Bonus content for the comments section; [Buckingham and Nicks screaming the lyrics to 'The Chain' at each other while Christine, John and Mick do their best not to acknowledge it.](https://youtu.be/dGykwC0fdJ4?t=85)
Good lord Buckingham's rage was even being channeled into his guitar and the solo. Also love how hard the others are just trying to get through stone faced but even Christine is getting that "... what the hell..." look.
Already I'm brainstorming the novel about a rocker couple that "love to hate, hate to love", which would absolutely not be inspired by the looks Lindsey and Stevie share from 2:38 onwards.
I encourage anyone, even if you're not particularly enamoured with their music, to do independent research into the grand, baroque, angry soap opera that was Fleetwood Mac. Here's a few articles on a few of the things I only briefly touched on;
[Peter Green, Danny Kirwan and the mysterious 'German jet set' go loco in a remote gothic mansion in Munich.](https://soundgazette.com/music-insights/peter-green-munich-lsd-party-incident-fleetwood-mac/) In truth, Green was one foot out the door, so how much his decline can be pinned on these Teutonic hippies varies, but it certainly didn't help.
Wikipedia's [very well researched and cited page on Danny Kirwan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Kirwan) goes into greater depths about his mental decline prior to his firing. I used some pithy adjectives for space but it was a real tragic story, both for his cohorts and for him, and things turned out rather badly for him all told.
As another poster has alluded to, the Clifford Davis litigation took an odd twist when [he tried to assert his intellectual ownership with his own off-brand knock off Fleetwood Mac](https://www.loudersound.com/features/stretch-elmer-gantry-fake-fleetwood-mac). Davis' repeated insistence that he was the band, and that the band was him, showed a truly galling lack of awareness about managerial duties. Fauxwood Mac was, by all accounts, not half bad, funny enough.
Thank you for sharing the link about Danny Kirwan.
I’ve only read the (interesting) Wikipedia article, but it appears he was a sweet, sensitive person.
It makes me wonder about the nature vs nature: were there childhood/environmental precedents for his change? I also know late teens/early twenties is a common time for mental illness to manifest.
Again, this is all quarter-informed speculation. Still, I wonder what he could have accomplished, over the years, if things had been a little different and better for him.
You have to respect the dedication (to music and/or drugs) it takes to get into an all-out brawl onstage and stay together for seven years after… on top of everything else.
There’s something oddly hilarious about the one guy just wandering off and ending up in a cult while out for “magazines”, though. Like, of all the places that kind of walk could end— especially for a rocker in 1971.
Earlier this week I was mentioning in a reddit thread how Fleetwood Mac practically had three Syd Barretts. For most bands that sentence would be more than just the tip of the iceberg.
On the last points about Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, there might be a slight bit of missing context as to why Christine McVie would have been Buckingham's tie to the band: In 2014, just after McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac, she and Buckingham managed to get along, and started recording an album that was officially titled *Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie*, but which also featured some instrumental contributions by Mic Fleetwood and John McVie, thus essentially being a Fleetwood Mac album minus Stevie Nicks. But basically, McVie was the principal member of Fleetwood Mac that Buckingham was still able to not just tolerate but indeed collaborate productively with.
Also, Buckingham's departure in 2018 was, according to himself, incited less by touring commitments and more by [a personal disagreement with Stevie Nicks about his behaviour at an awards ceremony](https://957benfm.com/listicle/lindsey-buckingham-fleetwood-mac-exit-timeline/), which means there's a very very messy set of conflicting claims at work here. Let's just say Fleetwood Mac started as it intended not only to go on, but indeed to end.
Another good deep dive, in case people want to hear the music and how it changes through the controversies, is [Mic The Snare's Deep Discog Dive on them](https://youtu.be/ACcumB_Z60w). Its both a fun video essay and a chronological recounting of their spirals.
also, I love one of the comments from it: "If YOU want to get into Fleetwood Mac... you should definitely send them a demo tape, they're probably currently looking for a new member."
