Sunday, July 5, 2026

Peter Green, Heart of the Original Fleetwood Mac, Dies at 73, Wrote Santana Hit “Black Magic Woman”

Share

★ Make Showbiz411 your Preferred Source on Google

Not to knock the second iteration of Fleetwood Mac with Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks but the original group featured Peter Green and Danny Kirwan. Green died today at age 73. He left the group in the early 70s and suffered from schizophrenia. Reports say he passed peacefully in his sleep.

Peter Green wrote “Black Magic Woman” for Fleetwood Mac, and and then Carlos Santana covered it on “Abraxas” and became an enormous classic hit forever. Green also wrote other early Mac classics like “Oh Well” and “Albatross.”

This was all before Fleetwood Mac became a soap opera in which all the members slept with each other and fought in public. These songs, and “Hypnotized,” “Bare Trees,” even “Heroes Are Hard to Find” plus all the bluesy deep album tracks were what made the group. That was my Fleetwood Mac. RIP Peter. Peace, at last.

 

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News