Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio. That is, of course Dreams by
Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac. Thanks to a TikTok of some guy on
Speaker 1: a skateboard who goes by the name dog Face lip
Speaker 1: syncing to this song and his seventy two million views,
Speaker 1: Fleetwood Max album rumors broke through Rolling Stones Top on
Speaker 1: list again last year, more than forty years after its release.
Speaker 1: My guest today is Mick Fleetwood, a founding member of
Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac existed for nearly a decade before
Speaker 1: the lineup we think of today with Mick Fleetwood, John McVie,
Speaker 1: Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie at Stevie Nicks. But when Fleetwood
Speaker 1: Mac formed in London in the late nineties sixties, it
Speaker 1: was Peter Green's idea. Well, I would be remiss. Peter
Speaker 1: Green started Fleetwood Matt the original guitar player. I was
Speaker 1: at his right hand side, John McVie. All of us
Speaker 1: have played in the band called John Males Blues Breakers,
Speaker 1: Eric McK taylor, Peter Green. They and I'm saying that
Speaker 1: because they were represent great guitar players that came out
Speaker 1: of that band that have more than made their mark
Speaker 1: in my world. And so Peter asked me to play drums,
Speaker 1: and I already had played with them in a funny
Speaker 1: band with Rod Stewart for a short while, so we
Speaker 1: won't go into that. So it was it was really
Speaker 1: a team of people that Peter John mcvigh especially came
Speaker 1: out of a pedigree which was absolute devotion to an
Speaker 1: art form, the blues, and really all our heroes were
Speaker 1: American blues artists, and you are well, aw I can
Speaker 1: tell about the irony of of a bunch of funny,
Speaker 1: little white kids in England really preserving an art form
Speaker 1: that had long since been you know, I won't use
Speaker 1: the bad word, but you know, pooped on by the
Speaker 1: American sort of glossing over of something that was so evident.
Speaker 1: So we were all from that framework and when we
Speaker 1: formed Fleetwood Mac, it was all about our lovely, semi
Speaker 1: innocent way of emulating our heroes. And if you listen
Speaker 1: to the first few albums that we made before Peter
Speaker 1: especially started really writing, like when you look at early
Speaker 1: Rolling Stones, it's Bow Diddley and Chuck Berry and with
Speaker 1: anyone you see the development into self expression and that's
Speaker 1: what transpired afterwards. But the original band was all about
Speaker 1: that and a little team of people sharing something and
Speaker 1: having a lot of fun with it, you know, creatively
Speaker 1: turned into something a little bit more than we ever
Speaker 1: could have possibly have imagined. The year that you formed
Speaker 1: the band with Green, what year was that seven Winstor
Speaker 1: Jazz Festival and the band was called Fleetwood Mac by
Speaker 1: Peter Green, who could have very easily become the Jeff
Speaker 1: Beck or the Jimmy Page or the Eric Clapton gun
Speaker 1: slinger guitar player. That's a whole another story. Is is
Speaker 1: a lovely story and an attribute to Peter's generosity. We
Speaker 1: played the Winstor Jazz Festival intending, as you can tell
Speaker 1: with the name Fleetwood Mac. The name was my name
Speaker 1: and John McVie, which Peter chose, and John was still
Speaker 1: playing in John Male's Blues Breakers on the same show.
Speaker 1: Watched the band he's supposed to be in from from
Speaker 1: the side of the stage, and about three months later
Speaker 1: he joined. He's a Scotsman, so he's very thrifty with
Speaker 1: whatever amount of mon he does have, So when we
Speaker 1: had enough gigs he said I'm ready to join, which
Speaker 1: was of course when you made it worth my while.
Speaker 1: When it worth I know there'll be no net loss
Speaker 1: in my income. I'll meet you there at the club.
Speaker 1: And that's what happened. And when you say that Green
Speaker 1: could have been in this pantheon of great guitar players,
Speaker 1: because it's something he didn't want. That he did not
Speaker 1: want that level of fame and that level of attention. No,
Speaker 1: it was very evident. And the end story, which of
Speaker 1: course went into a very changed personally, he was my
Speaker 1: dearest of dearest of friends and my mentor. You know,
Speaker 1: he gave me so much encouragement as a player and
Speaker 1: super fun person but unbelievably deep down, way more sensitive
Speaker 1: than a bunch of chaps, including himself, had ever realized.
