WEBVTT - Mick Fleetwood - Summer Staff Picks 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.320 This is Alec Baldwin, and you were listening to Here's 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:08.000 the Thing from iHeart Radio. It's officially summer, and that 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:10.639 means it's time for our tradition at Here's the Thing, 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.840 where our staff shares their favorite episodes in our Summer 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.919 Staff series. Next up is our engineer Frank Imperial. 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.520 Thanks Alec. When trying to choose one of my favorite 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.600 episodes from the archives, it didn't take long to land 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.200 on Mick Fleetwood, the drummer of Fleetwood Mac. It's one 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:33.880 of the most popular episodes in our history. With good reason. 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.720 Here's Alex's twenty twenty one conversation with Mick Fleetwood. 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:41.800 You say we want agree? 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.440 That is, of course Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. Thanks to 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.560 a TikTok of some guy on a skateboard who goes 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.440 by the name Dogface lip syncing to this song and 0:00:55.640 --> 0:01:01.000 his seventy two million views, Fleetwood Mac's album Rumors broke 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.640 through Rolling Stone's top one hundred list again last year, 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:10.080 more than forty years after its release. My guest today 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.600 is Mick Fleetwood, a founding member of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.200 Mac existed for nearly a decade before the lineup. We 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.280 think of today with Mick Fleetwood, John mcvee, Lindsey Buckingham, 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:26.880 Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. But when Fleetwood Mac formed 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.839 in London in the late nineteen sixties, it was Peter 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:31.000 Green's idea. 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.960 Well, I would be remiss. Peter Green start at Fleetwood Mac, 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.559 the original guitar player. I was at his right hand side, 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:43.360 John McVie. All of us have played in the band 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.840 called John Male's Blues Breakers, Eric McK taylor, Peter Green. 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.120 And I'm saying that because they would represent great guitar 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.640 players that came out of that band that have more 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.160 than made their mark in my world. And so Peter 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.040 asked me to play drums. Already had played with them 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.240 in a funny band with Rod Stewart for a short while, 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.480 so we won't go into that. So it was really 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:13.000 a team of people that Peter John McVie especially came 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.880 out of a pedigree which was absolute devotion to an 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:21.079 art form, the blues. And really all our heroes were 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.560 American blues artists. And you are well aware I can 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:28.360 tell about the irony of a bunch of funny little 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.480 white kids in England really preserving an art form that 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.280 had long since been you know, I won't use the 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:39.480 bad word, but you know, pooped on by the American 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.520 sort of glossing over of something that was so evident. 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:48.360 So we were all from that framework, and when we 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:52.360 formed Fleetwood Mac, it was all about our lovely, semi 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:57.000 innocent way of emulating our heroes. And if you listen 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.520 to the first few albums that we before Peter especially 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.280 started really writing, like when you look at early Rolling Stones, 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.800 it's Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry and with anyone, you 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:14.440 see the development into self expression, and that's what transpired afterward. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.280 But the original band was all about that and a 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:22.120 little team of people sharing something and having a lot 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.000 of fun with it, you know, creatively that turned into 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.400 something a little bit more than we ever could have 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:29.840 possibly have imagined. 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.320 The year that you formed the band with Green, what 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:33.880 year was that? 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:39.720 Nineteen sixty seven Windsor Jazz Festival, and the band was 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.640 called Fleetwood Mac by Peter Green, who could have very 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.360 easily become the Jeff Beck or the Jimmy Page or 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:52.040 the Eric Clapton gunslinger guitar player. That's a whole nother story, 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.320 is a lovely story, and an attribute to Peter's generosity. 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:01.120 We played the Windsor Jazz Festival intended as you can tell, 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.240 with the name of Fleetwood Mac the name was my 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.160 name and John McVie, which Peter chose, and John was 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.720 still playing in John Mayle's Blues Breakers on the same show. 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.760 Watched the band he's supposed to be in from from 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.960 the side of the stage, and about three months later 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.640 he joined. He's a Scotsman, so he's very thrifty with 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.279 whatever amount of money he does have. So when we 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.480 had enough gigs, he said, I'm ready to join, which. 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.240 Was when you've made it worth my while. 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:33.480 Yeah, it worth my way. 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:35.680 I know there'll be no net loss in my income. 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:37.960 I join you. I'll meet you there at the club. 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:39.880 Yeah. And that's what happened. 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.880 And when you say that Green could have been in 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.599 this pantheon of great guitar players, was this something he 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:47.680 didn't want, that he did not want that level of 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:49.160 fame and that level of attention. 