Music

Blues legend John Mayall dead at 90

todayJuly 24, 2024 53

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A giant of the great British blues boom of the 1960s was a musical change-agent who revered and honored his forebears.

John Mayall on May 31, 1979. Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Imagesnormal

“It is with heavy hearts that we bear the news that John Mayall passed away peacefully in his California home on July 22, 2024, surrounded by his loving family,” his family confirmed in a statement Tuesday. “Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors.” A cause of death was not immediately revealed.

Born in Macclesfield, England in 1933, Mayall taught himself to play the piano, guitars and harmonica as a kid. After graduating from the Manchester College of Art, he maintained a side hustle playing with local musicians. In 1963, he founded the Bluesbreakers with drummer Peter Ward, bassist John McVie (who would later join Fleetwood Mac) and guitarist Bernie Watson. Together they helped bring the sound of American Delta blues — artists like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Elmore James — to English venues and audiences. In 1965, Eric Clapton, who’d quit the Yardbirds, joined the lineup.

John Mayall and Bluesbreakers - live TV appearance (1970)
John Mayall and Bluesbreakers - live TV appearance (1970)

The band’s lineup would shift over the years — Peter Green later of Fleetwood Mac, Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones and Jack Bruce of Cream were all members at one time, along with many others — but Mayall remained.

The Bluesbreakers remained a recording group until 1970, then stalled for 12 years. It was revived in 1982, when a “Return of the Bluesbreakers” was announced. The band dissolved for good in 2008, but Mayall continued to record and perform.

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Collectively with the Bluesbreakers and on his own, Mayall released 35 studio albums and 34 live ones. His most recent studio release arrived in 2022, titled The Sun Is Shining Down. In 2024, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category.

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The musician’s most revered body of work was his debut LP, Blues Breakers, which Rolling Stone ranked Number 195 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2003. Mayall released several albums in the Seventies after moving to Los Angeles in 1969. He was appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2016.

When a reporter once asked John Mayall about his unwavering fidelity to the blues, the music that took him from a tree house in a Manchester suburb to concert stages around the world, Mayall responded, “There’s nothing else I can play.”

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