(Credits: Far Out / Fleetwood Mac)
Mon 2 February 2026 19:30, UK
As the rhythm section stalwart of one of music’s most ever-changing line-ups, Mick Fleetwood has been in the presence of many great guitarists.
Even before founding Fleetwood Mac, the drummer was a regular of the London blues scene that boasted the likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. Then, he found himself in John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers, which, for any musician trying to understand rock and roll, was as good a place as any. Led by multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter John Mayall, the band became somewhat of a breeding ground for some of the industry’s most iconic guitar players, including Peter Green.
Fleetwood would watch in marvel as Green developed from a virtuoso guitar player to a captivating songwriter and potential frontman. In Green, he had a beacon through which his own band, Fleetwood Mac, could follow and together, they penned some of the most captivating hits in the blues rock scene.
“Peter Green was every bit as much of a talent as Jimmy Page,” he once claimed, adding, “We would have had our moment in the sun together, the two of us.”
They did, but only briefly before Green spiralled into a state of LSD-induced madness and was replaced by Lindsey Buckingham. While not the blues rock god Green was, Buckingham was an iconic guitar player nonetheless. His manic finger-picking style suited his melody-driven songwriting that helped define the new era of Fleetwood Mac, and while cantankerous and uncompromising in his creative nature, he undoubtedly deserved the respect of Fleetwood himself.
But when the band’s supremacy in the music industry began to dwindle in the 1980s, a new generation of guitar players stepped forward and carried the torch lit by Fleetwood’s contemporaries.
Love it or loathe it, there was no denying that this new era of 1980s rock, which welcomed variations of pop rock and hair-metal, was championing the guitar and all of its indulgence. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Slash and Eddie Van Halen became idols of this era, capturing the imagination of those who topped the charts before them.
It was Van Halen in particular who caught Fleetwood’s eye. He said, “Eddie was someone who could grab any guitar, and he could play it upside down.”
He continued, “It’s like Jimi Hendrix. They had a magical knack [where] any old piece of nonsense guitar suddenly sounded good. He was a phenomenal, unique player beyond belief and had the magic. He had the magic.”
“We were all lucky as listeners, and as musicians and people out there that love Van Halen and love him, we were given such a great musical treat for not long enough. A great guy. Just crazy, great guy,” added Fleetwood.
There’s nothing to say that Van Halen couldn’t have become a part of the Fleetwood Mac alumni had history panned out differently. Come the 1980s, Lindsey Buckingham was rapidly testing the patience of his bandmates and flirted with the idea of leaving the band altogether. And so, given the gushing praise Fleetwood bestowed upon Van Halen, had Buckingham he done so, it’s likely that he could have got the call-up.
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