Speaker 1: And he eventually became sick and so came to a
Speaker 1: sort of journey that was for a while was living
Speaker 1: a living tragedy for me, uh offishly. But then you
Speaker 1: learned to accept him as he turned out. But back
Speaker 1: then everything he did was about being just really generous.
Speaker 1: And I read an article after you know you you think, well,
Speaker 1: what was the real story, And for instance would be
Speaker 1: that someone asked him why was the bank hall Fleetwood
Speaker 1: mac And he said well, I figured at that point,
Speaker 1: I've broken up with my lovely girlfriend Jenny, who are
Speaker 1: later married, and I played with Peter, and he had
Speaker 1: his eyes on another drummer, as it turned out, and
Speaker 1: he said, why did you pick Mick? And of course
Speaker 1: my little less than self would would have thought, well,
Speaker 1: maybe you thought I was a good drummer, you know.
Speaker 1: And what it was, he said, I wanted Mike to
Speaker 1: play the drums because I got so fed up with
Speaker 1: seeing him so sad that I thought it would give
Speaker 1: him something to do. And I thought that was the
Speaker 1: greatest thing that you could ever hear from a lovely friend.
Speaker 1: And that really sums it up about how it was
Speaker 1: not about him. And he created a platform which served me. Well,
Speaker 1: my father, it was an Air Force chap. So the
Speaker 1: word to serve, to serve, Well, that's what I think
Speaker 1: I learned to do. With all of how the madness
Speaker 1: of this band and and and the incarnates of just
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? That if you wrote this down
Speaker 1: you would say, it's not possible this bunch could possibly
Speaker 1: have survived with all of the ups and downs and
Speaker 1: character changes and changing the script as you go along,
Speaker 1: And yet there's still a story. Peter started that and
Speaker 1: handed that to me. I think when he he welcomed everyone,
Speaker 1: including me, Danny Cowen who joined the original band, Jeremy Spencer.
Speaker 1: They were all there so that Peter did not want
Speaker 1: to be king Tut in the front there taking all
Speaker 1: the limelight, and I think it was way more meaning
Speaker 1: full in sense of of where he came from. It's
Speaker 1: just he wanted to be in a band, and he
Speaker 1: created that band and made sure the band was not
Speaker 1: called Peter Green's anything, because he could are very easily,
Speaker 1: and I always thank him for that. The name Fleetwood
Speaker 1: Mac he was asked and he said, well, I always
Speaker 1: thought that I would probably move on, which he did
Speaker 1: under very strange circumstances, unfortunately for us. And he said
Speaker 1: I wanted Mick and John to have something. And I
Speaker 1: saw and heard this interview years and years and years
Speaker 1: and years later. It's like finding out a family relative
Speaker 1: will tell you what the real story was. And sometimes
Speaker 1: it's mind blowing, and sometimes it's hugely moving and gratifying
Speaker 1: to hear, and that was one of them. He didn't
Speaker 1: start drumming till you were thirteen, correct officially, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say I started hitting furniture when I was
Speaker 1: about eight. What change when you were thirteen? You want
Speaker 1: a drum? Now, on a serious level, what changed? Oh?
Speaker 1: I would think that, first of all, been completely on
Speaker 1: some shape or form, completely dyslexic, and had had not
Speaker 1: one iota of any academic prowess whatsoever at school. So
Speaker 1: there I was struggling with great parents. So I never
Speaker 1: felt threatened or less than that. I couldn't. I still
Speaker 1: don't know my arthrobet or I mean, if my whole
Speaker 1: family was lined up God forbid and said you don't
Speaker 1: have to well, I know, but a lot of people say,
Speaker 1: you're kidding me. It's a lot of people say about
Speaker 1: what I do when I play drums. I said, actually,
Speaker 1: sort of really don't know what I'm doing, to tell
Speaker 1: you the real truth, and and you go, well, it's not.
Speaker 1: Then they start arguing with you, go, how can you
Speaker 1: do that? You're full of ship, you know, you know?
Speaker 1: I said, no, no, it just comes out. I have
Speaker 1: no idea. So I blundered into it. But I would
Speaker 1: think that the love and the one thing that I
Speaker 1: could grab onto was the fact that I, for some reason,
Speaker 1: I used to play tapping on furniture, which I mentioned
Speaker 1: to back in Norway when I was much younger and
Speaker 1: we traveled to Egypt. So I remember these leather little
Speaker 1: funny we call them tuftos or something things stuff with
Speaker 1: newspaper that sound really cool with their leather. Theyather sort
Speaker 1: of out ottoman things, and and I Mom would listen
Speaker 1: to the home service and do the cleaning and have
Speaker 1: a Dubonne and have a one cigarette of the day.