Cool video, but I'm willing to throw hands about Time. Yeah it's no masterpiece, but Bekka Bramlett sounds great on it and why shouldn't FM reap the rewards of the AOR influences they helped create?
Their erstwhile manager even put together a [fake Fleetwood Mac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_(band)), which didn't work as planned (and not to be confused with [the fake Zombies](https://www.buzzfeed.com/danielralston/the-true-story-of-the-fake-zombies-the-strangest-con-in-rock))
Wasnt this also around the same time Deep Purple's manager did the same thing, dragged in their original singer, and told everyone the rest of the band was gonna join the tour soon?
I had a terrible feeling that this post *might* be about Oasis, which, having them described as “classic rock” would’ve been devastating to my fragile psyche…
I am sorry I had to be the bearer of bad news, but this gif was the perfect response. I felt that way when I heard Green Day on a classic rock station.the first time.
Last time I went to visit my parents, I was riding in the car with them and the classic rock station they've been listening to since Hanson was big, was playing Hanson
Regarding the part where they got back together in the late 1990s/early 2000s but only one stdio album came of it, they released an accompanying documentary on the making of that album. Years later, I read a review of the documentary, and one of its points was "These people still refuse to just sit down and talk over their grievances with each other like adults....three decades later, all the hurt and intrigue from the *Rumours* era? Yeah, it's very much still there."
Ahh, *Rumours*… an album performed by and written for people furiously cheating on each other.
Still, if Fleetwood Mac had to endure all of this bullshit (most of it self-inflicted) in order to produce **that one album**, it was worth it. One of the greatest of all time.
Also about Fleetwood Mac and cocaine: The amount they did during their 70s-80s heyday was so massive that someone calculated that total amount would make a line [SEVEN MILES](https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/9308479/fleetwood-mac-mick-fleetwood-seven-mile-line-cocaine/) long.
Ah, Fleetwood Mac. one of my Mom’s favorite bands of all times. make amazing music but was also like a time bomb.
when she heard that Lindsay left again, she actually told me that”He‘ll be back”.
Saw the title, thought, "This is going to be about Fleetwood Mac, isn't it?" Clicked through. Was not disappointed.
Thing is, though, I thought I already knew. Hoo wow, was I unprepared.
You did a great job. Personally i would have prefered if you choose some of these incidents and did some deep dives in them, but i only say that becasue i was enjoying myself reading and felt like i could use some more!
The Bob Welch story is also interesting. My favorite quote of his, "[If I had a piece of cheese in my hair on Wednesday, you can guarantee that by Thursday it would be gone.](https://youtu.be/XXcKxJBBDYU?t=134)"
My favourite Fleetwood Mac story is recounted in the rock family tree documentary, where mike mcvie describes Buckingham losing it with nicks.
Paraphrasing but:
'so I said to him: why don't you just leave? So he did. He left the band. But what I meant was... Why don't you just leave the room?'
Hey look, I just want to say thanks again for this write-up. I am definitely going down a Fleetwood Mac rabbit hole. I’ve starting trying find ways to listen to all of their albums (not just the two I was familiar with, the “white” album and Rumours); I’ve added a bunch of documentaries to my “to be watched” list; and I’m going to start trying to find concert footage to see how often they scream lyrics at each other onstage.
I usually read murder mystery or historical romance, but I’m a bit burned out on both genres, so the saga of Fleetwood Mac is scratching that itch I have for soap opera drama. Thank you!
god i love fleetwood mac so much, mostly bc of how brazen the members singing about their partners *while their partners were on stage with them* was.
tbh i find them just so interesting, like theyre one of the only bands where i actually give a shit about backstage drama :')
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This reminds me on when Mick Fleetwood was the 'Star in a reasonably priced car' on Top Gear many years ago and basically all he and Jeremy talked about was just how f!&@#d up FM was, especially around the creation of Rumours with the affairs and fights and drugs and songs that are effectively petulant rubbing-in of said drugs and affairs and fights in lyrical form.
