WEBVTT - Mick Fleetwood Skates Back into the Charts 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.520 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:22.960 from I Heart Radio. That is, of course Dreams by 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.760 Fleetwood Mac. Thanks to a TikTok of some guy on 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.120 a skateboard who goes by the name dog Face lip 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:34.479 syncing to this song and his seventy two million views, 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.960 Fleetwood Max album rumors broke through Rolling Stones Top on 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:44.400 list again last year, more than forty years after its release. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.120 My guest today is Mick Fleetwood, a founding member of 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.920 Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac existed for nearly a decade before 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.640 the lineup we think of today with Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:02.720 Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie at Stevie Nicks. But when Fleetwood 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.880 Mac formed in London in the late nineties sixties, it 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.360 was Peter Green's idea. Well, I would be remiss. Peter 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.560 Green started Fleetwood Matt the original guitar player. I was 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.400 at his right hand side, John McVie. All of us 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:20.759 have played in the band called John Males Blues Breakers, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.120 Eric McK taylor, Peter Green. They and I'm saying that 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:29.000 because they were represent great guitar players that came out 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.520 of that band that have more than made their mark 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.640 in my world. And so Peter asked me to play drums, 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.800 and I already had played with them in a funny 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.760 band with Rod Stewart for a short while, so we 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.319 won't go into that. So it was it was really 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:48.840 a team of people that Peter John mcvigh especially came 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.720 out of a pedigree which was absolute devotion to an 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.920 art form, the blues, and really all our heroes were 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.440 American blues artists, and you are well, aw I can 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.000 tell about the irony of of a bunch of funny, 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:08.200 little white kids in England really preserving an art form 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:12.079 that had long since been you know, I won't use 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:14.760 the bad word, but you know, pooped on by the 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:19.399 American sort of glossing over of something that was so evident. 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:24.200 So we were all from that framework and when we 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:28.240 formed Fleetwood Mac, it was all about our lovely, semi 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:32.919 innocent way of emulating our heroes. And if you listen 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.720 to the first few albums that we made before Peter 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.280 especially started really writing, like when you look at early 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.880 Rolling Stones, it's Bow Diddley and Chuck Berry and with 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.680 anyone you see the development into self expression and that's 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.480 what transpired afterwards. But the original band was all about 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:57.200 that and a little team of people sharing something and 0:02:57.440 --> 0:02:59.760 having a lot of fun with it, you know, creatively 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.880 turned into something a little bit more than we ever 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.919 could have possibly have imagined. The year that you formed 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.320 the band with Green, what year was that seven Winstor 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.919 Jazz Festival and the band was called Fleetwood Mac by 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.160 Peter Green, who could have very easily become the Jeff 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.960 Beck or the Jimmy Page or the Eric Clapton gun 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:29.160 slinger guitar player. That's a whole another story. Is is 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.840 a lovely story and an attribute to Peter's generosity. We 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:37.000 played the Winstor Jazz Festival intending, as you can tell 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.480 with the name Fleetwood Mac. The name was my name 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.320 and John McVie, which Peter chose, and John was still 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.560 playing in John Male's Blues Breakers on the same show. 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.640 Watched the band he's supposed to be in from from 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.839 the side of the stage, and about three months later 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.800 he joined. He's a Scotsman, so he's very thrifty with 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.160 whatever amount of mon he does have, So when we 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.120 had enough gigs he said I'm ready to join, which 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.120 was of course when you made it worth my while. 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.840 When it worth I know there'll be no net loss 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.800 in my income. I'll meet you there at the club. 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.719 And that's what happened. And when you say that Green 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.640 could have been in this pantheon of great guitar players, 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:22.520 because it's something he didn't want. That he did not 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.400 want that level of fame and that level of attention. No, 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.400 it was very evident. And the end story, which of 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:33.240 course went into a very changed personally, he was my 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.440 dearest of dearest of friends and my mentor. You know, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:41.159 he gave me so much encouragement as a player and 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:46.680 super fun person but unbelievably deep down, way more sensitive 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:50.400 than a bunch of chaps, including himself, had ever realized. 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:53.600 And he eventually became sick and so came to a 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.240 sort of journey that was for a while was living 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.760 a living tragedy for me, uh offishly. But then you 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.760 learned to accept him as he turned out. But back 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:10.800 then everything he did was about being just really generous. 