Speaker 1: This is when I was probably about six or seven
Speaker 1: in Norway, and I remember listening to the radio and
Speaker 1: tapping on I don't know why on furniture, but Daddy
Speaker 1: used to tap on on coins and do military things
Speaker 1: in his pocket and he would play bottles with water
Speaker 1: in them at parties, so I vaguely remember that. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's why I did it, but I think
Speaker 1: my quantum lead was a blessing and it was like
Speaker 1: a divine intervention of sorts that the one thing I
Speaker 1: love doing. I had this obsession with collecting drum catalogs
Speaker 1: and fantasies of gold and sparkling instruments that you know,
Speaker 1: we're my dream. So at boarding school, the last thing
Speaker 1: I did, I had this whole package filled with brushes,
Speaker 1: opened one to the other, and I think I saw
Speaker 1: my way out. And when Dad said, do you want
Speaker 1: to go to college, and he didn't have any money,
Speaker 1: but he was obviously making it available for me, and
Speaker 1: with tears in our eyes, and I said, Daddy, I
Speaker 1: want to go to London and play drums. And by
Speaker 1: that time I had had my little drum kit, almost
Speaker 1: a toy drum kit, in the house. And I think
Speaker 1: it was my learning disability that drove me by Some
Speaker 1: happened since both my sisters went into the arts. One
Speaker 1: was a very fine actress, Susan with the Royal Shakespeare Company,
Speaker 1: and my elder sister was an art student at the Polytechnic,
Speaker 1: so we were all completely academically use us. So I
Speaker 1: had the blessing that Mom and Dad said, then, my god,
Speaker 1: it's probably the only one thing he really thinks he
Speaker 1: can do. And that wasn't encouraged you, absolutely just I
Speaker 1: had complete and utter, not one iota of any cynicism whatsoever,
Speaker 1: And they sent me off with a drum kit to
Speaker 1: London wrapped in the blanket. My father wrote a poem
Speaker 1: about it. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's
Speaker 1: the thing If you love conversations with iconic musicians who
Speaker 1: also happy to be members of long lasting bands, be
Speaker 1: sure to check out my conversation with The Who's legendary
Speaker 1: frontman Roger Daughtry from our Archives. Daughtry talked about the
Speaker 1: first time he swung a microphone around on stage. No
Speaker 1: one told me, I just yourself. Once they went into
Speaker 1: the free form in the early days, the late sixties,
Speaker 1: it just came out of boredom I was. I couldn't
Speaker 1: stand here and be like Robert Plant. I wasn't tall enough.
Speaker 1: I just needed to dance, but I didn't want to
Speaker 1: dance like an ordinary dancer. So I just started to
Speaker 1: play with it and it just got bigger and dig
Speaker 1: energy and channel the energy. And then Pete started jumping,
Speaker 1: and that legendary jump of him like a kangaroos. Really
Speaker 1: and uh, but the whole thing was kind of in
Speaker 1: with the music. It became like a ballet, didn't it.
Speaker 1: It was kind of extraordinary. Here the rest of my
Speaker 1: conversation with Roger Daltrey that here's the thing dot Org.
Speaker 1: After the break, we talked about the women who became
Speaker 1: essential to the group's sound. I'm Alec Baldwin, and you're
Speaker 1: listening to here's the thing. Damn, that's Christine McVie performing Songbird.
Speaker 1: McVie joined Fleetwood mag in nineteen seventy when Peter Green left.
Speaker 1: She had married John McVeigh a couple of years before
Speaker 1: Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined in. I wanted to
Speaker 1: know if when Christine joined there was any pressure to
Speaker 1: include a woman. Well, Christine for sure, and any lovely
Speaker 1: lady out there would not take it wrong. She was
Speaker 1: a musician and she was a great piano player, and
Speaker 1: her experience was already integrated with being I'm a player,
Speaker 1: and it was nothing of the sort that it was
Speaker 1: a woman or a man. It was just who you
Speaker 1: are and what you do. Truly, it was that and
Speaker 1: she cherishes that to this day because we call her
Speaker 1: the rock. You know. She's like, she doesn't rely on
Speaker 1: anything other than no pussy stuff. I am who I am,
Speaker 1: and am I delivering what you need? And she has
Speaker 1: that respect. So she came into the band as a player, literally,
Speaker 1: and there was no thought she she knew John, which
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. Part from is your
Speaker 1: maiden name really perfect? Is it Christine? Perfect? Yeah? And
Speaker 1: John would say she was perfect before she married me. Well, Jack,
Speaker 1: so that was really it. It was not about having
Speaker 1: a lady and about we need a girl. No, it
Speaker 1: was about a really, really great musician, bloody good piano player.
