Mick Likes Ron Thompson
 

Excerpt fromarticle on Ron Thompson in the Monterey County Weekly, 8-14-08:

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/...live/1/@@index

Another big fan of Thompson’s is Fleetwood Mac’s founding member and drummer Mick Fleetwood. Fleetwood was so impressed with Thompson’s playing that he formed a blues band with the guitarist called Mick Fleetwood’s Blue Whale.

In a 1995 Los Angeles Times article called “Whale-Balanced Career,” Fleetwood describes his musical and personal relationship with Thompson. “I’m a very big fan of Ron’s, and we’ve become very close friends over the years,” he says. “It’s sort of an unlikely marriage. I think he was shocked at first by this strange Englishman he didn’t quite understand. He was at least aware of [original Fleetwood Mac guitarist] Peter Green’s work from the old days of the Mac, so it helped lessen this bizarre connection. He’s very down to earth, and he’s come up the hard way. He knows his stuff. He comes from this genre of music. He’s not a lightweight, and that’s what really struck up this relationship.”

I was going to see Mick Fleetwood's Blue Whale at a small club here in Long Beach called the "Blue Cafe" (where I've subsequently seen Rick Vito numerous times)...but I came down with the flu two days before the show and missed it.

It's interesting to finally read about another member of the band, since I had no clue who the personnel of the Blue Whale was at the time.