‘The Visitor’: When Mick Fleetwood fled to Ghana
Fleetwood Mac is the best example of a band’s volatility. Any drama that could befall a group of rock stars has befallen Fleetwood Mac. Whether it’s romantic entanglement, substance abuse, or hatred toward the music being made, Fleetwood Mac felt it at some point, and that makes for a tumultuous band history where people left, rejoined, left, and on and on.
After creating the album Rumours and touring the record, the band were emotionally drained. Their new spot in the limelight, paired with the drama happening within the group, meant that it was tricky for Fleetwood Mac members to get over much of what had happened. It came in the album Tusk, which isn’t considered their best work but isn’t an album that should be compared to Rumours. Instead, Tusk was almost a reaction to this new level of fame and the band taking a step back.
Each band member was permitted to lean in whatever direction they saw appropriate. Mick Fleetwood was locked in on performing in a way that blended the band’s classic sound with other genres, such as new wave. Meanwhile, Christine McVie was writing pop songs, and Stevie Nicks was making tracks that could have been on Rumours. It sounds messy, but it reflects a band that isn’t keen on working together and is too mentally exhausted to push back on ideas.
By the end of the Tusk tour, it’s hardly a surprise that Fleetwood Mac decided to go on hiatus. As is the case with bands full of creatives that have been butting heads, each member decided to go in their own creative direction. One of the most surprising was Mick Fleetwood, who jetted off to Ghana to make an album inspired by African music.
Fleetwood had already shown an interest in making an African-inspired album, but at the same time, Fleetwood Mac was beginning to work on Rumours. He tried to persuade Warner Brothers to let him make the album, but they refused to provide the money necessary to get him to Ghana and put the record together.
Eventually, RCA Records agreed to fund the album, so they flew Fleetwood and his manager, Mickey Shapiro, to Ghana to get to work. They brought musicians into the studio, as the roads were too dangerous to transport the recording gear safely. People came into the studio and laid down music that was far removed from what Fleetwood had made him before, but that was good to listen to. The end product was the album The Visitor.
The recording process was a release for Mick Fleetwood, as he could engage with this left-field style of music without any pushback from his bandmates. Though The Visitor might not be his most celebrated piece of music, it did represent a fresh start for Fleetwood after a difficult period with the band.