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:15.000 And I read an article after you know you you think, well, 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.680 what was the real story, And for instance would be 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.160 that someone asked him why was the bank hall Fleetwood 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.360 mac And he said well, I figured at that point, 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.240 I've broken up with my lovely girlfriend Jenny, who are 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:33.680 later married, and I played with Peter, and he had 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.120 his eyes on another drummer, as it turned out, and 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.919 he said, why did you pick Mick? And of course 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.000 my little less than self would would have thought, well, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.120 maybe you thought I was a good drummer, you know. 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.159 And what it was, he said, I wanted Mike to 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.000 play the drums because I got so fed up with 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:54.560 seeing him so sad that I thought it would give 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:56.920 him something to do. And I thought that was the 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.920 greatest thing that you could ever hear from a lovely friend. 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.520 And that really sums it up about how it was 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:08.320 not about him. And he created a platform which served me. Well, 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.680 my father, it was an Air Force chap. So the 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:16.120 word to serve, to serve, Well, that's what I think 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.960 I learned to do. With all of how the madness 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.840 of this band and and and the incarnates of just 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.120 are you kidding me? That if you wrote this down 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.720 you would say, it's not possible this bunch could possibly 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.159 have survived with all of the ups and downs and 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.680 character changes and changing the script as you go along, 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:38.839 And yet there's still a story. Peter started that and 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.880 handed that to me. I think when he he welcomed everyone, 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:48.600 including me, Danny Cowen who joined the original band, Jeremy Spencer. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.360 They were all there so that Peter did not want 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.920 to be king Tut in the front there taking all 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.919 the limelight, and I think it was way more meaning 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.039 full in sense of of where he came from. It's 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.120 just he wanted to be in a band, and he 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.240 created that band and made sure the band was not 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.679 called Peter Green's anything, because he could are very easily, 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:15.760 and I always thank him for that. The name Fleetwood 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.280 Mac he was asked and he said, well, I always 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.200 thought that I would probably move on, which he did 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:27.200 under very strange circumstances, unfortunately for us. And he said 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.800 I wanted Mick and John to have something. And I 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:35.000 saw and heard this interview years and years and years 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.120 and years later. It's like finding out a family relative 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.880 will tell you what the real story was. And sometimes 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.800 it's mind blowing, and sometimes it's hugely moving and gratifying 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.160 to hear, and that was one of them. He didn't 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:53.760 start drumming till you were thirteen, correct officially, but yeah, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:55.880 I would say I started hitting furniture when I was 0:07:55.920 --> 0:08:00.240 about eight. What change when you were thirteen? You want 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:02.560 a drum? Now, on a serious level, what changed? Oh? 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.840 I would think that, first of all, been completely on 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:11.200 some shape or form, completely dyslexic, and had had not 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:16.720 one iota of any academic prowess whatsoever at school. So 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.800 there I was struggling with great parents. So I never 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.840 felt threatened or less than that. I couldn't. I still 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.520 don't know my arthrobet or I mean, if my whole 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.360 family was lined up God forbid and said you don't 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.440 have to well, I know, but a lot of people say, 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.240 you're kidding me. It's a lot of people say about 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.600 what I do when I play drums. I said, actually, 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.480 sort of really don't know what I'm doing, to tell 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.000 you the real truth, and and you go, well, it's not. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.240 Then they start arguing with you, go, how can you 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.800 do that? You're full of ship, you know, you know? 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.320 I said, no, no, it just comes out. I have 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.520 no idea. So I blundered into it. But I would 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.160 think that the love and the one thing that I 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:01.760 could grab onto was the fact that I, for some reason, 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.920 I used to play tapping on furniture, which I mentioned 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.080 to back in Norway when I was much younger and 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.520 we traveled to Egypt. So I remember these leather little 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.960 funny we call them tuftos or something things stuff with 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:20.080 newspaper that sound really cool with their leather. Theyather sort 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.840 of out ottoman things, and and I Mom would listen 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:25.920 to the home service and do the cleaning and have 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.400 a Dubonne and have a one cigarette of the day. 