Rick Vito | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Richard Vito |
Born | Darby, Pennsylvania, U.S. | October 13, 1949
Genres | Blues, Swing, Roots rock, World |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards |
Years active | 1969 – present |
Richard Francis Vito (born October 13, 1949) is an American guitarist and singer. He was part of Fleetwood Mac between 1987 and 1991. Vito took over as lead guitarist after Lindsey Buckingham left the group. [1] He is best known for his blues and slide guitar style, whose influences include Elmore James, Robert Nighthawk, B.B. King, Alvino Rey, Les Paul, George Harrison, and Keith Richards.
Vito began his professional career in 1971 upon moving to Los Angeles and subsequently joining Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, also working with Todd Rundgren and Derek & The Dominoes’ Bobby Whitlock. Vito has been a featured player on Bob Seger's albums since 1986. He played the slide guitar solo on the Bob Seger song (and Chevy truck TV commercial), "Like a Rock". He was a long-standing member of Bonnie Raitt's touring band in the 1980s and 1990s. Vito also recorded and/ or performed with John Mayall, Jackson Browne, Little Richard, Roger McGuinn, Roy Orbison, Dobie Gray, John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Albert Collins, Dolly Parton, Maria Muldaur, Bob Seger, and many others. Vito has had ten solo CD releases and tours often in Europe and the US with his own band. He produced rockabilly singer Rosie Flores' CD, Speed of Sound. His CD/DVD production collaboration with Mick Fleetwood, Blue Again! , received a Grammy nomination in 2010. Vito is also the recipient of the W.C. Handy Blues Award. Mojo on My Side was released in Europe in 2014, and worldwide in 2015 on Delta Groove Records with two new tracks. His CD Soulshaker was released on 5 April 2019; his latest and 11th solo CD, Cadillac Man, was released March 22, 2024. [2]
Vito performed with the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band at Byron Bay Bluesfest over Easter 2016. [3] He also participated in an all-star tribute to Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green at the London Palladium in February 2020. Billed as "Mick Fleetwood & Friends," the show highlighted Vito's guitar and vocals alongside of Billy Gibbons, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Jonny Lang, John Mayall, Christine McVie, Bill Wyman, Jeremy Spencer and more.
In 1987, Lindsey Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac before the band began their Shake the Cage Tour. [4] Mick Fleetwood then asked Rick Vito to join the group as the lead guitarist. Vito and Billy Burnette officially joined Fleetwood Mac in September 1987. [5] He first appeared on the band's 1988 Greatest Hits album, which featured Vito's playing on "As Long as You Follow" and "No Questions Asked", which were recorded specifically for the compilation. [6] He then worked with the band on their Behind the Mask album, which was released in 1990. [7] Vito quit Fleetwood Mac in November 1991 to begin working on a solo career. [8] Despite his departure from the group, Vito joined his former bandmates Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Burnette, and John McVie to play the pre-game show of Super Bowl XXVII in January 1993. [9]
Vito later joined the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band in 2008 and recorded a live album, Blue Again! , which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Blues Album in 2010. Vito split from the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band in 2017, [10] although he did perform with Fleetwood in 2021 for a performance honoring the music of Peter Green, a founding member of Fleetwood Mac. [11]
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band formed in London in 1967 by guitarist and singer Peter Green. Green recruited drummer Mick Fleetwood, guitarist and singer Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, with John McVie replacing Brunning a few weeks after the band's first public appearance at the 1967 National Jazz & Blues Festival in Windsor. The band became a five-piece in 1968 with the addition of guitarist and singer Danny Kirwan.
Michael John Kells Fleetwood is a British musician, songwriter and actor. He is the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of the group's bassist John "Mac" McVie to form the name of the band, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Fleetwood Mac in 1998.
John Graham McVie is a British bass guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock bands John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers from 1964 to 1967 and Fleetwood Mac since 1967. His surname, combined with that of drummer Mick Fleetwood, was the source for the band's name.
Behind the Mask is the fifteenth studio album by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 9 April 1990. It was the first album released by the band after the departure of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. He was replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, both guitar players, singers and songwriters. Fleetwood Mac thus became a six-piece band with four singer/songwriters.
