Jeremy Spencer

Jeremy Spencer, who played slide guitar as one of Fleetwood Mac’s earliest recruits, produced a compact yet distinguished body of work overshadowed by the abruptness of his exit from the band to enter a religious movement. Born in West Hartlepool, England, on July 4, 1948, he began piano instruction at nine, took up guitar at fifteen in imitation of his rock-and-roll heroes, and the next year encountered Elmore James, whose style became his dominant model. Joining the still-forming Fleetwood Mac in 1967 as its fourth member, Spencer focused chiefly on slide guitar while also handling piano duties and supplied a central element of the band’s initial blues-rock character, audible on the 1968 release Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and the 1969 album English Rose. Possessing a keen ear for mimicry, he inserted lighthearted recreations of vintage rock-and-roll idioms into the group’s concerts; in 1970 he issued a self-titled solo album on Reprise that contained affectionate parodies spanning rockabilly, teen-idol ballads, surf music, Elvis Presley, psychedelia, and Fleetwood Mac itself. Kiln House, also released in 1970, marked his final appearance on a Mac recording.

Hours before the Los Angeles date of the band’s American tour in early 1971, Spencer disappeared without notice; five days afterward authorities located him at the Children of God compound, where he had been drawn after a street encounter and decided to remain. Although he had always held religious inclinations, Spencer later explained that the band’s rising success had left him feeling spiritually adrift, and his sudden withdrawal placed the remaining members in a difficult position. They were forced to summon the already fragile Peter Green, who had departed the previous year, to finish the dates, while the loss of Spencer—who had served as the primary connection to the group’s blues-rock origins—precipitated a prolonged period of stylistic uncertainty.

Reappearing in 1973, Spencer released Jeremy Spencer & the Children on CBS, an album shaped by psychedelic and folk-rock textures and given entirely to expressions of his adopted beliefs. Returning to London in 1975, he assembled the blues-rock ensemble Albatross, composed of fellow Children of God members, and in 1979 issued another solo effort, Flee, on Atlantic. Although he issued no further recordings for decades, Spencer maintained an active performing and touring schedule and directed considerable energy toward charitable work. As the century ended he traveled to India on three occasions—in 1995, 1998, and 2000—gathered material for an instrumental project, and continued as a participant in the Family, the later designation of the Children of God. Then, after more than thirty years away from the studio, he issued the well-received Precious Little on Blind Pig Records in 2006; the set had first appeared on Norway’s Bluestown label, indicating that Spencer’s recording career had not concluded.