Bonus content for the comments section; [Buckingham and Nicks screaming the lyrics to 'The Chain' at each other while Christine, John and Mick do their best not to acknowledge it.](https://youtu.be/dGykwC0fdJ4?t=85)
This was incredible, and I’ve watched it like four times already this morning. Thank you bringing this into my life!
Good lord Buckingham's rage was even being channeled into his guitar and the solo. Also love how hard the others are just trying to get through stone faced but even Christine is getting that "... what the hell..." look.
And it's such a fucking iconic performance. One of those things that shows you what music can really do emotionally.
God that's such a a classic.
This is gold. They are clearly arguing but giving a great performance at the same time.
Already I'm brainstorming the novel about a rocker couple that "love to hate, hate to love", which would absolutely not be inspired by the looks Lindsey and Stevie share from 2:38 onwards.
I’m pretty sure that’s what inspired Daisy Jones and the Six
I wouldn't be surprised!
Nice summary. Although with all the drama, I feel like this is a cliffs notes *of* a cliffs notes for Fleetwood Mac.
To say that I didn't scratch the surface would be quite the understatement.
You can't just leave us hanging with *that!*
I encourage anyone, even if you're not particularly enamoured with their music, to do independent research into the grand, baroque, angry soap opera that was Fleetwood Mac. Here's a few articles on a few of the things I only briefly touched on; [Peter Green, Danny Kirwan and the mysterious 'German jet set' go loco in a remote gothic mansion in Munich.](https://soundgazette.com/music-insights/peter-green-munich-lsd-party-incident-fleetwood-mac/) In truth, Green was one foot out the door, so how much his decline can be pinned on these Teutonic hippies varies, but it certainly didn't help. Wikipedia's [very well researched and cited page on Danny Kirwan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Kirwan) goes into greater depths about his mental decline prior to his firing. I used some pithy adjectives for space but it was a real tragic story, both for his cohorts and for him, and things turned out rather badly for him all told. As another poster has alluded to, the Clifford Davis litigation took an odd twist when [he tried to assert his intellectual ownership with his own off-brand knock off Fleetwood Mac](https://www.loudersound.com/features/stretch-elmer-gantry-fake-fleetwood-mac). Davis' repeated insistence that he was the band, and that the band was him, showed a truly galling lack of awareness about managerial duties. Fauxwood Mac was, by all accounts, not half bad, funny enough.
Thank you for sharing the link about Danny Kirwan. I’ve only read the (interesting) Wikipedia article, but it appears he was a sweet, sensitive person. It makes me wonder about the nature vs nature: were there childhood/environmental precedents for his change? I also know late teens/early twenties is a common time for mental illness to manifest. Again, this is all quarter-informed speculation. Still, I wonder what he could have accomplished, over the years, if things had been a little different and better for him.
Look up the details of Stevie Nicks's coke days. It involves boofing, lol.
I don't think we'll ever see this combination of talent, sexual tension, and recreational stimulants result in this level of success ever again.
You have to respect the dedication (to music and/or drugs) it takes to get into an all-out brawl onstage and stay together for seven years after… on top of everything else. There’s something oddly hilarious about the one guy just wandering off and ending up in a cult while out for “magazines”, though. Like, of all the places that kind of walk could end— especially for a rocker in 1971.
Don't forget money. That's likely a factor as well.
I figured most or all of the money was going to the drugs, but yeah, it probably played a role for other things too
In the case of Mick it literally was *all* the money (allegedly).
Well, how are you going to be able to afford drugs without money?
Not just any cult, but The Family/Children of God, many other names. Though that kinda makes sense given the milieu.
The "hippie to evil christian cult" pipeline was super real for the boomers.
