Mick Fleetwood names the musician who was “catastrophic” to Fleetwood Mac
Bands aren’t the most manageable group of people to get along with. Even though a lot of them have some unspoken connection whenever they play music, there are many times when that comes at the expense of everyone’s sanity, either resulting in each of them wanting to kill each other behind the scenes or walking out on the group entirely if they find out that one of their bandmates is trying to dictate the group too much. While Mick Fleetwood could always be counted on as the rock behind Fleetwood Mac, he knew there were a handful of moments when they were in dire straits.
Then again, Fleetwood remembered counting himself lucky to be in the group in the first place. While that sounds insane considering the band is named after him, the genesis of the group began with him and John McVie getting fired from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Even though they had a blues legend like Peter Green playing guitar for them, it wasn’t like they were guaranteed success right out of the gate.
Later, when the band went through major renovations when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined, it’s not like they were going to settle for being happy at the top. Anyone would be pinching themselves every single day for having an album like Rumours under their belts, but since everyone was off their faces on cocaine and falling out of love with each other, Fleetwood was practically the anchor trying his best to keep everyone grounded.
Granted, that was far from the first time the band was on life support. Hell, the only reason Buckingham and Nicks came on in the first place was to fill the lead guitarist slot, and while Bob Welch was a fine musician in his own right, the cracks started to form the minute Green was sent packing during the early 1970s.
The band still had guitarist Danny Kirwan in their ranks, but the years of LSD abuse had done a number on Green’s psyche. While his condition was not nearly as severe as someone like Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, he managed to lose himself midway through his prime, creating songs like ‘The Green Manalishi’ while also believing that he was a messiah and encouraging the band to give all of their money away.
It was clear that the group couldn’t function with Green losing his mind, but for Fleetwood, this was the band equivalent of someone trying to carry on without one of their vital organs when making the album Kiln House, saying, “I actually really love that album. But Danny was pressured. Jeremy [Spencer] had not really made huge inroads to writing. So we went into Jeremy’s rock’n’roll world. We just kept going. I was devastated when Peter left. It was so catastrophic.”
While many people rewrite history and say that the godsend came when Nicks and Buckingham joined, the true angel on the band’s shoulder was Christine McVie. Even though she joined during their bluesy years, hearing her smokey voice pump out one great song after the other made her a valuable asset for the team and an essential balance to songwriting once ‘The Gold Dust Woman’ was brought into the group.
Green is still a pivotal part of Fleetwood Mac’s history, but by making records like Kiln House, Fleetwood proved that life was about more than living through one musician. It was always about the group effort, and if they could survive Green’s departure, they could survive pretty much anything else.
