One of Metal’s Biggest Bands Covered Fleetwood Mac, and No One Noticed

Published Jun 16, 2026, 1:50 PM EDT

Nicholas Kobe is a music journalist with experience interviewing, writing news, and covering live shows of artists in rock, metal, and pop music. 

He has interviewed a wide array of artists, including Rock and Roll Hall of Famers and Grammy winners. He has also covered major festivals, concerts, and other live music events. 

Nicholas has been consitently working as a journalist in student and/or professional settings for over four years.

He has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Ohio University been an intern for PEOPLE, and JustNLife

In 1978, Judas Priest released Killing Machine (re-titled to Hell Bent for Leather in the United States), an album that would feature a cover of one of the most popular rock bands of the 70s. A band that, just a year earlier, in 1977, had released one of the greatest rock albums of all time, all while the interpersonal lives of the band members were falling apart. Fleetwood Mac isn’t exactly the first band you think of when you think of heavy metal. That’s probably because most fans jump to the aforementioned Rumors. However, Fleetwood Mac has a long history, even before key members like Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine McVie joined. Judas Priest pulled from this extensive back catalog when they decided to cover the early Fleetwood Mac song, “The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown).

The Green Manalishi Spawns Out of Peter Green’s Inner Turmoil

“The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)” began life as a non-album single, later added to deluxe editions of Then Play On. At the time, the main influence on the band was their original founder, and guitar virtuoso, Peter Green. Green was well-connected with the “British Blues Bloom,” a scene that would spawn the likes of Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin a sound that can be heard clearly in Fleetwood Mac's earliest work. “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)” represents the end of Green’s time with Fleetwood Mac. The song was inspired by an LSD trip that Green took, in which the singer was barked at by a green dog, representing both the devil and money. At the time, Green was extremely self-conscious about the fact that Fleetwood Mac was making money and pushed hard for the band to give their profits away. This obsession coincides with Green’s continuous heavy use of LSD, which was dramatically impacting his overall mental health. The disagreement over finances would eventually lead to Green’s departure from Fleetwood Mac, shortly after the release of “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown).” With this context, the track is a pivotal snapshot of a key moment in time for the band, capturing all this tension in a song filled with paranoia, dread, and yes, heaviness.

Listening to “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown),” it’s clear why the song would be attractive to Judas Priest. Both Fleetwood Mac and Judas Priest are British bands with a lot of reverence for the blues. Judas Priest would start to veer towards the darker side of rock, starting with Sad Wings of Destiny in 1976. Songs like “The Ripper” feature the mid-tempo chug and dark riffs that Fleetwood Mac was using on “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown).” All of these metal adjacent elements made this era of Fleetwood Mac a clear choice for Judas Priest as they tried to another song to cover. Another cover song, after “Diamonds and Rust,” a Joan Baez track, was supposed help Judas Priest get crossover appeal in America. Lead singer Rob Halford explained selecting “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)” in an interview with Apple Music, saying, “There’s a bunch of early Fleetwood Mac songs that were just crying out for a metal attack, and we put our boots all over this one.”

By the time the cover was released in 1978, Priest’s signature sound was much more honed than just two years before. This keeps their cover of the Fleetwood Mac hit from being a simple one-to-one cover. Priest cranks the track to eleven, with an overall harsher tone and faster tempo, making the song far less prodding and ominous, and more of a headbanging, intense, fist-pumping rager. The song goes even more over the top as KK Downing and Glen Tipton start trading their signature solos at breakneck speed. These changes keep the track right in line with not just Hell Bent for Leather, but the rest of Judas Priest's catalog, which would hit a new apex with British Steel just two years later. The Judas Priest and Fleetwood Mac versions of “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown) are both classics for their own reasons. Fleetwood Mac’s rendition works better at delivering the ominous intent of Peter Green’s lyrics, while the Judas Priest version takes the blues bones and showcases how it can be blown up into an adrenaline-pumping metal anthem.

The Legacy of Peter Green Remains Strong Through Metal and More

Image via ris Hogreve/DPA/Cover Images

The Fleetwood Mac original was a hit in the UK, hitting the Top 10 upon release. However, considering the sheer magnitude Fleetwood Mac would grow to under such a distinctly different era and sound, the track is often forgotten by casual fans. Ironically, the Judas Priest version seems to have much more staying power. Judas Priest has played the song live as recently as 2021, with it being their 8th most-played song overall according to Setlist.fm. The band even performed it at Live Aid 1985 in Philadelphia, on their brief three-song set list. Judas Priest aren’t the only Peter Green fans in the metal world, as Kirk Hammett, guitarist of Metallica, joined Judas Priest on stage to play the song in 2021 at the Louder Than Life festival in Kentucky. Judas Priest also featured a live version of the track on their 50th anniversary compilation, Reflections: 50 Years of Heavy Metal Music, clearly showcasing the important role the track plays in the band's history.

Peter Green never commented on Judas Priest’s rendition of the track before his passing in 2020. However, his influence on Judas Priest is a clear showcase of the connective tissue between blues and heavy metal, and how much of an influence Green had on a genre that, from the outset, may seem disconnected. Green's footprint lives on, not just in later Fleetwood Mac and Judas Priest, but as a key influence on artists like The Black Crowes, Tom Petty, and Aerosmith. The continued power of "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)" and Peter Green's era of Fleetwood Mac adds layers of legacy onto the already iconic Rumors era to further cement Fleetwood Mac as one of the most important rock bands of all time.