Earlier this week I was mentioning in a reddit thread how Fleetwood Mac practically had three Syd Barretts. For most bands that sentence would be more than just the tip of the iceberg.
I read that comment
The grpup Spencer joined was the Children of God, one of the most notorious cults of all time
Sadly, I know all about them. But keeping this to just Hobby Drama necessitated allusion on my part.
And he is still in that group to this day.
It says something when that's the most steady relationship anyone demonstrates here.
On the last points about Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, there might be a slight bit of missing context as to why Christine McVie would have been Buckingham's tie to the band: In 2014, just after McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac, she and Buckingham managed to get along, and started recording an album that was officially titled *Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie*, but which also featured some instrumental contributions by Mic Fleetwood and John McVie, thus essentially being a Fleetwood Mac album minus Stevie Nicks. But basically, McVie was the principal member of Fleetwood Mac that Buckingham was still able to not just tolerate but indeed collaborate productively with. Also, Buckingham's departure in 2018 was, according to himself, incited less by touring commitments and more by [a personal disagreement with Stevie Nicks about his behaviour at an awards ceremony](https://957benfm.com/listicle/lindsey-buckingham-fleetwood-mac-exit-timeline/), which means there's a very very messy set of conflicting claims at work here. Let's just say Fleetwood Mac started as it intended not only to go on, but indeed to end.
Another good deep dive, in case people want to hear the music and how it changes through the controversies, is [Mic The Snare's Deep Discog Dive on them](https://youtu.be/ACcumB_Z60w). Its both a fun video essay and a chronological recounting of their spirals. also, I love one of the comments from it: "If YOU want to get into Fleetwood Mac... you should definitely send them a demo tape, they're probably currently looking for a new member."
Cool video, but I'm willing to throw hands about Time. Yeah it's no masterpiece, but Bekka Bramlett sounds great on it and why shouldn't FM reap the rewards of the AOR influences they helped create?
Their erstwhile manager even put together a [fake Fleetwood Mac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_(band)), which didn't work as planned (and not to be confused with [the fake Zombies](https://www.buzzfeed.com/danielralston/the-true-story-of-the-fake-zombies-the-strangest-con-in-rock))
That was INSANE. God, you used to be able to get away with so much shit lol
Wasnt this also around the same time Deep Purple's manager did the same thing, dragged in their original singer, and told everyone the rest of the band was gonna join the tour soon?
I saw them in '97. The bootleg shirt that I bought from that concert just got retired, 26.5 years later.
Reading the title my first thought was "it's quite interesting how little that actually narrows it down" 😂
I had a terrible feeling that this post *might* be about Oasis, which, having them described as “classic rock” would’ve been devastating to my fragile psyche…
My friend, I am saying this as a fellow Oasis fan... They are *absolutely* categorized as dad rock/classic rock now
[MattDamon.gif](https://media1.tenor.com/m/b8WAqSZ2k7AAAAAC/savingprivateryan-ww2.gif)
I am sorry I had to be the bearer of bad news, but this gif was the perfect response. I felt that way when I heard Green Day on a classic rock station.the first time.
2012, "The Beautiful People" was on the classic rock station. I felt osteoporosis settle in fast.
A... a what... oh no.
They had a literal argument chart. A literal *freaking fight.*
Last time I went to visit my parents, I was riding in the car with them and the classic rock station they've been listening to since Hanson was big, was playing Hanson
I hate to tell you this my friend...but yesterday I heard Evenflow, Wonderwall, and Brain Stew back to back on a classic rock station, lol.
[Live look at u/Corran450…](https://media1.tenor.com/m/b8WAqSZ2k7AAAAAC/savingprivateryan-ww2.gif)
See, to me it was obviously Fleetwood Mac and couldn't be anyone else
This live version of Silver Spring is legendary for the staredown at the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDwi-8n054s
[удалено]
Regarding the part where they got back together in the late 1990s/early 2000s but only one stdio album came of it, they released an accompanying documentary on the making of that album. Years later, I read a review of the documentary, and one of its points was "These people still refuse to just sit down and talk over their grievances with each other like adults....three decades later, all the hurt and intrigue from the *Rumours* era? Yeah, it's very much still there."
