Ex-Fleetwood Mac player has no blues about walking away

Ex-Fleetwood Mac player has no blues about walking away
June 12, 2009
BY JEFF JOHNSON
The Chicago Sun-Times

Some people think the eyes are a window to the soul. But any good slide guitarist knows it's the sound that reveals the most. Jeremy Spencer agrees.

"There's a lot of truth in that," says the founding member the first Fleetwood Mac -- a bluesier, less flamboyant band than the Buckingham-Nicks hitmaking spinoff. "That's especially true of something with a lot of heart like blues."

Consider Spencer's slide playing: sweet, gentle, playfully sensual. This is clearly a man who makes music for the sheer joy of it. And when constant touring and music industry phoniness began eating away at his soul, he took an abrupt turn one day in 1971 and walked away from stardom.

While the Mac is revered for its early material such as "Black Magic Woman" and "Rattlesnake Shake" and the glorious instrumental "Albatross," Spencer points out that the music had already begun to move in strange directions with Peter Green's acid-soaked 1970 U.K. hit "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown)."

"I wasn't keen on the direction we went into with 'Green Manalishi' and all that, which led to the birth of heavy metal," Spencer says. "It's such a shame that metal sprouted from that stuff. Death-metal bands give credit to Fleetwood Mac today."

Spencer's departure came shortly after Green, another virtuoso guitarist, left the band. Spencer left the Mac's tour in Los Angeles to join the Children of God. Green's exit, meanwhile, was chemical and psychological in origin.

During his four-decade quest for enlightenment, Spencer has retained his affinity for the classic, '50s-style Chicago blues. He was a vital cog in the British blues boom of the late '60s in which the original Mac and kindred spirits John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers spread the blues gospel in Europe.

That makes the 61-year-old Englishman's appearances at the Chicago Blues Festival particularly gratifying. The reclusive Spencer, who now lives in Ireland and Mexico, will perform at 7:20 p.m. Sunday on the Petrillo mainstage and also take part in a slide guitar workshop at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on the Route 66 Roadhouse Stage.

"I immersed myself in the music, that's for sure," he says of his days in art school. "I bought the compilation albums -- 'Texas Blues,' 'Detroit Blues,' but for me it always came back to Chicago. Maybe it's because Chicago was the first stop on railroad from the Delta. That time [the '50s] was peak, the way those guys played together."

One theme of the 26th annual fest is "Prowling Nighthawk," in honor of the centennial of the birth of Chicago slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk. Spencer is enthusiastic about teaming with fellow guitarists Lil' Ed, John Primer and Elmore James Jr. for the workshop.

"When I heard Elmore [James, father of the fest panelist], that was it, but I had the blinders on as far as other electric slide guitarists," he says. "I've just begun to appreciate people like Robert Nighthawk and the influence he had."

Before recording his first album in 27 years in 2006, "Precious Little," for Blind Pig Records, Spencer says he was inspired by a visit to the Notodden Blues Festival in Norway in 2005. He was teamed with a blues-loving local group, the Vikings. The disc announced to the world that the enigmatic, professorial-looking cult figure still had the chops -- but don't mistake that as a bid for latter-day success.

"I just like to play," he insists. "Of course you want people to appreciate it. I just don't want the stuff that comes along with it. Being a Cancer ... they like to retreat into their shell. That's their natural habitat."

The artist agreed to leave his shell for a Fleetwood Mac reunion at the Royal Albert Hall to mark the 40th anniversary of the group's first gig. But he says he felt relief at a last-minute cancellation due to Green's fragile health.

"I've had various stances over the years. Usually, the answer has been 'absolutely no.' But this time, God told me to say yes. I was sweating blood over it. I did not want to do it. I got a phone call [saying] it's off, and shouted, 'Yiippie!'"

Upon reflection, Spencer agrees that Green's 1970 departure paved the way for him to leave the Mac.

"Everything was rolling along pretty hunky-dory," he recalls. "I didn't think I could handle it anymore and felt if I didn't make a move, I probably wouldn't have survived. Still, I might not have [if not for Green] because I would have been too comfortable. We would have had a few more hits, and ... there are a lot of puzzles we'll find out about someday in heaven."