Peel was born in Manhattan to Puerto Rican parents, Angel Perez, who worked in a restaurant, and Esther Rosario, a homemaker.

Lennon befriended Peel when David was playing with his ragtag hippie band in New York's Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.

[4] On January 13, 1972, Peel and his band performed live on the David Frost Show with Lennon, Yoko Ono and Jerry Rubin.

Allin would cover Peel's "Devil's Prayer", "I Want to Kill You", and "I Like Marijuana", and frequently cited him as a musical influence in interviews.

In the additional studio recordings on the CD, Muruga Booker (of Genesis fame) played his "electric talking drum" on the comeback hit "Junk Rock".

On March 31, 2017 Peel was escorted to the Veterans Administration hospital in Manhattan New York by fellow musician Joff Wilson, after complaining that he was not feeling well.

Peel has appeared as himself in various films, including Please Stand By (1972), Rude Awakening (1989), High Times' Potluck (2004) and The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006).

In Jack Milton's film Please Stand By, Peel portrays and stars as a media hippie revolutionary, who hijacks a network television van and jams the airwaves with unauthorized radical broadcasts to the nation.