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:53.440 No, it was very evident. And the end story, which 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:57.200 of course went into a very changed person. He was 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:01.520 my dearest of dearest of friends and my mentor. You know, 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.279 he gave me so much encouragement as a player and 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:10.800 super fun person, but unbelievably deep down, way more sensitive 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.560 than a bunch of chaps, including himself, had ever realized. 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:17.760 And he eventually became sick and so came to a 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:21.520 sort of journey that was for a while was a 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:26.359 living tragedy for me selfishly, but then you learned to 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.600 accept him as he turned out. But back then everything 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.880 he did was about being just really generous. And I 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.760 read an article after you know, you think, well, what 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.760 was the real story? And for instance would be that 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.200 someone asked him why was the bank or fleet with 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.440 Mac and he said, well, I figured at that point 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.320 i'd broken up with my lovely girlfriend Jenny, who I 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.599 later married, and I had played with Peter, and he 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:00.560 had his eyes on another drummer as a turned out, 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:03.719 and he said, why did you pick Mick? And of 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:08.159 course my little less than self would have thought, well, 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:10.240 maybe you thought I was a good drummer, you know. 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.320 And what it was, he said, I wanted Mick to 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.160 play the drums cause I got so fed up with 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.680 seeing him so sad that I thought it would give 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.040 him something to do. And I thought that was the 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.080 greatest thing that you could ever hear from a lovely friend, 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.680 and that really sums it up about how it was 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:32.120 not about him, and he created a platform which served me. 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:32.520 Well. 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.200 My father was an Air Force chap so the word 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.359 to serve, to serve, well, that's what I think I 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.200 learned to do with all of how the madness of 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.880 this band and the incarnates of just are you kidding 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.080 me that if you wrote this down, you say, it's 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.800 not possible this bunch could possibly have survived with all 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:58.400 of the ups and downs and character changes and changing 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:00.960 the script as you go along, and yet there's still 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.840 a story. Peter started that and handed that to me. 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:09.640 I think when he welcomed everyone, including me, Danny Kerwin 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.440 who joined the original band, Jeremy Spencer, they were all 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:18.240 there so that Peter did not want to be king 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.840 Tut in the front there taking all the limelight, and 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.640 I think it was way more meaningful in sense of 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.000 where he came from. It's just he wanted to be 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.160 in a band, and he created that band and made 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:35.559 sure the band was not called Peter Greens anything, because 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.320 he could of very easily, and I always thank him 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.840 for that. The name Fleetwood Mac he was asked and 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.600 he said, well, I always thought that I would probably 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:49.200 move on, which he did under very strange circumstances, unfortunately 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.800 for us. And he said I wanted Mick and John 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.920 to have something. And I saw and heard this interview 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.920 years and years and years and years later, like finding 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.920 out a family relative will tell you what the real 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.280 story was, and sometimes it's mind blowing and sometimes it's 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:13.120 hugely moving and gratifying to hear. And that was one 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:13.640 of them. 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.880 You didn't start drumming till you were thirteen, correct. 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.640 Officially, but yeah, I would say I started hitting furniture 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:20.560 when I was about eight. 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:23.800 What changed when you were thirteen that you were like, 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:26.440 I want a drum now? On a serious level, what changed? 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:26.680 Oh? 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.920 I would think that first of all, being completely on 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:35.800 some shape or form, completely dyslexic, and had not one 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:41.200 iota of any academic prowess whatsoever at school. So there 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.400 I was struggling with great parents. So I never felt 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.200 threatened or less than that. I couldn't. I still don't 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.040 know my alphabet or I mean, if my whole family 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.000 was lined up, God forbid and said. 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:53.840 You don't have to. 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.520 Yeah, well I know, but a lot of people say 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.520 you're kidding me. It's a lot of people say about 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:02.720 what I do when I play drums. I said, actually, 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.360 I sort of really don't know what I'm doing, to 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.120 tell you the real truth, and they go, well, it's not. 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.400 Then they start arguing with you, go, how can you 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:12.960 do that? You're full of shit? You know, you know? 