Peter Green's heartbreaking health battle as Fleetwood Mac co-founder dies at 73
The iconic guitarist passed away today at the age of 73. During his musical career Peter faced several health struggles that coincided with his rise to fame
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Fleetwood Mac co-founder and blues guitarist Peter Green has left an irreplaceable mark in the music halls of fame.
Today, news of his death at the age of 73 has left Fleetwood Mac fans shaken and led to an outpouring of tributes from the entertainment world.
Peter had an huge influence on the popular band as the guitarist behind one of the group's most iconic tunes Albatross.
However, the singer-songwriter was also plagued with health issues throughout his time in the limelight and battled schizophrenia.
Having formed Fleetwood Mac in 1967, Peter's musical talents were behind many of the rifts that propelled the band to global fame.
However in the years following the band's creation, Peter's mental health began to worsen amid claims that he was taking large amounts of LSD.
In 1968, band mate Mick Fleetwood recalled a moment that marked a turning point in Peter's mental struggles.
"I looked at Peter," Mick Fleetwood told Mojo "and saw him dead, a skeleton without flesh, but moving. I couldn't even look at the others. It was a horrible, helpless feeling.
"We'd heard about bad trips and damaged chromosomes and permanent LSD psychosis, but we hadn't the foggiest notion what to do. We began to weep and blubber for help."
In 1970, Peter's mental struggles came to a head after he took a dose of LSD at Highfisch-Kommune in Munich that his band mates noted he 'never really came back from'.
That same year, Green decided that he was leaving Fleetwood Mac.
Amid unpredictable behaviour in the years that followed, he was committed to hospital following an altercation with police officers.
Speaking about his ordeal, Peter told the LA Times : “I was throwing things around and smashing things up. 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.”
Peter was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time at a number of mental-health hospitals.
During his time under the watch pf psychiatric doctors, he also underwent electroconvulsive therapy therapy during the mid 70s.
In his interview, Peter continued: "They gave me tranquilizers, and I didn’t really know much about it. It was a struggle just to stay awake. You don’t know what you are doing. You don’t feel alive.”
Although Peter emerged back onto the music scene at the end of the 70s, the iconic guitarist later revealed that his health struggles remained.
“I still hear voices in my head,” he continued in his 1996 interview. “It is only one voice, a woman I met in the hospital. There were some scary people there, and she is pretty heavy, but I haven’t heard her for a bit.”
By the 80s, Peter had begun to contribute to his band mate's music before going onto create his own splinter group - called Peter Green's Splinter Group - that played well into the noughties.
Today his agent revealed that the London-born star had died peacefully in his sleep.
The statement 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".
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