Speaker 1: Let me just say, let me interject this because it's true,
Speaker 1: which is that in that world there is nobody who
Speaker 1: cast a spell on me like Christine lick They. I mean,
Speaker 1: I love her singing beyond belief. I mean, she just
Speaker 1: she does something to me that I can't even describe.
Speaker 1: She she singing is so beautiful. You know I can
Speaker 1: second that, right. So she's with you in the band,
Speaker 1: and then you decided to have another woman joined the band.
Speaker 1: So Buckingham, you asked him to join the band. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Bob Welch had left at rather short notice, and
Speaker 1: I knew Bob extremely well, really lovely, hugely interesting chap
Speaker 1: so he left. But prior to that, I've been in
Speaker 1: the studio sound City to try and find a studio
Speaker 1: to record the next album with Fleetwood. Matt he leaves
Speaker 1: and I meet Stevie and Lindsay after the fact, having
Speaker 1: heard Keith played to demonstrate the studio part of a
Speaker 1: Buckham Nick Nick's album that he'd made with them, the
Speaker 1: the album, and then Bob left and I made a
Speaker 1: phone call and I said, you know that music you
Speaker 1: were playing? Who What? How? And you're right, I was
Speaker 1: looking for a guitar player. So I forever have Stevie
Speaker 1: to this day in a comedic sense, but always with
Speaker 1: a knife in my back. It wasn't really me that
Speaker 1: you wanted, It was Lindsay, which was true, and in
Speaker 1: very short form, Lindsay made it very clear that if
Speaker 1: he was to join, which was not a slam dunk
Speaker 1: at the beginning, because he and Stevie were thinking about
Speaker 1: going forward in their own world, and she actually persuaded
Speaker 1: Lindsay to join the band pretty much. She got fed
Speaker 1: up with waiting tables and stuff, so she came somewhat
Speaker 1: originally by default, and yet not because the real story
Speaker 1: is it was very evident early on, although Stevie said,
Speaker 1: you know loves to dig at me, it was that,
Speaker 1: first of all, Lindsay was incredibly loyal to her and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do this without her. Boom over.
Speaker 1: Then it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize these songs,
Speaker 1: these beautiful songs were co written by both Lindsay and Stevie,
Speaker 1: and then you listen to the vocal blend, which is
Speaker 1: none other than going. When you hear the Evely Brothers,
Speaker 1: you go like, oh my god, that has joined at
Speaker 1: the hip. And they came in short form into the
Speaker 1: band as a duo, which was merciful decision when I
Speaker 1: look back that Lindsay did not desert he and and
Speaker 1: said I'm here, but I'm here with my partner, and
Speaker 1: that's how that happened. I've asked other very successful artists,
Speaker 1: such as yourself in the music world, what does a
Speaker 1: producer do for you? When you're in a studio, when
Speaker 1: you're making a record. Who's the decider, who decides what
Speaker 1: take what track, this vocal track, this drum track, whatever.
Speaker 1: But when you had a collaboration with the producer that
Speaker 1: helped you, what did they do for you? Well, I
Speaker 1: think the simple form would be that we as a
Speaker 1: band no matter what, which is not always there and
Speaker 1: it's not always the magic formula. A lot of people
Speaker 1: just totally excel by being guided and permanently told what
Speaker 1: to do and have a mirror. That's a reflection from
Speaker 1: another aspect, another interpretation of really who who they truly are,
Speaker 1: and that's fine. That was so not how we grew
Speaker 1: up into and blustered into what we were doing. So
Speaker 1: I would say that anyone that that's worked, including Keith.
Speaker 1: Mike Vernon, the first record producer, was probably the most
Speaker 1: influential that he He was a blues fanatic and he
Speaker 1: ran that little label we were on called Blue Horizon
Speaker 1: and after that, so he would be picking songs here
Speaker 1: and there with with Peter and the band. After that,
Speaker 1: it's really about are you a band member meaning them?
