From band beef to relationship drama to quintessentially 1970s drug-fueled escapades, Fleetwood Mac has no shortage of salacious lore surrounding their band’s decades-long history, and the time one of their founding members left the band to join a religious cult is no exception.
Fleetwood Mac began with Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer, and Bob Brunning (although, in a foreshadowing of the band’s tumultuous timeline, John McVie would replace Brunning after only a few weeks). Shortly after a bad acid trip led to Green’s departure from the band, the remaining Fleetwood Mac members were lounging in a hotel room on tour when Spencer decided to step out to buy a magazine.
He never came back.
A Quick Grocery Run Turned Into A Days-Long Police Hunt
British rock band Fleetwood Mac was touring the U.S. when they found themselves resting at the Hotel Hawaiian in Los Angeles, California. The hotel wasn’t far from Hollywood and Vine, which, according to a 1971 Rolling Stone article, served as “action central for the various God Squads.” These “God Squads” lined up on the street with various signs and chants, calling passersby to repent and save their souls.
This would’ve been the area where Jeremy Spencer walked to fetch the magazine he told his bandmates he was going to buy. But instead of finding a bookstore, he found the Children of God. Spencer never returned to the Hotel Hawaiian, prompting a frantic, days-long search by the band and police alike. Eventually, police found Spencer in the Children of God’s warehouse residence in an industrial part of Los Angeles.
When Fleetwood Mac’s road managers went to the warehouse to visit Spencer, they found a much different version of the man who had left the Hotel Hawaiian days earlier. Spencer had cut his hair, changed his clothes, and committed to leaving not only the band but his previous life in general, including his wife and two children in London. “Jesus will take care of them,” Spencer reportedly told band manager Clifford Davis. And just like that, Fleetwood Mac was down one member yet again.
Why The Fleetwood Mac Founding Member Joined The Cult
The media quickly pounced on the rock and roller-turned-cult follower storyline, and news of Jeremy Spencer’s abrupt departure from Fleetwood Mac to become a “religious zombie” began spreading like wildfire. Although he would never return to Fleetwood Mac, Spencer later admitted in an interview with Classic Rock, “The way I left was wrong and a mistake. I should’ve told them right away, but I was desperate” (via Louder Sound).
“The night before I left, we were all in Mick [Fleetwood’s] hotel room. He was very distraught, listening to this live recording of the band before Peter [Green] left.” Spencer said when his steel playing, heavily inspired by blues legend Elmore James, came in, “I blurted out, ‘This sounds like s***.’ I went to my room and just prayed to God to somehow get me out of this. Also, they were getting into cocaine. To me, that was a Stones-type drug, and the feeling of invincibility that it gave you just seemed wrong to me.”
Spencer added that after he left Fleetwood Mac for the Children of God, he prayed that the band would achieve tremendous success. Years later, after the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks propelled the group to chart-topping stardom, Spencer believed God fulfilled his request.
Jeremy Spencer’s Musical Career Following His Band Departure
“I was sad, uninspired musically, I had questions about life, death, love, my future, God—everything,” Spencer recalled (via Far Out Magazine). “I couldn’t go on with it. Bottom line, I had to leave in order to step back from the picture and get my life sorted out.” However, while Spencer might not have been prepared for the sins the rock and roll scene of the 1970s promised, he was still a musician. He quickly formed a band with fellow Children of God members, placing Christian lyrics over psych-rock arrangements.
In a 2012 DME interview, Spencer mused that perhaps Fleetwood Mac’s personnel changes prompted his departure from the band and his overnight devotion to the Children of God faith. Guitarist Danny Kirwan had joined the lineup three years prior to Spencer’s departure, and Spencer said that perhaps “his musical presence being quite strong helped to push me into reticence. God has been known to use many unusual situations to get one to reevaluate their stand regarding him.”
Spencer is still releasing music to this day. He put out his most recent singles in 2023, including “Dark Clouds Rolling,” “American Lingo,” and “Goodbye Altea.”
Photo by Crollalanza/Shutterstock
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