The Munich accident

[dino]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

The only thing I see as being somewhat universally true, though, is that people who had been close to Peter noticed an almost immediate change afterwards. Not JUST Mick, but John, Christine, Jenny Fleetwood, and others have commented over the years that there was a stark change in Peter's personality. Given what is known about schizophrenia, he met all of the high risks (i.e. a somewhat introverted, uncertain male with life-long religious issues under the age of 25 suddenly in the spotlight, not exactly sure how to cope with it, who was using hard drugs). It wouldn't really take a lot to get somebody like Peter, or Danny, to that point.

Whether or not he was going to leave Fleetwood Mac is almost irrelevant, the fact that he was digging graves by 1972 says a lot. (I'd argue that there were fixations on death and money.) People leave bands all the time and go on with careers at the same time as their old band. Hell, people have left FLEETWOOD MAC and still gone on with careers (i.e. everybody who joined after Danny Kirwan). Bob Welch wasn't digging graves two years after quitting Fleetwood Mac. There was never a point where Bob was this guy on Monday, but was this other guy by Friday, which WAS the case with Peter.

The same old, same old. Disagree with all of that. Peter responsibly finished all the gigs Mac had booked before he left. He continued to be a very active musician up until late 1972 or so.
What his band members might have noted in that period was a shift in his attitude towards music. He wanted out of the corporate music business and play free music. It's highly unlikely one night in a Munich castle led him down this path, but tiredness from touring and a gradual disillusionment with the business. That's not LSD damage, that's a change in lifestyle and priorities, possibly influenced by drug use.

And he didn't work as a "gravedigger", he was a gardener at a cemetary. Is gardener a somehow ugly or crazy profession as you seem to imply? The music business is a much "sicker" business.