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.520 This is when I was probably about six or seven 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.680 in Norway, and I remember listening to the radio and 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.600 tapping on I don't know why on furniture, but Daddy 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.160 used to tap on on coins and do military things 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.520 in his pocket and he would play bottles with water 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.480 in them at parties, so I vaguely remember that. I 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.880 don't think that's why I did it, but I think 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.720 my quantum lead was a blessing and it was like 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.719 a divine intervention of sorts that the one thing I 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.880 love doing. I had this obsession with collecting drum catalogs 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:09.720 and fantasies of gold and sparkling instruments that you know, 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.280 we're my dream. So at boarding school, the last thing 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:16.319 I did, I had this whole package filled with brushes, 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.880 opened one to the other, and I think I saw 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.360 my way out. And when Dad said, do you want 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.079 to go to college, and he didn't have any money, 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.480 but he was obviously making it available for me, and 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:30.800 with tears in our eyes, and I said, Daddy, I 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.080 want to go to London and play drums. And by 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.680 that time I had had my little drum kit, almost 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.720 a toy drum kit, in the house. And I think 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.840 it was my learning disability that drove me by Some 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.760 happened since both my sisters went into the arts. One 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.960 was a very fine actress, Susan with the Royal Shakespeare Company, 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:57.080 and my elder sister was an art student at the Polytechnic, 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:01.400 so we were all completely academically use us. So I 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.800 had the blessing that Mom and Dad said, then, my god, 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.160 it's probably the only one thing he really thinks he 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:11.719 can do. And that wasn't encouraged you, absolutely just I 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:17.880 had complete and utter, not one iota of any cynicism whatsoever, 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.160 And they sent me off with a drum kit to 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:22.839 London wrapped in the blanket. My father wrote a poem 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:27.240 about it. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:31.679 the thing If you love conversations with iconic musicians who 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.840 also happy to be members of long lasting bands, be 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.359 sure to check out my conversation with The Who's legendary 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.920 frontman Roger Daughtry from our Archives. Daughtry talked about the 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.360 first time he swung a microphone around on stage. No 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.920 one told me, I just yourself. Once they went into 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.119 the free form in the early days, the late sixties, 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:55.920 it just came out of boredom I was. I couldn't 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.520 stand here and be like Robert Plant. I wasn't tall enough. 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:00.960 I just needed to dance, but I didn't want to 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.920 dance like an ordinary dancer. So I just started to 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.160 play with it and it just got bigger and dig 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.760 energy and channel the energy. And then Pete started jumping, 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.760 and that legendary jump of him like a kangaroos. Really 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.880 and uh, but the whole thing was kind of in 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.200 with the music. It became like a ballet, didn't it. 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.480 It was kind of extraordinary. Here the rest of my 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.640 conversation with Roger Daltrey that here's the thing dot Org. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.160 After the break, we talked about the women who became 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:55.160 essential to the group's sound. I'm Alec Baldwin, and you're 0:12:55.200 --> 0:13:07.720 listening to here's the thing. Damn, that's Christine McVie performing Songbird. 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:13.040 McVie joined Fleetwood mag in nineteen seventy when Peter Green left. 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.200 She had married John McVeigh a couple of years before 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:21.720 Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined in. I wanted to 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:25.240 know if when Christine joined there was any pressure to 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:30.319 include a woman. Well, Christine for sure, and any lovely 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.240 lady out there would not take it wrong. She was 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:37.720 a musician and she was a great piano player, and 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:44.000 her experience was already integrated with being I'm a player, 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:46.760 and it was nothing of the sort that it was 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.720 a woman or a man. It was just who you 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.320 are and what you do. Truly, it was that and 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.200 she cherishes that to this day because we call her 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.640 the rock. You know. She's like, she doesn't rely on 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.800 anything other than no pussy stuff. I am who I am, 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.280 and am I delivering what you need? And she has 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.640 that respect. So she came into the band as a player, literally, 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.000 and there was no thought she she knew John, which 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:17.959 had nothing to do with it. Part from is your 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.360 maiden name really perfect? Is it Christine? Perfect? Yeah? And 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:27.800 John would say she was perfect before she married me. Well, Jack, 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.440 so that was really it. It was not about having 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.640 a lady and about we need a girl. No, it 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.840 was about a really, really great musician, bloody good piano player. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.240 Let me just say, let me interject this because it's true, 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.720 which is that in that world there is nobody who 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.920 cast a spell on me like Christine lick They. I mean, 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.400 I love her singing beyond belief. I mean, she just 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:56.480 she does something to me that I can't even describe. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.520 She she singing is so beautiful. You know I can 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.400 second that, right. So she's with you in the band, 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.240 and then you decided to have another woman joined the band. 