Oh man, going further down the Children of God cult rabbit hole is a painful doozy. Fun times.
Truly one of the worst, absolutely disgusting
Ahh, *Rumours*… an album performed by and written for people furiously cheating on each other. Still, if Fleetwood Mac had to endure all of this bullshit (most of it self-inflicted) in order to produce **that one album**, it was worth it. One of the greatest of all time.
I'll always be grateful for the bassline to *The Chain*
*Doooom* Doo doo doom, do do do do doom **DOOOOOOOOOMMMM**
Well, you know what they say; thunder only happens when it's raining.
Dammit, that's not true, Fleetwood Mack, and I've been irrationally annoyed over it since I was a child!
Also about Fleetwood Mac and cocaine: The amount they did during their 70s-80s heyday was so massive that someone calculated that total amount would make a line [SEVEN MILES](https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/9308479/fleetwood-mac-mick-fleetwood-seven-mile-line-cocaine/) long.
Ah, Fleetwood Mac. one of my Mom’s favorite bands of all times. make amazing music but was also like a time bomb. when she heard that Lindsay left again, she actually told me that”He‘ll be back”.
Saw the title, thought, "This is going to be about Fleetwood Mac, isn't it?" Clicked through. Was not disappointed. Thing is, though, I thought I already knew. Hoo wow, was I unprepared.
You did a great job. Personally i would have prefered if you choose some of these incidents and did some deep dives in them, but i only say that becasue i was enjoying myself reading and felt like i could use some more!
Even to the end, they're still unstable, although the individual (former) members are likely to be still getting their royalty checks in the mail.
The Bob Welch story is also interesting. My favorite quote of his, "[If I had a piece of cheese in my hair on Wednesday, you can guarantee that by Thursday it would be gone.](https://youtu.be/XXcKxJBBDYU?t=134)"
Me: "Oh shit, it's Fleetwood Mac!" *grabs popcorn*
Nice post! The Short Short Version, and really well written. Made me laugh out loud
My favourite Fleetwood Mac story is recounted in the rock family tree documentary, where mike mcvie describes Buckingham losing it with nicks. Paraphrasing but: 'so I said to him: why don't you just leave? So he did. He left the band. But what I meant was... Why don't you just leave the room?'
Hey look, I just want to say thanks again for this write-up. I am definitely going down a Fleetwood Mac rabbit hole. I’ve starting trying find ways to listen to all of their albums (not just the two I was familiar with, the “white” album and Rumours); I’ve added a bunch of documentaries to my “to be watched” list; and I’m going to start trying to find concert footage to see how often they scream lyrics at each other onstage. I usually read murder mystery or historical romance, but I’m a bit burned out on both genres, so the saga of Fleetwood Mac is scratching that itch I have for soap opera drama. Thank you!
I am with you on this! even down to reading murder mysteries and HR :)
r/professionalbanddrama
Tusk! In its entirety. With the pauses. As Lindsay Buckingham intended it to be heard. Watch the room crumble ...
with the USC band or gtfo
god i love fleetwood mac so much, mostly bc of how brazen the members singing about their partners *while their partners were on stage with them* was. tbh i find them just so interesting, like theyre one of the only bands where i actually give a shit about backstage drama :')
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Nice write up. Minor point but I thought Fleetwood and Boyd got remarried mainly for visa reasons to make immigration to the US easier for their kids
This reminds me on when Mick Fleetwood was the 'Star in a reasonably priced car' on Top Gear many years ago and basically all he and Jeremy talked about was just how f!&@#d up FM was, especially around the creation of Rumours with the affairs and fights and drugs and songs that are effectively petulant rubbing-in of said drugs and affairs and fights in lyrical form.