John Mayall, the English blues artist whose band The Bluesbreakers helped launch the careers of many now-famous musicians, died at his home in California on Monday. He was 90. “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,” the statement on his website reads. “John Mayall gave us ninety years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire and entertain.”
Born in 1933, Mayall was drawn to the blues from an early age and taught himself to play ukulele, guitar, piano and harmonica listening to classic Chicago and Delta blues records. He bought his first guitar in Japan while serving his country in Korea in the ’50s and when he got back to England and enrolled in Manchester College he played in his first band. Over the next few years he would lead a series of bands before forming The Bluesbreakers who would begin performing regularly at the London’s famed Marquee Club in 1963.
One of Mayall’s greatest gifts was spotting young talent and The Bluesbreakers ever-changing lineup at various points included John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green who would go on to be in Fleetwood Mac; Eric Clapton who had just quit The Yardbirds (and helped raise the profile of the Bluesbreakers); Clapton’s future Cream bandmate Jack Bruce; drummers Aynsley Dunbar and Keef Hartley; Mick Taylor (later of The Rolling Stones), and more. Clapton once said, “John Mayall has actually run an incredibly great school for musicians.”
In 1970, Mayall disbanded the Bluesbreakers and moved to the United States where he continued to make music with an ever-rotating cast of musicians. He reformed The Bluesbreakers in 1982 and kept them going through 2008, and then brought them back again in 2020. Mayall released over 50 records during his long career and was made an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.
“We, the Mayall family, cannot thank his fans and long-list of bandmembers enough for the support and love we were blessed to experience secondhand over the last six decades,” his family wrote.
Rest in peace, John.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgFnanqmPXA&list=PLzEG2f9QAl8MXFkg9FMmhFn4jTqV4vwZz