“He left the next morning”: The producer that walked out on Fleetwood Mac
Being involved with a band like Fleetwood Mac was never going to be easy. Outside of the competing egos that came out every time they entered the studio, there was bound to be some tension even in the breakrooms considering everyone’s past work with each other. Although every member could normally put their cares aside when it came to making the final recording, that unease was enough to repel a lot of big-name producers away from working with them in any capacity.
Because as much as people like the idea of making their own answer to Rumours with the same band, working with someone like Lindsey Buckingham is like having another producer in the room. To his credit, Buckingham’s knowledge of a good hook has led to his finest songs, but in between his Brian Wilson-like outlook on things, he can be incredibly demanding even when not working on his own tunes.
Hell, the entire reason why the band had to wait so long between releases was because of Stevie Nicks not being able to take the constant barrage of orders from Buckingham. It’s bad enough to have someone’s ex in the same band with them, but when every song would descend into a disagreement, there was never any point in some no-name trying to smooth over the waters and remind them that everything was going to be okay.
But Jimmy Iovine was by no means a no-name. He had already worked his magic for people like John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen in the past, and now after coming off of another success story by working on Tom Petty’s greatest records, his style seemed to fit right in with ‘The Mac’. He was interested in getting that next hit, but it also didn’t help that he was dating Nicks at the time.
While a half-decade is a long time for someone to be Petty about a breakup, Buckingham’s unease came more from the way that Iovin was conducting himself during the session. There was already a conflict of interest before the producer even walked in the door, but whereas his plan was to work with the group for a few days on Mirage, it took a matter of hours before he realised he had made a mistake.
As Nicks remembered, Iovine stayed on but knew that he was not going to take orders from Buckingham like the rest of them, saying, “Lindsey was not in a very good humour because I’d just made this solo record and I’ve brought my new producer boyfriend with me. They almost got into a fight. Jimmy was meant to be there for ten days, but he left the next morning. He was so pissed off.”
Granted, Buckingham was far from the same producer that Buckingham was in many respects. He had been hard at work finding the right songs for every artist rather than the musician aspect of playing, so if Buckingham suggested that they work on fleshing out a massive arrangement, chances are Iovine would have wanted to keep everything a bit more sparse to get to the essence of the song.
That may have been more in line with what Nicks wanted, but considering ‘The Gold Dust Woman’ doesn’t look back on this record all that fondly, it’s safe to say that it was a dark period for the band at large. They could still play to the best of their ability, but it would be like pulling teeth the minute you asked any of them to agree on something.
