Why Mick Fleetwood called Fleetwood Mac “the worst franchise in rock and roll”
No band survives to be one of the world’s greatest without a good business mindset. As much as some acts rely on making fantastic tunes every time they walk into the studio, it won’t get them anywhere unless they have a sense of purpose and a drive to climb all the way up to the top of the musical food chain. And while Fleetwood Mac has the distinction of being one of the highest-charting acts of all time, Mick Fleetwood felt that their status as a franchise was disastrous.
It’s not like Fleetwood doesn’t have the evidence to back that up, either. When looking at the songs that most people know from Fleetwood Mac started off with, would they really have guessed that their first major calling came from making down-and-dirty blues-rock?
Before anyone even knew who Stevie Nicks was, the group’s first incarnation with Peter Green as their guitarist was far from the most popular group around. They could still play their asses off, but they felt like a group reserved for the more ingrained blues rock fans than someone who could get on the charts.
While Green eventually fell by the wayside due to drugs, bringing in Bob Welch and Christine McVie initially gave them a jazzy flair. Considering what the hardened fans were looking for, though, hearing them go from staples like ‘Oh Well’ to ‘Sentimental Lady’ must have been like watching AC/DC suddenly decide to pick up acoustic guitars and write a sappy ballad.
Once Welch left and was replaced by Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, their rootsy approach to rock music became the ideal foil to the traditional California rock scene. The Eagles had dominated the sound of country-leaning tunes, but Rumours wasn’t going to be stopped once it started tearing through the charts with singles like ‘Go Your Own Way’ and ‘Dreams’ in its arsenal.
Despite all their success, even Fleetwood had to admit that the ship has been more than a little bit shaky over the years, telling Time, “I always joke–because I used to manage the band–that this is the worst-run franchise in rock ‘n’ roll. If you look at what happened to us on paper, you’d say, ‘It’s simply not possible that these clowns can survive this’.”
That’s before fans even get into the survival of the classic lineup, which eventually led to screaming matches in between recording sessions, a Mount Everest-sized mountain of cocaine in the mix, and a constant soap opera going on in every musician’s romantic endeavours. By the time Buckingham and Nicks got into a physical fight before going on tour for Tango in the Night, it practically felt like an act of mercy that they officially went their separate ways.
But who knows? Despite Christine McVie’s untimely passing putting the group to rest, it wouldn’t be out of the question for some of the members to work on each other’s solo projects in the near-future. Because if there’s one thing that’s certain about Fleetwood Mac, it’s that the musical chain will always keep them together.
