Christine McVie described Fleetwood Mac’s original leader, Peter Green, as a “musical genius”, recalling the extraordinary influence he had during the band’s late-1960s blues period. Her comments underline Green’s importance to the group’s foundations, even though its later global success came after his departure and the arrival of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

McVie said Green developed a distinctly British blues style on Fleetwood Mac’s 1969 album *Then Play On*, but believed his artistic potential went unfinished. Green co-founded the band with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, left in 1970 amid burnout, drug-related difficulties and psychiatric treatment, and was later regarded as one of rock’s great unrealised possibilities.