Timeline: The trials and tribulations of Fleetwood Mac
Nobody has ever said that being in a rock ‘n’ roll band is a steady profession, but Fleetwood Mac make it seem about as stable as a Jenga set on the San Andreas Faultline with a flatulist full of beans operating in the area. They are such a meta melodrama that even series like Daisy Jones & The Six barely seem like a parody at all. If anything, you’d have to tone down the reality to offer up a feasible fiction of the band.
Beset by sex, drugs, cults, divorces, feuds, firings, highs, lows, swindlers, misfits and tragedies, the biggest miracle of Fleetwood Mac is that they are still just about kicking around today. As this timeline will tell, they so easily could have faded into oblivion in 1970, and then called it a day in 1977… and then again in ’79, and once more in…
Thankfully, they stuck together, with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie acting as some sort of eternal glue. This hardy rhythm section has seen it all come and go, but somehow amid this whirlwind of members and madness, they have held the band together and kept producing near-enough perfect pop-rock music laced with that mythical added ingrediant: drama.
Below we have charted the various times that things nearly fell apart for the band. These manic moments might set the mind a-boggling and instil a belief in curses. However, what you must remember is that on each occasion they have transcended this mess and prised art from the fires of hell. That, in essence, is pretty much the purpose of modern music; as Pete Townshend proclaimed: “Rock ‘n’ roll might not solve your problems, but it does let you dance all over them.”
The trial and tribulations of Fleetwood Mac:
Fleetwood Mac form
Fittingly the band were even born from the fires of a fallout. Peter Green left John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers and formed a new entity: Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. The band consisted of drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, and vocalists/guitarists Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green. Danny Kirwan would join as a third guitarist in 1968.
Bad acid in Germany
While on tour in Germany, the band were lured away to a forest in the woods where a cult-like party was underway and several members took part in the taking of homemade LSD. “Peter Green and Danny Kirwan both went together to that house in Munich,” their one-time manager Clifford Davis recalls, “both of them took acid, as I understand. Both of them, as of that day, became seriously mentally ill. It would be too much of a coincidence for it to be anything other than taking drugs, as of that day.” Both left the band shortly after with Kirwen sadly dying destitute and homeless.
Jeremy Spencer goes to buy a magazine
In February of 1971, amid a largely successful tour, Spencer nipped off to pick up a magazine and never returned. The distressed band searched for their starring blues influence only to find he was holed up as a happily ordained member of the Children of God cult. Its founder, David Berg, told members that God was love and that love was sex. Thus, it stood to reason to spread the sexual love of God to anyone and everyone regardless of age or relationship resulting in repressible actions.
Bob Weston has an affair with Mick Fleetwood’s wife
Following the departure of the unstable Danny Kirwan, the band brought in Bob Weston on guitar. This is widely regarded as a bad move as Weston and Fleetwood’s wife Jenny Boyd “were born within an hour of each other ” and the “astrological” connection became too profound for them not to bang. Mick found out, fired Weston, cancelled the tour, and temporarily called a halt to the band.
Who owns Fleetwood Mac?
With so many members coming and going in their seven years as a band, then contractual question of ‘Who owns Fleetwood Mac?’ came to the fore. Manager Clifford Davis said, “This band has always been my band,” while the band themselves said that he had the matter the wrong way around. With the legal arm wrestle ongoing, the band thought that if they were fighting for their name (literally) then they may as well reform. So they did, moved to America, signed to Warner Bros., and eventually settled out of court with Davis four years later.
‘Buckingham & Nicks’ come as a pair
When the fading band were in the market for a guitarist and a revival, Lindsey Buckingham was the man they had in mind. They auditioned him, he passed, but an impasse soon arrived: he informed the band that he strictly comes as a pair with Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Mac were not interested in hiring a singer so they stepped back before ultimately agreeing.
Relentless touring causes rifts
Success brought about an extended spell on the road and this stress caused cracks to appear. John and Christine McVie began divorce proceedings, Buckingham and Nicks also broke up, and Fleetwood was divorcing Jenny. Furthermore, they were all addicted to cocaine, alcohol or both.
The recording of Rumours
With everyone entering the studio in some sort of break-up, you wonder how things could’ve gotten any worse. Well, to complete the Rumours recipe, add a glug of alcoholism, and a pinch of mass cocaine addiction, bake in a hot Californian, windowless oven for 15 hours a day for almost a year, garnish with a strange sort of symbiosis, and serve up the pop perfection.
Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood have an affair
Having completed his divorce with Boyd, Mick’s relationship with his now-ex-wife flourished and they married once again. However, a few months later, photographer Annie Leibowitz directed an intimate photoshoot between Mick and Nicks and they soon began having an affair. So, Mick divorced Boyd once again but then he started sleeping with Nicks’ best friend Sara Recor. Nicks found out and lost her best friend and new boyfriend.
The feud in New Zealand
Amid this love pentagon, it was clear that there was an inescapable connection between Nicks and Buckingham and this created ongoing tension. This came to a head in New Zealand when Nicks threw his guitar towards the singer and stormed off stage. “He went off,” Nicks told Rolling Stone, “and we all ran at breakneck speed back to the dressing room to see who could kill him first. Christine got to him first, and then I got to him second–the bodyguards were trying to get in the middle of all of us.”
Mick Fleetwood files for bankruptcy
After snorting “seven miles” of cocaine, and failing to match the commercial high-point of Rumours, the band’s finances have dwindled and Mick Fleetwood files for bankruptcy. Nevertheless, his lawyers argue that it has nothing to do with excesses.
Lindsey Buckingham leaves Fleetwood Mac
Before the Tango in the Night tour, Buckingham calls time on his tenure in the band and decided to pursue his solo work. In truth, there was a band crisis meeting at Christine McVie’s house that resulted in a fight between Nicks and Buckingham and he left the next day.
Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie quit Fleetwood Mac
‘Silver Springs’ was the track that Nicks wrote to haunt Buckingham back during the Rumours sessions but sadly there wasn’t enough room for it on the album so it was cast to the B-side doldrums. Nicks asked Mick if she could include it on her solo effort, but he refused and she walked away from the band following the disagreement, prompting Christine to join her.
Bekka Bramlett is hired as lead vocalist
While many expected the band to disband (including many of the members), Mick powered on and hired Bekka Bramlett as a replacement singer. Her time in the band is tumultuous. “I wasn’t a moron,” she told Rolling Stone. “I also knew this was a dangerous job when I took it. I knew I was facing tomatoes. But I didn’t want to wear a top hat. I didn’t want to twirl around. I wanted to be me. I even dyed my hair brown just so people in the cheap seats would know that Stevie wasn’t going to be here.”
Fleetwood Mac reunite
In 1997, the iconic Rumours line-up reunite for the new album The Dance and a run of comeback concerts. In the years following this grand reunion, the band will continue to see members briefly come and go as is their natural way. However, during that time, they prove to be resurgent and now Rumours ranks among the best-selling albums of all time, adding more sales every year.
