Founding Member of Classic Rock Mainstay Dead at 82: RIP to Mick Abrahams

Mick Abrahams, the original guitarist for British rock band Jethro Tull and founder of Blodwyn Pig, has died. He was 82.

Jethro Tull’s lead vocalist, Ian Anderson, confirmed the news of Abrahams’ death on Dec. 21 in a message shared on the band’s website.

“It is with great sadness that we learned yesterday of the passing of Jethro Tull founding member Mick Abrahams,” Anderson, 78, wrote. “Mick had endured worsening ill health for the last 15 years leaving him finally unable to perform or interact socially to any degree.”

“I spoke to Clive Bunker from the Choir of Southwark Cathedral to get confirmation that the reports earlier in the day were, in fact, correct,” he continued. “And, yes – Clive had received a phone call from Mick’s family to communicate the sad news.”

Anderson called Abrahams “vitally important” to the formation of Jethro Tull in 1967, praising his former bandmate as a “strong vocalist and experienced, powerful and lyrical guitarist” who “commanded the stage in his rendition of Cat Squirrel at the Marquee Club and every show we did together – even when we supported Cream on one occasion!”

“As his party piece, Mick continued to add to and develop those musical ideas into a tour de force display of his instrumental talents for the rest of his performing days,” Anderson added.

The musician then remembered the time he shared a “tiny twin-bunk cabin” with Abrahams in October 1968, where he “annoyed Mick by trying to play the mandolin [he] had just purchased from a junk shop by the ferry terminal” and ultimately wrote the song “Fat Man.”

Anderson said that Abrahams thought the song was about him, but that it wasn’t, as “indeed, Mick was a trim good-looking guy at the time and in better shape than us skinny runts in the early Tull. “

Anderson wrote that he and his former bandmate “had 11 months of mutual benefit and learning experiences before the eventual falling-out – caused primarily by our different preferences as to future musical direction.”

“I wanted to embrace broader musical influences while Mick – died-in-the-wool rocker and blues man – wanted to stay with the more traditional style of our first album, ‘This Was,’” he explained. But despite their differences, Abrahams said they “played together and collaborated on a few things in the following years” and the “mutual respect we enjoyed was a lasting link to those formative Tull years.”

Praising Abrahams for his Blodwyn Pig days and his various offshoot bands, Wommett and the Mick Abrahams Band, Anderson described his friend as a “homebody who liked to gig around the home counties and sleep in his own bed most of the time” instead of touring the world with Jethro Tull.

“We all offer our condolences to Mick’s family and close friends, who can feel justifiably proud of his achievements and musical legacy,” he concluded.