John Mayall, the pioneer of British blues whose musical collective in the 1960s, the Bluesbreakers, helped usher in a fertile period for rock and brought guitarists like Eric Clapton to prominence, has died at the age of 90. His family announced the news.
Mayall, a singer and multi-instrumentalist nicknamed “the godfather of British blues” and arranger for some of the genre’s greatest of the era, “passed away peacefully at his home in California,” his family posted on Facebook, without specifying the cause of death.
Mayall’s influence on rock in the ’60s and beyond is immense. Members of the Bluesbreakers eventually joined or formed bands including Cream, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, and many others. At the age of 30, in 1963, Mayall moved to London from northern England.
Feeling the revolution in the air, he left his career as a graphic artist to embrace a career in blues, the musical style born in Black America. He collaborated with a number of young guitarists, including Clapton, Peter Green, later of Fleetwood Mac, and Mick Taylor who helped form the Rolling Stones.
Mayall moved to California in 1968 and took a long tour of America in 1972. In the ’60s, he recorded several historic albums including “Crusade,” “A Hard Road,” and “Blues From Laurel Canyon.” Dozens more followed in the ’70s and up to his last, “The Sun Is Shining Down,” in 2022.
Mayall was awarded an OBE, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in 2005.