Speaker 1: How's the aesthetic of your chemistry being able to not
Speaker 1: insist but integrate right into the fabric of being in
Speaker 1: a band. And that's what I would always look out for,
Speaker 1: and I think that's been the our success has been
Speaker 1: absolute suppression with a mirror of sorts, but someone who's
Speaker 1: really listening to and having an empathy with what am
Speaker 1: I dealing with here, especially later on when we became
Speaker 1: very much five separate, expressive people that whoever it was,
Speaker 1: you have to look back on and give them huge
Speaker 1: amounts of credit. Has been some form of a social
Speaker 1: director more than an artistic director. And I lost all
Speaker 1: my hair because I was both. But that would you
Speaker 1: say when you say five separate, distinct beings, there was
Speaker 1: a period when they weren't there were a unit, and
Speaker 1: they were a unit during what period? And what was
Speaker 1: that like and what what changed that? Musically? Well, Fleetwood
Speaker 1: Mac was already a stage that existed, and Fleetwood Mac
Speaker 1: was always about change, so that you were accepted for
Speaker 1: who you were and one should express themselves. You know,
Speaker 1: when I look back on it, that's in a naive
Speaker 1: way what I must have understood, especially being a drama
Speaker 1: when you go, well, what the hell am I going
Speaker 1: to do if I don't have a frontline and people
Speaker 1: that are delivering the play. You know, not to diminish
Speaker 1: who I am and what I am. But that was
Speaker 1: my function probably more than anything. So they came as
Speaker 1: different characters walking on that stage, and if you see
Speaker 1: and hear the music, you go none of it makes
Speaker 1: any sense. None of them were clones of anyone. They
Speaker 1: were all completely their own entity. So what they had
Speaker 1: to learn was to be in a band. Everyone was
Speaker 1: extremely unhappy emotionally and on the making of rumors and
Speaker 1: Lindsay's sitting on the floor and it's it's it's tough.
Speaker 1: You know, no one ever intended to leave or anything.
Speaker 1: But one time I remember sitting in the studio at
Speaker 1: the record plant with Lindsay and he just turned and
Speaker 1: I said, I don't know where I can do this,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just, you know, we're in transition here.
Speaker 1: And his interpretation was, can I be in a band?
Speaker 1: Can I be in a band? Especially with the pressure
Speaker 1: of is this what it's like being in a band?
Speaker 1: You're emotionally exposed? And everyone was. We were all in,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm drifting into the area where we promised
Speaker 1: we wouldn't go. But so I just sat with him
Speaker 1: and he was playing a star, remember it distinctly, and
Speaker 1: I said, then you must go. If it's self preservation,
Speaker 1: don't destroy that, don't destroy yourself because of the play
Speaker 1: in essence Peter Green, Yeah, And I said I don't
Speaker 1: have any ultimate apart from if it's that bad, then
Speaker 1: you have to go. And then I segued and I said,
Speaker 1: this is what it is. Everything is a compromise. When
Speaker 1: you're walking on a stage and sharing that that stage
Speaker 1: and this is that stage, and I'm not forcing you.
Speaker 1: Extremely sad if halfway through an album you just can't
Speaker 1: finish it out. And he didn't say much. He just said,
Speaker 1: I understand, and he stayed. A guy once said to me,
Speaker 1: and he was much younger than me, and this is
Speaker 1: maybe like ten years ago, was in my early fifties.
Speaker 1: It was in the lines of advice to him for
Speaker 1: his career, and I said, well, do you really want
Speaker 1: like the cold, hard unvarness. You want to put the
Speaker 1: bark on or the bark off? And I said, if
Speaker 1: you want to put the bark on, then don't get
Speaker 1: married to your forty, don't have any kids to your forty.
Speaker 1: Give yourself. You're not just your twenties, but your thirties.
