London — John Mayall, the British blues musician who formed the influential Bluesbreakers band that trained Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood and many other superstars, has died. He was 90.
A statement on Mayall’s Instagram page on Tuesday announced his death, saying the musician died Monday at his home in California. “The health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally brought peace to one of the world’s greatest road warriors,” the post read.
He is credited with helping to develop the British interpretation of urban, Chicago-style rhythm and blues, which played a major role in the blues revival of the late 1960s. At various times, the Bluesbreakers have included Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce (later of Cream), Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, Mick Taylor (who played in the Rolling Stones for five years), Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor of Canned Heat, and John Mark and John Almond of the Mark-Almond Band.
Mayall has claimed in interviews that he was not a talent scout, but rather played out of a love for the music he first heard on his father’s 78rpm records.
“I’m a bandleader and I know what I want to play in my band. I know who my good friends are,” Mayall told Southern Vermont Review. “It’s definitely family. It’s the little things, really.”
Small but persistent work. Mayall never quite reached the fame of his illustrious peers, but he still performed and played Chicago blues versions into his late 80s. He hated being unappreciated, and he wasn’t shy about saying it.
“I’ve never had a hit, I’ve never won a Grammy, Rolling Stone has never written about me,” he told the Santa Barbara Independent in 2013. “I’m still an underground performer.”
Mayall, known for his blues harmonica and keyboard playing, was nominated for a Grammy for “Wake Up Call,” which featured guest artists Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Mick Taylor and Albert Collins. He received a second nomination in 2022 for his album “The Sun Is Shining Down.” He was also formally recognized in the UK when he was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.
He was selected for the 2024 Rock. & His 1966 album, “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton,” which was inducted into the Rolling Stone Hall of Fame, is considered one of the greatest British blues albums.
Mayall has been asked whether he continues to play to keep up with demand or to show that he can still play.
“Well, fortunately, there’s a demand. But it’s really neither of those two things. It’s just a love of music,” he told Hawaii Public Radio. “I just get together with these guys and do the exercise.”
Mayall was born on 29 November 1933 in Macclesfield, near Manchester, in central England.
Recalling the ill-fated bluesman, Mayall once said: “I was born in Macclesfield because my father was a drinker, and that was his favourite pub.”
His father also played guitar and banjo, and his boogie-woogie piano recordings captivated his teenage son.
Mayall said he learned to play the piano one hand at a time, one year with his left hand and one year with his right, “so he wouldn’t get tangled up.”
Although piano was his primary instrument, he also played guitar and harmonica, and sang in a distinctive, strained voice. Assisted only by drummer Keef Hartley, Mayall played all the other instruments on the 1967 album “Blues Alone.”
Mayall has often been called the “father of British blues”, but when he moved to London in 1962 his aim was to absorb the nascent blues scene led by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, a sound that attracted the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Eric Burdon.
The Bluesbreakers formed a fluid community of musicians, bouncing back and forth between various bands. Mayall’s biggest catch was Clapton, who left the Yardbirds to join the Bluesbreakers in 1965 because he was dissatisfied with the commercial direction of the Yardbirds.
Mayall and Clapton shared a passion for Chicago blues, and the guitarist later recalled that Mayall had “the most incredible record collection I’d ever seen.”
Mayall tolerated Clapton’s volatility. He disappeared a few months after joining the band, but returned later that year, leaving behind new recruit Peter Green. Then in 1966 he left for good, forming Cream with Bruce. Cream was a huge commercial success, and Mayall followed suit.
Interviewed in a 2003 BBC documentary about Mayall, Clapton confessed, “I kind of used his hospitality, his band, his fame to launch my career.”
“I think he’s a great musician. I just admire and respect his determination,” Clapton added.
Mayall encouraged Clapton to sing and Green to develop his songwriting skills.
Mick Taylor, who succeeded Green as bluesbreaker in the late 1960s, valued the wide freedom Mayall allowed his soloists.
“You’ll have complete freedom to do whatever you want,” Taylor told author Jas Obrecht in a 1979 interview. “You can make as many mistakes as you want.”
Mayall’s 1968 album “Blues from Laurel Canyon” signaled a permanent move to the United States and a change of direction. He disbanded the Bluesbreakers and worked with two guitars and drums.
The following year he released “The Turning Point”, his most successful release, with a quartet acoustic lineup including Mark and Almond. “Room to Move” from that album was a frequent audience favorite in Mayall’s later career.
Although Mayall was going through a personal downturn in the 1970s, he still toured, performing more than 100 shows a year.
“Throughout the ’70s, I did most of my shows drunk,” Mayall told Dan Ouellette in a 1990 interview with Down Beat magazine. One of the consequences was that he tried to jump from a balcony into a swimming pool, missed, and broke one of Mayall’s heels, leaving him with a limp.
“That incident was what made me quit drinking,” Mayall said.
In 1982, he reformed the Bluesbreakers, recruiting Taylor and McVie, but the lineup changed again two years later. In 2008, Mayall announced that he was retiring the Bluesbreaker name permanently, and in 2013 he led the John Mayall Band.
Mayall and his second wife Maggie divorced in 2011 after 30 years of marriage. They had two sons.