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:15.400 I said, no, no, it just comes out. I have 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.679 no idea, so I blundered into it. But I would 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.280 think that the love and the one thing that I 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.920 could grab onto was the fact that I for some reason, 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.040 I used to play tapping on furniture, which I mentioned 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.200 to back in Norway when I was much younger and 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.600 we'd traveled to Egypt. So I remember these leather little 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:39.080 funny we call them tufto's or something, things stuffed with 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:44.199 newspaper that sound really cool their leather. They're the sort 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:48.160 of Ottoman things. And I Mum would listen to the 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:50.800 home service and do the cleaning and have a Dubonne 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.880 and have a one cigarette of the day. This is 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.560 when I was probably about six or seven in Norway, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:02.240 and I remember listening to the radio and tapping on 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:05.320 I don't know why on furniture, but Daddy used to 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:09.280 tap on coins and do military things in his pocket, 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:13.720 and he would play bottles with water in them at parties. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.360 So I vaguely remember that. I don't think that's why 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.560 I did it, but I think my quantum leap was 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.600 a blessing and it was like a divine intervention of 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.360 sorts that the one thing I loved doing. I had 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.800 this obsession with collecting drum catalogs and fantasies of gold 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:35.040 and sparkling instruments that you were in my dream. So 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.040 at boarding school the last thing I did, I had 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:41.680 this whole package filled with brushures that opened one to 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.760 the other, and I think I saw my way out. 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.400 And when Dad said do you want to go to college, 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:50.520 and he didn't have any money, but he was obviously 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.840 making it available for me, and with tears in our eyes, 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:55.920 and I said, Daddy, I want to go to London 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.280 and play drums. And by that time I had had 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.320 my little drum kit, almost a toy drum kit, in 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:07.880 the house. And I think it was my learning disability 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.760 that drove me. By some happen sence, both my sisters 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.200 went into the arts. One was a very fine actress, 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.360 Susan with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and my elder sister 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.800 was an art student at the Polytechnic, so we were 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:26.600 all completely academically useless. So I had the blessing that 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.640 Mom and dad said, then, my god, it's probably the 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.760 only one thing he really thinks he can do. And 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:37.439 that was he encouraged you absolutely just I had complete 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:42.400 and utter, not one iota of any cynicism whatsoever, and 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:44.840 they sent me off with a drum kit to London 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.599 wrapped in a blanket. My father wrote a poem about. 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:54.520 It, mckfleetwood. If you love conversations with iconic musicians who 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.640 also happen to be members of long lasting bands, be 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.119 sure to check out my conversation with The Who's legendary 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:05.680 frontman Roger Daltrey from our archives. Daughtrey talked about the 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.160 first time he swung a microphone around on stage. No 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.280 one told me. I got used to myself once they. 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:14.839 Went into the free form in the early days in 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.880 the late sixties. It just came out of boredom I was. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.400 I couldn't stand there and be like Robert Plant. I 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.240 wasn't cool enough. I just needed to dance, So I 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:26.960 didn't want to dance like an ordinary dancer. So I 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.200 just started to play with it and it just got 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.400 bigger and energy and channel the energy. And then Pete 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.320 started jumping and that legendary jump of him. He's like 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:41.560 a kangaroo. And but the whole thing was kind of 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:43.960 in with the music. It became like a ballet, didn't it. 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:45.319 It was kind of extraordinary. 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.920 Here the rest of my conversation with Roger Daltrey and 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.480 here's the Thing dot Org. After the break we talk 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.840 about the women who became essential to the group's sound. 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:23.000 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:32.959 That's Christine mcvee performing the Songbird. Mcvee joined Fleetwood Mac 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:37.400 in nineteen seventy when Peter Green left. She'd married John 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.120 mcvee a couple of years before. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.719 Nicks joined in nineteen seventy five. I wanted to know 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.560 if when Christine joined there was any pressure to include 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:49.040 a woman. 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:54.439 Well, Christine, for sure, any lovely lady out that would 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.160 not take it wrong. She was a musician, and she 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:04.240 was a great piano player, and her experience was already 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.320 integrated with being I'm a player and It was nothing 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.200 of the sort that it was a woman or a man. 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.840 It was just who you are and what you do. Truly, 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.240 it was that and she cherishes that to this day 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:20.480 because we call her the rock. 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:20.880 You know. 