Speaker 1: Give this everything you have. If you want to be
Speaker 1: an actor with a real prime if you want to
Speaker 1: be Leo DiCaprio, you want to be a guy who's
Speaker 1: like at the top of the pile and making movies
Speaker 1: with the best director, of the best scripts. Everything's the best,
Speaker 1: the budgets, the release dates, everything. If you want to
Speaker 1: surf that wave all the way to the shore, then
Speaker 1: you have to make this the most important thing in
Speaker 1: your life. Do you find that that was true for
Speaker 1: you as well? I think in retrospect we didn't know
Speaker 1: because you're you're in it. But as a comment, I
Speaker 1: think it's entirely correct and and and proven out in
Speaker 1: no uncertain terms of time and time and time and
Speaker 1: time and time and time. Again. Are the miracles that
Speaker 1: slipped through and survive like a built in version of
Speaker 1: what you've just said. In terms of advice, yeah, few
Speaker 1: and far between. It really puts a wall that you
Speaker 1: don't even realize that you're putting up, where you're so
Speaker 1: into what you're doing that people get left out and
Speaker 1: feel pushed away. So ideally, I think your your advice
Speaker 1: is entirely correct, but that advice is always always in
Speaker 1: retrospect for anyone. It's always always. But I'm wondering also
Speaker 1: with three men, I mean as Asleep with Mac is
Speaker 1: most renowned for its three men and two women, and
Speaker 1: neither one of those women has children? Correct? Were the
Speaker 1: people that they were going through life and they were like, well,
Speaker 1: we're going to get to that, And the next year
Speaker 1: they turned around they were like, wow, we like nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, I would say if either Chris or Stevie,
Speaker 1: I feel comfortable in this conversation saying there was no
Speaker 1: doubt that they made that decision. Two dedicate their lives
Speaker 1: to their careers with flashes of what if. But I
Speaker 1: think both of these ladies would have no problem saying
Speaker 1: that that was the order of the conscious choice. Yeah. Interesting,
Speaker 1: very interesting. Now when people ask me about my drug use,
Speaker 1: I say that I snorted a line of cocaine from
Speaker 1: here to Saturn. Then we did a line of cocaine
Speaker 1: on the rings of Saturn, and then we took it
Speaker 1: home with another I'm sure is that possible? I think
Speaker 1: your your description is that actually more far reaching than mine,
Speaker 1: a planetary version, but my version of that would be
Speaker 1: and I never lived it down. But you know, I
Speaker 1: have no problem at all apart from don't go there.
Speaker 1: And and then you have the war stories, which this
Speaker 1: is sort of tending to be. And I'll preface it
Speaker 1: by saying war stories are fine, but there's a time
Speaker 1: and place and what can you learn from them would
Speaker 1: be my little lesson for anyone listening. So, having said that,
Speaker 1: my transgression was, which was some awful interview I did,
Speaker 1: and I said, well, I one time, you know, I
Speaker 1: was in the studio and I'm talking about my how
Speaker 1: much coke do you think I've ever done? This was
Speaker 1: like in our private world, and we measured out a
Speaker 1: good semi fat line of cocaine and then duplicated it,
Speaker 1: and then X amount of years, so in the last
Speaker 1: something something amount of years we actually worked it out
Speaker 1: instead of cutting tape and editing the song together. We
Speaker 1: got into a transgression of actually working out probably about
Speaker 1: how long would that line be? And it was seven
Speaker 1: miles long apparently, And I never lived that down and
Speaker 1: years al especially in England, whether they love all that
Speaker 1: terrible stuff, and I have to sit there not talking
Speaker 1: about and you would be like someone talking about something
Speaker 1: in your life versus the play I'm in or the
Speaker 1: script I've just written, or the book I've just you know,
Speaker 1: and you go and you go like, well, live with it,
Speaker 1: because you opened your mouth in the first place all
Speaker 1: those years ago, and mine would be one of probably
Speaker 1: quite a few transgressions in terms of that. But comedically
Speaker 1: so I still get asked, you know, was it really
Speaker 1: seven miles long? And I looked down to my trousers
Speaker 1: and well, I wished, you know, I'm thirty five years sober.
Speaker 1: I get sober a long time ago in l A.
Speaker 1: For you, did you feel that when that stopped? Because
Speaker 1: for me, when it stopped, there were good things, but
Speaker 1: they were also bad things because you're forced to in
Speaker 1: front of everything. You know, if you are if you
Speaker 1: go out in the world and you don't drink and
Speaker 1: you don't take drugs, and then I'm not commenting on you,
Speaker 1: but speaking for myself, you are kind of unarmored and
Speaker 1: you need to go out and face the world that
Speaker 1: you need to resolve all your problems. You can't sit
Speaker 1: in the problem anymore. You've got to resolve things and
Speaker 1: confront things and clean up the mass and so forth.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering for you what happened to you musically
Speaker 1: once you stopped abusing yourself. Well, I still drink, but
Speaker 1: the marching powder was a massive part of my life
Speaker 1: for probably way over twenty years, just a long time.
