Musician Danny Kirwan, onetime guitarist for British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, died on Friday at the age of 68. Former bandmate Mick Fleetwood announced Kirwan’s death in a Facebook post Friday. No cause of death has been given. “Today was greeted by the sad news of the passing of Danny Kirwan in London, England,†he wrote. “Danny was a huge force in our early years. His love for the Blues led him to being asked to join Fleetwood Mac in 1968, where he made his musical home for many years.â€
Having joined the band when he was just 18 years old, the London-born Kirwan played on five Fleetwood albums, including Then Play On (1969), Blues Jam at Chess/Fleetwood Mac in Chicago (1969), Kiln House (1970), Future Games (1971) and Bare Trees (1972), before being fired in 1972, reportedly because of alcoholism and the band’s contentious interpersonal relationships. Kirwan was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with his bandmates in 1998. Wrote Fleetwood, “Danny’s true legacy, in my mind, will forever live on in the music he wrote and played so beautifully as a part of the foundation of Fleetwood Mac, that has now endured for over fifty years.â€