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:25.560 She's like, she doesn't rely on anything other than no 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.200 prissy stuff. I am who I am, and am I 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.920 delivering what you need? And she has that respect. So 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:35.880 she came into the band as a player, literally, and 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.280 there was no thought she knew John, which had nothing 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:40.479 to do with it. 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:44.040 Is your name really perfect? Is it Christine perfect? Yeah? 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.720 And John would say she was perfect before she married me. 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:53.040 Well, Jack, So. 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.360 That was really it. It was not about having a 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.400 lady in the bout we need a girl, No, it 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.600 was about really really great musician, bloody good piano player. 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.000 Let me just say, let me interject this because it's true, 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.480 which is that in that world there is nobody who 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:14.320 casts on me like Christine mcne I mean, I love 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:18.160 her singing beyond believe. I mean she does something to 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:20.120 me that I can't even describe. She's her bir singing 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:21.160 is so beautiful, you. 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.680 Know, So I can second that, right right, right. 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.080 So she's with you in the band, and then you 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.000 decide to have another woman join the band. So Buckingham, 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:30.560 you asked him to join the band. 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:35.120 Yeah, Bob Welch had left at rather short notice, and 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.640 I knew Bob extremely well, really lovely, hugely interesting chap. 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.600 So he left. But prior to that, I've been in 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.800 the studio sound City to try and find a studio 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.880 to record the next album with Fleetwood. Matt he leaves 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:55.120 and I meet Stevie and Lindsay after the fact, having 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:59.160 heard Keith played to demonstrate the studio part of the 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:04.280 Buckham Nick Nick's album that he'd made with them, the album, 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:06.800 and then Bob left. Then I made a phone call 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:08.600 and I said, you know that music you were playing? 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:09.640 Who What? 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:10.240 How? 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:12.960 And you're right, I was looking for a guitar player. 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.720 So I forever have Stevie to this day in a 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.720 comedic sense, but always with a knife in my back 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.320 that it wasn't really me that you wanted, it was Lindsay, 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:29.080 which was true, and in very short form, Lindsay made 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.120 it very clear that if he was to join, which 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.640 was not a slam dunk at the beginning, because he 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.280 and Stevie were thinking about going forward in their own world, 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:43.440 and she actually persuaded Lindsay to join the band pretty much. 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.560 She got fed up with waiting tables and stuff, so 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:53.240 she came somewhat originally by default, and yet not because 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.960 the real story is it was very evident early on. 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.360 Although Stevie said, you know, loves to dig at me, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.359 it was that, first of all, Lindsay was incredibly loyal 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.480 to her and I'm not going to do this without her. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.760 Boom over. Then it didn't take a rocket scientist to 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.320 realize these songs, these beautiful songs were co written by 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.760 both Lindsay and Stevie. And then you listen to the 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.959 vocal blend, which is none other than going like when 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.159 you hear the Everly Brothers, you go like, oh my god, 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.840 that this joined at the hip and they came in 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.760 short form into the band as a duo, which was 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:38.520 a merciful decision when I look back, that Lindsay did 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.640 not desert her and said I'm here, but I'm here 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.120 with my partner, and that's how that happened. 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.840 I've asked other very successful artists, such as yourself in 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.880 the music world, what does a producer do for you 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:54.679 when you're in a studio, when you're making a record, 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:59.720 who's the decider, who decides what take what track, this 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.920 vocal track, this drum track, whatever. But when you had 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:05.560 a collaboration with the producer that helped you, what did 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:06.119 they do for you? 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.880 Well, I think the simple form would be that we 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.760 as a band no matter what, which is not always 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:14.800 the case, and it's not always the magic formula. A 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:19.080 lot of people just totally excel by being guided and 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.080 permanently told what to do and have a mirror that's 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.160 a reflection from another aspect, another interpretation of really who 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.720 they truly are, And that's fine. That was so not 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:35.240 how we grew up into and blustered into what we 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:40.399 were doing. So I would say that anyone that's worked, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:45.800 including Keith Mike Vernon, the first record producer, was probably 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.760 the most influential that he was a blues fanatic and 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:52.160 he ran that little label we were on called Blue 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.720 Horizon and after that, so he would be picking songs 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.959 here and there with Peter and the band. After that, 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.960 it's really about are you a band member meaning them? 