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WEEKEND'S A-Z of
ROCK and POP
Daily Mail Weekender
24 November 2001
Whatever happened to the heroes of rock and pop when their fame faded? And what is the secret of the legends who never went away?
Our weekly series reveals all...
F is for Fleetwood Mac
TRACK RECORD
19 UK Top 50 singles (inc. 1 No.1) and 17 Top 50 albums (inc. 4 No.1s)
HIGH: The bluesy genius of the early Peter Green singles and the soft-rock splendour of Rumours
LOW: Schizophrenia, religious fanaticism, multiple divorces, alcoholism, drugs and bankruptcy
STAR QUALITY: Being, alongside Abba, the greatest male/female band in the history of rock and pop
Fleetwood Mac have one of the most extraordinary stories in the entire history of popular music. No one could have known back in 1967, when guitarist Peter Green and drummer Mick Fleetwood recruited Jeremy Spencer and John Mc Vie to form the band, what was in store; initially, hits including Black Magic Woman Albatross made their name, but by 1970 Green was becoming disturbed and quit the band, beginning 26 years in a wilderness of mental illness and drugs.
McVie's wife Christine came in, Spencer left, and it wasn't until 1974, when the band went to California and took on lovers Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, that another album made it to and No.1. During the recording of the follow-up, the Mc Vies' marriage broke up; John became a near-suicidal alcoholic; Bucking-ham walked out halfway through and the band was suffused by drugs. The album that emerged, Rumours, was a narrative of their crises. Christine wrote Don't Stop as an encouragement to her ex-husband, while Buckingham's Go Your Own Way is a diatribe against Nicks. Over the next 25 years, they would regroup to make albums including Tusk and Tango, but the curse of instability and personal conflict was seldom far away.
After quitting the band, PETER GREEN, who had taken to wearing monk's robes and an enormous crucifix on stage, became a gravedigger and hospital porter and gave all his money to charity. He also ended up in prison after he threatened his manager with an air rifle, but, after years in and out of institutions, he is now living in Surrey and, at 54, performing again.
MICK FLEETWOOD, 59, was married to Jenny Boyd, sister of Patti, wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton; he divorced, remarried and divorced her again. He blew his millions and became bankrupt. Now married again, he says of the Rumours era: 'They were strange days. Making music was about the only thing that seemed to make sense.'
STEVIE NICKS, 53, dated Eagles superstar Don Henley and was briefly married. But her most tortured relationship was with cocaine, which left a hole in her nose you could pull a belt through'. She has a major solo career.
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM, 51, quit the band after a 1987 argument in which John McVie shouted, 'Why don't you just leave?' unaware that McVie meant 'Leave the room'. As their producer, he made a fortune and kept it, and lives in LA with his girlfriend.
JOHN MCVIE, 55, a former alcoholic, is remarried and a U.S. citizen. CHRISTINE MCVIE, 58, went on to live with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, before remarrying in 1986 and later settling in Kent.
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