Piglets on the 20th floor: When Fleetwood Mac were handed a lifetime ban from a luxury hotel
Fleetwood Mac knew how to party, a fact that almost destroyed Stevie Nicks’ life, given that her cocaine addiction almost tore away the foundation of the world she had built for herself.
In this way, it goes without saying that the partying came with a cost of more than a sore head and the hot tickle of hangxiety burning the cheeks of the quiet, head-hung tour bus the next morning, with Fleetwood Mac having to cough up, in one case, a $20,000 bill for one wild night of tomfoolery.
In all fairness, it was their road manager’s birthday, so the band had to go all-out, with that pesky party-hard title to uphold. The band were on tour in San Francisco, and they were staying at the Saint Francis Hotel, which today, is unrecognisable after a $45million reinvention bulldozed through the charm of the 1980s and has blasted it with that ghastly monochromatic modern sheen, but at the height of the band’s partying heyday, it seemed like the perfect ground for a night of debauchery.
Up on the 20th floor, the band somehow managed to transport bales of hay, as well as live chickens and piglets, into their road manager’s room, John Courage, who was left aghast. San Francisco is famously lacking any farmyards near the downtown area, so it’s a mystery where the band sourced the chickens from, or the piglets, oinking and excreting all over the plush leather sofas.
Courage wasn’t hung up on the granular details for long; the fact is, the room was ruined, and they might as well have fun in their makeshift countryside with views of the blinking metropolis just a few feet away. Sure enough, the next day, the whole gimmick would be revealed if the bell-boys hadn’t already followed the Hansel and Gretel type of breadcrumbs made with random strings of hay leading to the door of the suite.
All that was left was for Fleetwood Mac to do what they did best: party hard. Casting the morning out of mind, the group welcomed their new friends and felt, eventually, on top of the world.
But the juxtaposition wasn’t lost on Carol Harris, who recalled in her book, “Birds were perching in the middle of JC’s suitcase. On the television, on chairs and tables and cackling happily on the straw covering the expensive carpet.” As Lindsey Buckingham’s girlfriend from 1976 to 1984, Harris had a unique insight into what went on behind closed doors.
As it always does, the world came crashing down the next morning, as for starters, Dennis Wilson, the drummer for The Beach Boys, had somehow found himself at the party. By the time the blue light of the sombre morning settled in, Wilson had made himself comfy in the bathtub, stoned, and passed out cold. It must’ve been quite the shake-up to get everyone out on schedule, but that was the least of the band’s problems.
Despite the party being thrown in Courage’s honour, cleaning up the mess would’ve most likely fallen on his head, and, one excruciating reception conversation later, it was evident that Fleetwood Mac’s namesake couldn’t quite right the wrongs and the muddy pawprints all over the 20th-floor suite. Have this for a birthday present, a $20,000 bill and a lifetime ban.
