When you think of Fleetwood Mac, you probably picture the soap-opera drama of Rumours or the ethereal harmonies of Stevie Nicks. But long before Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie joined, the band was a blues-rock powerhouse led by the troubled genius Peter Green. And it's that era that caught the attention of metal titans Judas Priest.
In 1978, Judas Priest released Killing Machine (retitled Hell Bent for Leather in the U.S.), an album that included a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)." The song, originally a non-album single from 1970, marked the end of Peter Green's time with Fleetwood Mac. Inspired by a terrifying LSD trip where a green dog barked at him—representing both the devil and money—the track is a paranoid, bluesy crawl through Green's deteriorating mental health and his obsession with the band's finances.
Judas Priest, however, saw something else in the song: a perfect vehicle for a metal makeover. As lead singer Rob Halford explained, "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." The band cranked up the tempo, added a harsher tone, and let guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton trade blistering solos. The result transformed the original's ominous dread into a headbanging, adrenaline-fueled rager.
The cover wasn't just a one-off experiment. It became a staple of Judas Priest's live shows, ranking as their eighth most-played song according to Setlist.fm. The band even performed it at Live Aid in 1985, and as recently as 2021, Metallica's Kirk Hammett joined them on stage at the Louder Than Life festival to play it. The track also appears on their 50th anniversary compilation, Reflections: 50 Years of Heavy Metal Music.
While Fleetwood Mac's original is a haunting snapshot of a band in turmoil, Judas Priest's version is a testament to the song's versatility. Both are classics in their own right, but the metal cover has arguably had more staying power among rock fans. Peter Green, who passed away in 2020, never publicly commented on the cover, but his influence continues to resonate across genres.
For more on metal's enduring anthems, check out our piece on how Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs' became metal's ultimate anti-war anthem. And if you're a fan of unexpected covers, you might enjoy our list of forgotten thrillers that outshine today's biggest blockbusters.