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.400 So Buckingham, you asked him to join the band. Yeah, 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.360 but Bob Welch had left at rather short notice, and 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.800 I knew Bob extremely well, really lovely, hugely interesting chap 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:19.840 so he left. But prior to that, I've been in 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:24.120 the studio sound City to try and find a studio 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.080 to record the next album with Fleetwood. Matt he leaves 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.360 and I meet Stevie and Lindsay after the fact, having 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.400 heard Keith played to demonstrate the studio part of a 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.480 Buckham Nick Nick's album that he'd made with them, the 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.600 the album, and then Bob left and I made a 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.360 phone call and I said, you know that music you 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.840 were playing? Who What? How? And you're right, I was 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.400 looking for a guitar player. So I forever have Stevie 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.880 to this day in a comedic sense, but always with 0:15:55.920 --> 0:16:00.240 a knife in my back. It wasn't really me that 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.720 you wanted, It was Lindsay, which was true, and in 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.920 very short form, Lindsay made it very clear that if 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.920 he was to join, which was not a slam dunk 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.880 at the beginning, because he and Stevie were thinking about 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.720 going forward in their own world, and she actually persuaded 0:16:17.960 --> 0:16:22.280 Lindsay to join the band pretty much. She got fed 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:27.280 up with waiting tables and stuff, so she came somewhat 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.480 originally by default, and yet not because the real story 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:35.600 is it was very evident early on, although Stevie said, 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:39.160 you know loves to dig at me, it was that, 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.880 first of all, Lindsay was incredibly loyal to her and 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.160 I'm not going to do this without her. Boom over. 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:51.160 Then it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize these songs, 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:55.240 these beautiful songs were co written by both Lindsay and Stevie, 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.280 and then you listen to the vocal blend, which is 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:01.400 none other than going. When you hear the Evely Brothers, 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:05.080 you go like, oh my god, that has joined at 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.439 the hip. And they came in short form into the 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:13.919 band as a duo, which was merciful decision when I 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:18.119 look back that Lindsay did not desert he and and 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.239 said I'm here, but I'm here with my partner, and 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:25.200 that's how that happened. I've asked other very successful artists, 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.720 such as yourself in the music world, what does a 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.720 producer do for you? When you're in a studio, when 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:34.520 you're making a record. Who's the decider, who decides what 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:39.200 take what track, this vocal track, this drum track, whatever. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.600 But when you had a collaboration with the producer that 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.399 helped you, what did they do for you? Well, I 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.439 think the simple form would be that we as a 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.320 band no matter what, which is not always there and 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.760 it's not always the magic formula. A lot of people 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:57.719 just totally excel by being guided and permanently told what 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.520 to do and have a mirror. That's a reflection from 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:05.200 another aspect, another interpretation of really who who they truly are, 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:10.000 and that's fine. That was so not how we grew 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:13.560 up into and blustered into what we were doing. So 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:19.000 I would say that anyone that that's worked, including Keith. 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.640 Mike Vernon, the first record producer, was probably the most 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.080 influential that he He was a blues fanatic and he 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.920 ran that little label we were on called Blue Horizon 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.200 and after that, so he would be picking songs here 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.239 and there with with Peter and the band. After that, 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.040 it's really about are you a band member meaning them? 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.960 How's the aesthetic of your chemistry being able to not 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.439 insist but integrate right into the fabric of being in 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:54.040 a band. And that's what I would always look out for, 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.160 and I think that's been the our success has been 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:04.960 absolute suppression with a mirror of sorts, but someone who's 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.720 really listening to and having an empathy with what am 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:12.240 I dealing with here, especially later on when we became 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:18.479 very much five separate, expressive people that whoever it was, 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.160 you have to look back on and give them huge 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.520 amounts of credit. Has been some form of a social 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:29.600 director more than an artistic director. And I lost all 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:34.040 my hair because I was both. But that would you 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:39.560 say when you say five separate, distinct beings, there was 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.199 a period when they weren't there were a unit, and 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.320 they were a unit during what period? And what was 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:49.040 that like and what what changed that? Musically? Well, Fleetwood 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:54.200 Mac was already a stage that existed, and Fleetwood Mac 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.760 was always about change, so that you were accepted for 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.600 who you were and one should express themselves. You know, 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:04.879 when I look back on it, that's in a naive 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.680 way what I must have understood, especially being a drama 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:10.320 when you go, well, what the hell am I going 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.800 to do if I don't have a frontline and people 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:19.000 that are delivering the play. You know, not to diminish 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.240 who I am and what I am. But that was 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.200 my function probably more than anything. So they came as 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.840 different characters walking on that stage, and if you see 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.360 and hear the music, you go none of it makes 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.040 any sense. None of them were clones of anyone. They 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:40.840 were all completely their own entity. So what they had 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.919 to learn was to be in a band. Everyone was 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:48.040 extremely unhappy emotionally and on the making of rumors and 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.680 Lindsay's sitting on the floor and it's it's it's tough. 