“Didn’t know how to function”: The lowest period of Mick Fleetwood’s life
Throughout many of Fleetwood Mac’s most successful years, Mick Fleetwood performed as the nucleus, serving as the rhythmic pulse of the band with his exceptional drumming while consistently encouraging open collaboration and community spirit. His input was instrumental in forming their signature dynamic and approach, appearing as the glue even when most of them seemed preoccupied with personal and professional struggles.
In the early days, Fleetwood Mac was mainly driven forward by the exceptional work of Peter Green, who not only shaped the band’s early sound but called the shots and always knew what to do to steer the band forward. When he left the band in 1970, Fleetwood and the rest of the members became burdened with what they could have been: “I have no doubt what was missed. I think we would have had a place sort of like Led Zeppelin in America,” the musician told Mojo in 2015.
At this point, it’s impossible to imagine that he would have predicted the band to become the kind of group they were by the time they were doing the recording sessions for Rumours. Beyond transitioning from their folk roots to a more pop-rock appeal, the band benefitted from the addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, with Fleetwood taking a more active role in facilitating each member’s distinctive sounds and unique contributions.
By Tusk, the band felt ready to take on something a little more experimental, knowing that any carbon copy of albums like Rumours would likely be more detrimental than beneficial. The album ended up incorporating more boundary-pushing and innovative approaches, but a significant aspect of the experience became tainted for Fleetwood, who felt the label royally messed up when they decided to allow a radio station to play the entire album on air before it was released.
Even though the album marked a pivotal moment for the band and enjoyed modest success, cracks began appearing in Fleetwood’s life, and he started to show signs of sinking into himself following the album’s tour. He had been serving as their manager for the rollout, but financial difficulties saw the other members facing a tough decision about whether to fire him from his duties or endure the difficulties. In the end, they chose the former.
The sudden change threw Fleetwood into crisis mode when it came to his finances, and he began spending money on things that made little to no sense, like a house in Los Angeles and a 1000-acre farm in Australia. “I went broke,” he later told Rolling Stone, adding, “I thought it was a great place for all my friends and family, but it was also a pipe dream that literally took me to the poorhouse.”
According to Christine McVie, this signified the lowest point in Fleetwood’s life because he was also using, and everything around him seemed to push him into himself even further. “Everything about him became little,” she admitted. “He wasn’t walking with his shoulders straight like he always used to,” she added, revealing that it was sad to see him like that because he “didn’t know how to function unless he was high” and “he would just sleep the whole time, just hooked on drugs, about as low as he could get.”
According to the late Fleetwood Mac singer, Fleetwood was also living on a “damp carpet” in somebody’s basement at the time, where he would do nothing except watch soap operas to pass the time. However, for 1982’s Mirage, he undoubtedly pushed his troubles aside and executed a renewed sense of creativity, contributing to enduring hits like ‘Gypsy’ and ‘Hold Me’. Even after enduring his darkest years yet, Fleetwood could bounce back and still prove he was a vital member, even when underscored by an undercurrent of immense resilience.
