Sir Paul McCartney has said John Mayall was a personal mentor and “great” blues pioneer who educated him on the music genre.
The musician died aged 90 at his home in California on Monday surrounded by his family, according to a statement on his Instagram page.
Beatles star Sir Paul said he received “a great education” from Mayall and found it easy to relate to him as they were both from the north of England.
In a post to Instagram, Sir Paul said: “John Mayall, the great British blues pioneer, has died aged 90 and I thought a couple of words from me would be appropriate.”
The 82-year-old said the pair would meet at music clubs in the 1960s before heading back to Mayall’s house “where he had a huge and glorious collection of records”.
“During these moments he became a mentor and would educate me on a lot of the blues guitarists playing at the time”, he said.
“I would lounge back in the armchair and he would play tracks by people like BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert King and many other great players.”
Mayall was apart of influential blues rock band The Bluesbreakers, which became a launching pad for stars including Eric Clapton and Mick Fleetwood.
Sir Paul added: “He would then play me tracks by Eric Clapton, who was later in his band The Bluesbreakers.
“The more he played, the more I could see the links between all these great guitarists.
“Besides being very entertaining, it was a great education noticing the similarities between these stunning players.
“John was a lovely, down-to-earth man from the north of England, so we found it easy to relate to each other and I will always thank him for his love of music, the blues and his willingness to turn others on to what he knew.
“Thanks John, love you!”
Following Mayall’s death, Sir Mick Jagger said in an Instagram post that Mayall had helped his band in “ushering in a new era for the Stones”, following the death of guitarist Brian Jones.
Elsewhere, rock and blues artist Clapton posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, thanking Mayall for “rescuing me from oblivion” when he wanted to quit music as teenager before joining his band.
Mayall is survived by his six children – Gaz, Jason, Red, Ben, Zak and Samson – seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here