I first met John briefly at a couple of his gigs with John Mayall in mid 1967, and he was always pleasant, unassuming and friendly. After I joined Fleetwood Mac, I became more acquainted with him as he would drop by to visit friends in a flat where I was temporarily staying. He was not in our band at the time, and I well remember standing in the hallway of that flat trying to persuade him to join us, as he was becoming dissatisfied with Mayall’s jazzy direction and wanted to play our style of more down home Chicago blues. His gigs with Mayall were providing him with good steady income and we (Fleetwood Mac) were only just starting, but a foray into free-form jazz at one of Mayall’s gigs gave him the impetus to follow his musical convictions and fortunately join us!

It was always a pleasure to play and record with such a master of bass guitar and I have fond memories of our experiences and interesting conversations together while on the road, and we shared an interest in reading, which continues to this day. (He recently told me that he has made it a project to read all of Charles Dickens’ books! Phew!) A few years ago, I had the pleasure to renew my friendship with John after almost thirty years while visiting the Hawaiian island of Maui, where he, Mick and I were filmed for a documentary on Peter Green.