Irish News: Jeremy Spencer Interview

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Former Fleetwood Mac star Spencer tells all
By Trevor Hodgett, 04/07/09

IN 1971 guitarist Jeremy Spencer was at the centre of one of rock music’s greatest ever mysteries. On tour in Los Angeles with Fleetwood Mac, who having had British hits like Albatross and The Green Manalishi were on the brink of cracking America, Spencer left the band’s hotel to stroll to a nearby bookshop – and never returned.

Days later he was tracked down to the headquarters of the Children of God, who were characterised as a sinister sect who had targeted Spencer on the street and had brainwashed him.

Nearly 40 years later Spencer is still with the organisation, who have been renamed the Family International, but he is once again playing blues music and has just released an acclaimed album, Precious Little.

Spencer is keen to clarify the circumstances of his sensational departure from Fleetwood Mac. “It was a clearly thought through and prayed through decision,” he insists. “I had been asking God for a way out for almost a year.

“When a member of the Children of God approached me and sang me a song about Jesus something in my heart was saying, ‘This is the answer to your prayers. Go’. He invited me back to the Children of God mission and I went and have stayed with them to this day.

“It may not fit in with the popular idea of joining a ‘cult’ and getting ‘brainwashed’ but I had asked God to show me where to go with my life and He did.”

Fleetwood Mac barely survived Spencer’s sudden departure. “My method of leaving wasn’t the wisest but I was desperate and I needed answers,” says Spencer. “I felt bad I had left them in the lurch but over the ensuing years I desperately prayed for them to have success beyond anything they had experienced and I believe God answered my prayers because they went on to become one of the biggest bands ever.”

Spencer’s role in Fleetwood Mac had been a strange one. His Elmore James-influenced slide playing and rock’n’roll pastiches provided some of the highlights of the band’s gigs but he didn’t play on classic hits such as Man Of The World and Oh Well. “I was happy to get up there every night and dash off a few Elmore James or Homesick James numbers along with an Elvis impersonation,” he declares. “But creatively I was uninspired. I felt lost in the musical environment that was developing on the hippy scene.

“[Bandleader/guitarist] Peter Green would invite me to the recording sessions saying he had a slide part for me but I figured if he knew the part, he should just go ahead and do it himself so I wouldn’t show up and after a while he gave up.”

Spencer’s Precious Little album was recorded in Norway with local musicians whom he had never met. “I was a little apprehensive,” he admits, “but after five minutes of playing together in the studio I was convinced. It was like when you hear those fifties Chicago blues tracks by Otis Rush and Elmore James where it sounds like the musicians are ‘breathing’ together, instinctively making room for each other. It’s just miraculous really. When I told [Fleetwood Mac drummer] Mick [Fleetwood] about this he said it was like I had gold dust in my hand because that hardly ever happens.”

Spencer believes his playing is now more profound than in his rock star days. “I believe I play the blues with a deeper passion and understanding than before,” he says. “I feel it more, not because I’m sad but because it seems to come from my heart more naturally and spontaneously. I like to play blues more than ever, as I feel I have something transcendent to transmit through it that I did not feel before. I’m shocked when I hear stuff I’ve done recently played back, by the phrasing and silences, and I wonder, ‘How I’m ever going to duplicate that?’”

Spencer, now living near Portlaoise, continues to work for the Family. “I’m mostly engaged in illustrating in-house publications doing comic strips and I also write stories for young people,” he explains. “That’s my bread and butter. It’s a fulfilling, full-time job so I don’t have much time for the music biz.”

What sort of life, one wonders, would Spencer be living now, if he hadn’t met that Children of God missionary in LA when he was a young, confused rock star. “I don’t think I would be living at all,” he says bluntly. “And if I was alive I most likely would not have expanded my talents or learned much from life, love and experiences and certainly would not be getting as much pleasure out of playing slide guitar as I do now.”