Mick Fleetwood picks his favourite band of all time
Mick Fleetwood has lived enough for any other musician’s lifetime. Throughout years of drug abuse, some of the biggest band tensions in Fleetwood Mac, and his wife and children leaving him halfway through his glory years, Fleetwood has remained the beating heart of the group throughout it all, being part of one of the most enduring rhythm sections in rock alongside John McVie. That long timeframe makes artists appreciate their songwriters, but Fleetwood always has a soft spot for one of his colleagues who helped start it all.
When asked who he thought was the greatest band of all time, Fleetwood didn’t hesitate to sing out The Rolling Stones as his favourite band. Over the years, Fleetwood has always admired the Stones for sticking to their roots, telling Associated Press: “They’re just a great rock and roll band, and they come from the same world I came from in the early days of Fleetwood Mac”.
Before Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie came into the fold, Mac and The Stones were fluent in the blues, borrowing from the same acts that came out of the Mississippi Delta, from Albert King to Muddy Waters to Howlin Wolf. While Fleetwood is quick to say that they have strayed from their roots in recent years, he appreciates their dedication to their craft, going on to say, “They’re a rock and roll band for sure, but their first love is the same folks that drove us to do what we’re all doing, and they’re still doing it”.
In the early days, the blues was practically The Mac’s first language, with John McVie having already played in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers before getting Fleetwood’s call to take their band out on the road. Much like the Stones, Fleetwood Mac found themselves on a different career trajectory towards the end of the ’60s.
With the age of Flower Power fast dying out, both acts played to their strengths in rootsy music, making songs that were moulded from a specific vision of Americana. Although Nicks and Buckingham eventually took those sounds to the next level with albums like Rumours, The Stones had already carved out an acoustic niche, turning in country classics like ‘Dead Flowers’ alongside some of their old blues favourites like ‘You Gotta Move’.
Although Fleetwood Mac’s future started to end after Christine McVie’s passing, The Stones have continued to practice what they preach, releasing an album full of blues covers entitled Blue and Lonesome. Even when Fleetwood was playing to Buckingham’s pop-fueled dreams on albums like Tusk, he still put his bluesy spin on things whenever he could, often using blues shuffle rhythms or going well outside his comfort zone to sprinkle that traditional blues aspect back into their sound.
Mick Fleetwood has repeatedly said that a new version of Fleetwood Mac might not be in the cards, but he seems more than content to see one of the greatest rock bands of his generation still deliver night after night. A couple of decades may have passed between them growing up, but over the years, both Fleetwood Mac and The Rolling Stones have become the blues idols they had all emulated as kids.
