Fleetwood Mac’s brutal treatment of Bekka Bramlett: “Get her out of here”
In 1994, Fleetwood Mac embarked on a tour with a lineup that included more substitute members than original core members. Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine McVie were absent, while Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were joined on the road by guitarist Billy Burnette, Dave Mason from Traffic, and Bekka Bramlett, the daughter of the 1970s rock icons Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett.
Two years prior, Bramlett had collaborated with Fleetwood as a member of his solo Zoo band. When he extended the invitation to her to join Fleetwood Mac, she, of course, responded with an enthusiastic “yes“. Nevertheless, Bramlett was also conscious that her role was intended to be temporary. She also understood that many fans might not readily embrace this new lineup without the familiar star members.
“I knew my job was to get Stevie back,“ Bramlett said. “I wasn’t a moron. I also knew this was a dangerous job when I took it. I knew I was facing tomatoes. But I didn’t want to wear a top hat. I didn’t want to twirl around. I wanted to be me. I even dyed my hair brown just so people in the cheap seats would know that Stevie wasn’t going to be here. I didn’t want anyone to be discouraged or let down”.
Furthermore, Bramlett firmly declined to perform Nicks’ iconic songs, including tracks like ‘Rhiannon’ and ‘Dreams’. Instead, she briefly included ‘Landslide’ in the setlist before opting to cover John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ during performances. “There is no replacing Stevie Nicks,” Bramlett acknowledged. “Everybody knows that. You can be a fan or an anti-fan. I did choose not to do her signature songs because that would be weird. I was like, ‘I’m not doing ‘Rhiannon.’ I’m not doing ‘Dreams’.”
Bramlett eventually met Nicks while on tour and mentioned understanding her cold reception, saying, “The first thing she said was, ‘Oh, I didn’t know she was blonde. And she over-sings.’ Everyone at the table said the same thing, so I know it’s true. But it’s OK. I still love her. She probably felt like I pissed on her tree. I can understand that.”
While Bramlett mentioned having respect for Nicks, she was also bitter about the way she was let go of in lieu of the classic lineup, saying, “I felt broken. What you have to understand is that Mick and I were the guys that did all the radio and promotion and TV stuff. We did all of it. I was definitely looking forward to the tour we had already just promoted. Evidently someone said, ‘Get her out of here’.”
Fleetwood would later acknowledge the peculiarity of his band’s composition during that period. “We ended up with a bunch of talented people playing good music, but they should not have been touring as Fleetwood Mac,“ he said in his 2014 memoir, Play On. “There were too many essential pieces missing from the machine this time. We were a totally different band, with only the original drummer and bass player, and our original name.“
