undergone. The radical stylistic evolutions, constant lineup changes, personal issues among the band members, emotional maelstroms, and their struggles with addiction were some of the many things the band has had to deal with. Besides those, losing a founding member was also challenging for the remaining names.

When Did Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green Pass Away?

The late musician Peter Green formed Fleetwood Mac in 1967 along with the drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer. During the band’s early years, Green stood out as a prominent songwriter and put his signature on many original compositions. He wrote many Fleetwood Mac hits like ‘Black Magic Woman,’ ‘Albatross,’ ‘Oh Well,’ and ‘Man of the World.’ While the band had started to gain wider recognition, Peter Green struggled with mental health issues.

As his mental health deteriorated over time, he began delivering more unreliable performances, and the guitarist eventually left the band in 1970. Even though he had brief reunions with the band, he never officially reunited again. Unfortunately, Green died on July 25, 2020, at the age of 73. However, as a founding member, the guitarist was always given credit by his former bandmates despite his short tenure with the band. Mick Fleetwood even organized a special concert to honor the legacy of Green, which made David Gilmour concerned about one thing.

Why Was David Gilmour Worried About Peter Green?

Around six months before Peter Green’s death, Fleetwood Mac founder Mick Fleetwood organized a concert to honor the band’s early days and former member Peter Green. The special event took place at the London Palladium on February 25, 2020. The concert featured many notable artists like Kirk Hammett, Billy Gibbons, Pete Townshend, Steven Tyler, Noel Gallagher, David Gilmour, and more.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in March 2021, Mick Fleetwood discussed how he pieced together all these names for the Peter Green tribute show. When asked about David Gilmour, the drummer explained that he knew Gilmour was interested in Green’s music although he didn’t know him well. So, he reached out to him to learn whether he would want to be a part of that special event.

However, Gilmour was initially concerned about participating in the concert because he didn’t know how to interpret Green’s distinctive sound. Despite his excitement, the Pink Floyd guitarist wasn’t sure whether he could’ve handled it properly. Fleetwood tried to encourage him by saying that he definitely could. Yet, Gilmour still wanted to take some time to think about the offer. After some time, when the drummer called him again, David Gilmour said he was now ready to perform. The guitarist played the 1968 Fleetwood Mac instrumental, ‘Albatross.’

Mick Fleetwood’s statements about David Gilmour’s concern are as follows:

“But he had so much reverence for Peter Green’s playing and who Peter was and the songs. He initially got cold feet. He was like, ‘I don’t know if I can interpret Peter’s work. It’s so amazing. Maybe I can’t do that.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about? Of course, you can.’ He said, ‘At the moment I’m sort of passing on the idea because of what I’m discussing with you here. But later on, if this happens, I may gather enough courage.’ And at least a year and a half later, I called him back and he said, ‘I’m ready and I really want to do this.’ Which was huge.”

Below, you can watch David Gilmour’s ‘Albatross’ performance at the tribute concert.