Dave Walker

Dave Walker was hired by Fleetwood Mac in 1972. He had been the Dave Walkerlead singer of Savoy Brown, and they had established quite a following in America "playing blues boogie in the heavy metal style of those metal monsters, Grand Funk Railroad." After Danny Kirwan was let go, Fleetwood Mac recruited Walker as a 'front-man vocalist.'

Like Christine McVie, Walker's roots were in Birmingham, England, and he shared a similar musical background with FM. He even knew Chris' ex-Chicken Shack-mates Andy Sylvester and Dave Bidwell. After touring the U.S. in late 1972, Walker and the rest of the band recorded Penguin , which was released in the spring of 1973. His contribution to the album was minimal, and he seemed to spend more time in the pub than in the studio. Christine McVie and Bob Welch tried to write material for him, but Walker tended to make the songs sound more like Savoy Brown than Fleetwood Mac. As Welch recalls: "The light finally dawned on us that we were throwing away what FM had been, that we weren't Savoy Brown." Walker "was aware of the other's growing resentment over his inability to either hack it in the spotlight or contribute to their repertoire," and he was asked to leave the band by mid-1973. Walker went on to join Black Sabbath in the fall of 1977 as Dave Walker, 2000; Photo provided by Brian Meachama replacement for Ozzy Osbourne, but left in February 1978 upon Ozzy's return. Walker did not appear on any Black Sabbath albums, but played live once on BBC's "Top of the Pops" and was involved in a primitive version of "Junior's Eyes".

Currently, Dave Walker is living in Montana but has been working the small clubs in England doing mostly acoustic gigs and getting a very good reception. He will be traveling back to England in a few months to play more acoustic shows with a small band in some of the smaller venues.