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:08.760 How's the aesthetic of your chemistry being able to not 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.239 insist but integrate right into the fabric of being in 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.040 a band. And that's what I would always look out for, 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:22.000 and I think that's been our success has been absolute 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:28.400 expression with a mirror of sorts, but someone who's really 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:31.560 listening to and having an empathy with what am I 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:36.040 dealing with here, especially later on when we became very 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:41.840 much five separate, expressive people that whoever it was, you 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.320 have to look back on and give them huge amounts 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.840 of credit. Has been some form of a social director 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.480 more than an artistic director. And I lost all my 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:53.840 hair because I was both. 0:19:53.920 --> 0:20:01.640 But would you say, when you say five distinct beings, 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:04.040 there was a period when they weren't there were a 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:06.800 unit and they were a unit during what period? And 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.280 what was that like and what changed that? Musically? 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:16.080 Well, Fleetwood Mac was already a stage that existed, and 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.720 Fleetwood Mac was always about change so that you were 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:25.359 accepted for who you were. Anyone should express themselves. You know, 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.680 when I look back on it, that's in a naive 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.440 way what I must have understood, especially being a drama 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:33.119 when you go, oh, what the hell am I going 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:36.119 to do if I don't have a front line and 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:41.199 people that are delivering the play. You know, not to 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.800 diminish who I am and what I am, but that 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.240 was my function probably more than anything. So they came 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:52.159 as different characters walking on that stage, and if you 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.879 see and hear the music, you go none of it 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.320 makes any sense. None of them were clones of anyone. 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:03.320 They were all completely their own entity. So what they 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:04.280 had to learn. 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:05.560 Was to be in a band. 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:10.160 Everyone was extremely unhappy emotionally on the making of rumors 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.280 and Lindsay's sitting on the floor and it's tough. You know, 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:17.920 no one ever intended to leave or anything. But one 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.359 time I remember sitting in the studio at the record 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.240 plant with Lindsay and he just turned around and said, 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:25.919 I don't know where I can do this, you know, 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:31.560 it's just, you know, we're in transition here. And his 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.919 interpretation was can I be in a band? Can I 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:38.199 be in a band? Especially with the pressure of is 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:42.320 this what it's like being in a band? You're emotionally exposed? 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:45.159 And everyone was. We were all in you know, I'm 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:47.679 drifting into the area where we promised we wouldn't go. 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:50.320 But so I just sat with him and he was 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.920 playing a setar I remember it distinctly, and I said, 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:59.000 then you must go. If it's self preservation don't destroy that. 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:04.359 Don't destroy us because of the play in essence, Peter Green. Yeah, 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:07.800 And I said, I don't have any ultimate apart from 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:09.840 if it's that bad, then you have to go. And 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.360 then I segued and I said, this is what it is. 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.600 Everything is a compromise. When you're walking on a stage 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.080 and sharing that that stage and this is that stage, 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:25.240 and I'm not forcing you. I'd extremely sad if halfway 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.920 through an album you just can't finish it out. And 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:32.760 he didn't say much. He just said I understand, and 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:33.399 he stayed. 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:35.640 A guy once said to me, and he was much 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:37.800 younger than me, and this is maybe like ten years ago. 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:39.840 I was in my early fifties. It was in the 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:44.240 lines of advice to him for his career, and I said, well, 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:47.439 do you really want like the cold, hard, unvarnished You 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:49.800 want it with the bark On or the bark off? Yeah, 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:52.000 And I said, if you want it with the bark On, 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.000 then don't get married till you're forty, don't have any 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:57.800 kids to your forty, give yourself you're not just your 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:00.560 twenties but your thirties. Give this everything thing you have. 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:02.800 If you want to be an actor, with a real 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:05.520 prime If you want to be Leo DiCaprio, you want 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:06.840 to be a guy who's like at the top of 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:09.080 the pile and making movies with the best directors, the 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:12.320 best scripts. Everything's the best, the budgets, the release dates, everything. 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:14.800 If you want to surf that wave all the way 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:17.280 to the shore, then you have to make this the 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:19.280 most important thing in your life. Do you find that 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:20.440 that was true for you as well? 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:24.440 I think in retrospect we didn't know because you're in it. 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:28.080 But as a comment, I think it's entirely correct and 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:33.120 proven out in no uncertain terms of time and time 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:34.400 and time and time and time and time. 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:34.720 Again. 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:38.480 Are the miracles that slip through and survive like a 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:41.160