Fleetwood Mac, also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, is the debut studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in February 1968. The album is a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who also share the vocal duties. It is the only album by the band without any involvement of keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie.
Dorsey William Burnette III is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was part of the band Fleetwood Mac from 1987 to 1996. Burnette also had a brief career in acting.
Robert Joseph Weston was a British rock guitarist, who was a member of Fleetwood Mac in the early 1970s. He also recorded and performed with a number of other musicians, including Graham Bond, Long John Baldry, Murray Head, Sandy Denny, and Danny Kirwan.
Michael William Hugh Vernon is an English music executive studio owner, and record producer from Harrow, Middlesex. He produced albums for British blues artists and groups in the 1960s, working with the Bluesbreakers, David Bowie, Duster Bennett, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Climax Blues Band, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, John Mayall, Christine McVie and Ten Years After amongst others.
25 Years – The Chain is a box set by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac originally released on 24 November 1992. The set contains four CDs, covering the history of the band from its formation in 1967 to 1992. The set features four new tracks as well as several previously unreleased studio and live tracks from the archives, while some of the classic tracks were included in different and new mixes. The four new songs were "Paper Doll", which was recorded earlier than the others as it was written by and recorded with Stevie Nicks and Rick Vito, both of whom had left the band in 1991, "Love Shines" and "Heart of Stone", both Christine McVie songs, and "Make Me A Mask", contributed by then-former member Lindsey Buckingham. "Love Shines" was released as a single to promote the box set in the UK, whereas "Paper Doll" was the single in the US.
"As Long as You Follow" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac. Performed by Christine McVie and written alongside her then-husband, Eddy Quintela, the song was one of two new tracks on the band's 1988 greatest hits album, along with "No Questions Asked". Lead guitarist Rick Vito singled out the guitar solo on "As Long as You Follow" as his best work with Fleetwood Mac.
This is a discography for Peter Green, the founder and original lead guitarist of Fleetwood Mac in the late 1960s. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he had a brief solo career, before further success in the late 1990s with the Peter Green Splinter Group.
James "Hutch" Hutchinson (born January 24, 1953)is an American session bassist best known for his work with Bonnie Raitt.Though his work takes him nearly everywhere he primarily resides in Studio City, Los Angeles, CA and Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii.
Blue Again is a live album by the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, featuring Rick Vito, released in 2008. It was recorded at The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Missouri on 8 February 2008.
Jeremy Cedric Spencer is a British musician, best known for playing slide guitar and piano in the original line-up of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. A member since Fleetwood Mac's inception in July 1967, he remained with the band until his abrupt departure in February 1971, when he joined the "Children of God", a new religious movement now known as "The Family International", with which he is still affiliated. After a pair of solo albums in the 1970s, he continued to tour as a musician, but did not release another album until 2006. He released further solo albums from 2012 onwards and has also recorded as part of the folk trio Steetley. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
"Paper Doll" is a song by the British-American band Fleetwood Mac. It was also released as a single exclusively in North America with "The Chain" as its B-side. The song's chord progression was written by Rick Vito and John Heron and the melody and lyrics were composed by Stevie Nicks. While "Paper Doll" achieved only minor success in the United States, it reached the top ten in Canada, peaking at number nine in February 1993.
"Love Is Dangerous" is a single released in 1990 by British-American band Fleetwood Mac from their album Behind the Mask. The single failed to chart on the US Hot 100, but reached number 7 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and number 70 in Canada. It was one of the album's two songs co-written by Stevie Nicks and Rick Vito. Vito recorded a solo version of the song for his album Crazy Cool in 2001.
"Rattlesnake Shake" is a song by British rock group Fleetwood Mac, written by guitarist Peter Green, which first appeared on the band's 1969 album Then Play On. The track was one of the band's crowd-favorites in the late 1960s.
The Shake the Cage Tour by the Anglo-American rock group Fleetwood Mac began on September 30, 1987, in Kansas City, Missouri, and ended on June 28, 1988, in Manchester, England. It was their first tour since 1974 without Lindsey Buckingham, who left the band in August 1987.
The Behind the Mask Tour was a worldwide concert tour by the British-American pop rock band Fleetwood Mac. The tour began on March 23, 1990, in Brisbane, Australia, and ended on December 7, 1990, in Inglewood, California.