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.480 You know, no one ever intended to leave or anything. 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.159 But one time I remember sitting in the studio at 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.080 the record plant with Lindsay and he just turned and 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.720 I said, I don't know where I can do this, 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.400 you know, it's just, you know, we're in transition here. 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:11.399 And his interpretation was, can I be in a band? 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.800 Can I be in a band? Especially with the pressure 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.040 of is this what it's like being in a band? 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.159 You're emotionally exposed? And everyone was. We were all in, 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:24.320 you know, I'm drifting into the area where we promised 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:27.240 we wouldn't go. But so I just sat with him 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:30.680 and he was playing a star, remember it distinctly, and 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.640 I said, then you must go. If it's self preservation, 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:39.360 don't destroy that, don't destroy yourself because of the play 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:43.119 in essence Peter Green, Yeah, And I said I don't 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.200 have any ultimate apart from if it's that bad, then 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:48.400 you have to go. And then I segued and I said, 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:53.440 this is what it is. Everything is a compromise. When 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.480 you're walking on a stage and sharing that that stage 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:59.840 and this is that stage, and I'm not forcing you. 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:04.320 Extremely sad if halfway through an album you just can't 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:08.040 finish it out. And he didn't say much. He just said, 0:22:08.440 --> 0:22:12.160 I understand, and he stayed. A guy once said to me, 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:14.080 and he was much younger than me, and this is 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:16.120 maybe like ten years ago, was in my early fifties. 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.040 It was in the lines of advice to him for 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:22.280 his career, and I said, well, do you really want 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.159 like the cold, hard unvarness. You want to put the 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:28.160 bark on or the bark off? And I said, if 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:30.240 you want to put the bark on, then don't get 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.520 married to your forty, don't have any kids to your forty. 0:22:33.760 --> 0:22:36.080 Give yourself. You're not just your twenties, but your thirties. 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:38.600 Give this everything you have. If you want to be 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.480 an actor with a real prime if you want to 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:43.440 be Leo DiCaprio, you want to be a guy who's 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:45.280 like at the top of the pile and making movies 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:47.640 with the best director, of the best scripts. Everything's the best, 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:50.480 the budgets, the release dates, everything. If you want to 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:53.600 surf that wave all the way to the shore, then 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:55.320 you have to make this the most important thing in 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:57.119 your life. Do you find that that was true for 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.600 you as well? I think in retrospect we didn't know 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:03.119 because you're you're in it. But as a comment, I 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:07.520 think it's entirely correct and and and proven out in 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.800 no uncertain terms of time and time and time and 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.600 time and time and time. Again. Are the miracles that 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:16.880 slipped through and survive like a built in version of 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:20.320 what you've just said. In terms of advice, yeah, few 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:24.879 and far between. It really puts a wall that you 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.560 don't even realize that you're putting up, where you're so 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:32.240 into what you're doing that people get left out and 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:35.560 feel pushed away. So ideally, I think your your advice 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.439 is entirely correct, but that advice is always always in 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:43.440 retrospect for anyone. It's always always. But I'm wondering also 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:48.080 with three men, I mean as Asleep with Mac is 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:51.320 most renowned for its three men and two women, and 0:23:51.359 --> 0:23:53.960 neither one of those women has children? Correct? Were the 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:55.919 people that they were going through life and they were like, well, 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:57.440 we're going to get to that, And the next year 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:00.639 they turned around they were like, wow, we like nothing. 0:24:00.920 --> 0:24:04.600 You know, I would say if either Chris or Stevie, 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:09.359 I feel comfortable in this conversation saying there was no 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:14.200 doubt that they made that decision. Two dedicate their lives 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:18.600 to their careers with flashes of what if. But I 0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:22.800 think both of these ladies would have no problem saying 0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:28.360 that that was the order of the conscious choice. Yeah. Interesting, 0:24:28.480 --> 0:24:32.000 very interesting. Now when people ask me about my drug use, 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:34.200 I say that I snorted a line of cocaine from 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:37.280 here to Saturn. Then we did a line of cocaine 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:39.480 on the rings of Saturn, and then we took it 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:47.520 home with another I'm sure is that possible? I think 0:24:47.800 --> 0:24:51.400 your your description is that actually more far reaching than mine, 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:56.080