Drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer founded one of the greatest rock bands in the entire world in London in 1967. Their roots were primarily as a British blues band. But the lineup we’ve come to know and love featuring Lindsay Buckingham, Christine McVie, and Stevie Nicks, wouldn’t materialize until 1974. This is the deep dive story of Fleetwood Mac:
- Original guitarist Green decided to keep the guitarists out of the spotlight, and instead name the band after drummer Mick Fleetwood and eventual joining bassist John McVie
- The first American tour the band ever had saw them third on the bill behind Jethro Tull, and Joe Cocker
- Before the 70s, founding guitarist Green left the group in a really bizarre manner. He apparently declared money to be evil, gave it all away, and took a job as a gravedigger. Critics suggested that a bad LSD trip may have been to blame for Green’s erratic behavior
- The other founding guitarist Jeremy Spencer disappeared after leaving the band, having joined a religious cult called the Children of God. When he was found, his head had been completely shaven. The cult apparently stuck with him; he decided to name his 1973 solo album after the cult
- Buckingham and Nicks played together in a newly formed, critically acclaimed group aptly named Buckingham-Nicks. Their first and only album sold poorly, but their sound opened the door to their joining Fleetwood Mac
- You see, Mick Fleetwood was searching for former member Bob Welsh’s replacement when he scouted Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. The studio owner played him a Buckingham-Nicks song to demonstrate the studio’s acoustics. Fleetwood asked about the guitarist, Lindsay Buckingham, saying he came as a package deal with his girlfriend Stevie Nicks and also with studio owner and producer Keith Olsen, who had signed them to a production deal and produced their first album. Fleetwood took that deal, making Olsen a co-producer of the Fleetwood Mac album and recording it at Sound City. Nicks ended up giving the group a distinctive voice and an additional songwriter that helped define their new sound. Olsen was jettisoned after that album and later sued the band for withholding royalties.
- Mick Fleetwood and John McVie kept the group going throughout the decades and across the myriad changes. Fleetwood says they stuck it out through “abject fear.” “That’s the nature of being in a rhythm section. You need someone to play with,” he told Rolling Stone in 2017. “What the hell would we do if there was no band?”
- Currently, there is a Fleetwood Mac, but featuring all the original all-star mid-70s lineup, except Lindsay Buckingham, who told CBS Sunday Morning that he wasn’t on the same page as the group, and preferred to concentrate on his solo work
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