Mick Fleetwood feels “lucky” to have not lost family in Maui fires
Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood has revealed he feels “lucky” to have not lost his home or family members in the Maui fires in Hawaii.
Fleetwood has lived on the island for 25 years, and the restaurant he was co-owned with Stevie Nicks since 2012, Fleetwood’s on Front Street, was destroyed by the fire. While Fleetwood was in Los Angeles during the atrocity, he has since returned to the island to help with the aftermath.
Meanwhile, family members were staying at Nicks’ home but safely escaped. 96 lives are estimated to have been lost.
In an interview with Sky News, Fleetwood said: “It’s an incredible shock for everyone. It’s complete devastation. The whole town of Lahaina is no more. That in itself is a statement that leads you immediately to the people who lived there.”
He continued: “Selfishly, I haven’t lost a family member. I didn’t lose my house. It could have happened, but it didn’t happen so you immediately go, ‘I’m really lucky. Now, what the hell can I do?’ The immediacy is finding people. The immediacy is communicating and knowing who’s here and who’s safe.”
As of writing, Fleetwood is yet to visit the site of his restaurant in Lahaina but does plan to use his voice to shine a light on the natural disaster. “What I can do and I’m doing is being an advocate to say ‘pay attention to what is going on’… that’s actually way more helpful than going down and crying in Lahaina… that will happen, I’m sure, but not now,” he added.
In a statement following the fire, Nicks revealed how she and Fleetwood fell in love with the island. She wrote: “This island, in so many ways, defines Fleetwood Mac and me and our families. Mick and I came here in 1978, went up to Kula to look at a huge, beautiful house and stood in front of it listening to the gentle magical wind. He said to me, ‘I will live and die on this island.’”
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