Speaker 1: I don't even know. It's a fucking miracle. So that's
Speaker 1: a long time to have that that problem. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I was known as the King of twot and everyone
Speaker 1: would always know that I would wouldn't hold it, you know.
Speaker 1: And then I did hit a brick wall and it
Speaker 1: was like slow motion. And my mother Biddy would always say,
Speaker 1: because they're hugely support, almost blindly supported, I's no problem
Speaker 1: at all. Whenever he wants to stop it can stop. It,
Speaker 1: you know, all those catchphrases, and I always sort of
Speaker 1: thought that I could. And then I hit a brick
Speaker 1: walk literally and someone that I shared my life with said,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm done. I can't be around this anymore, and
Speaker 1: I said, please don't go leave me alone for two days,
Speaker 1: and that's what I did and never touched the stuff
Speaker 1: since overnight. It's divine intervention, but it's also misplaced in
Speaker 1: terms of that. That's when I probably should have gone
Speaker 1: into a program and found out what you touched on,
Speaker 1: what were those reasons? And I've done that since a
Speaker 1: couple of times with drink and had a sort of
Speaker 1: a wake up call, and I just thought it was fun.
Speaker 1: I was around people telling me literally countless horror stories
Speaker 1: of what had happened to them, especially when there were
Speaker 1: children and young and I had no support and and
Speaker 1: all sorts of terrible things, and I just said, I
Speaker 1: feel so terrible because I just thought it was fun
Speaker 1: until it wasn't. And I still actually haven't found the
Speaker 1: key of what was that My parents didn't drink on.
Speaker 1: Julie had an incredible supportive childhood, but that brick wall
Speaker 1: was Was it insecurity about being in public? Maybe I
Speaker 1: think being famous, I mean Fleetwood Mac I men, this
Speaker 1: music was coming out of every clamshell on the beach
Speaker 1: for a while. Every horse in the park was singing
Speaker 1: you can go your own where you know. It was
Speaker 1: like this music was everywhere, everywhere. There were so many
Speaker 1: songs that were just washing over you. Was like in
Speaker 1: the air all the time. Was that unsettling for you?
Speaker 1: Fame and all that attention. Did you need to medicate
Speaker 1: yourself to get through that period? I would say immediately
Speaker 1: noticed how quickly I wan't no, But I do get
Speaker 1: nervous about performing. If someone said make a speech and
Speaker 1: read the speech to three thousand people, I would be
Speaker 1: really put upon go out on stage and just talk
Speaker 1: to someone I love, not even a question. I know
Speaker 1: people around me that all of the trimmings of of
Speaker 1: what you just mentioned would be. Was that something that
Speaker 1: freaked you out? I have to say no, because of
Speaker 1: the way I was brought up. It was just fantastic
Speaker 1: and and fun and and but actually performing and delivering
Speaker 1: certain aspects I would have to say, did bring out
Speaker 1: a fundamental some form of academic calling out that you
Speaker 1: don't know quite what you're doing, and therefore of shooting itself.
Speaker 1: And therefore I know for a fact. For years and
Speaker 1: I played sober for fifteen years, the real truth is
Speaker 1: I didn't enjoy it. So when I play now, I
Speaker 1: have one bottle of red wine and I'm fairly well behaved,
Speaker 1: and without it, I can't even breathe. And I've I've
Speaker 1: tried hypnosis, I've tried everything known to mankind to get
Speaker 1: over it and breathing, and I had a guy like
Speaker 1: men meditating with me on the road when I really
Speaker 1: really really really really didn't drink. All I can say
Speaker 1: is that instead of enjoying myself, I had my road
Speaker 1: manager with a brown paper bag so I could breathe
Speaker 1: into it to stop myself getting high anxiety. I don't
Speaker 1: enjoy it, and it's because of the element, which is
Speaker 1: nothing to do with fame and fortune. It's actually who
Speaker 1: are you? What are you in the moment and being
Speaker 1: called out like being in the class that I didn't
Speaker 1: I didn't know Mick Fleetwood. Subscribe to Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. While you're there, leave us a review.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. Few bands have managed to survive
Speaker 1: longer than Fleetwood Mac. When we return the surprising resurgence
Speaker 1: of interest in the band's seven album rumors, Yes, the
Speaker 1: same kind of story, it seems. That's the song hypnotized
Speaker 1: recorded during the Bob Welch era of Fleetwood Mac. Mick
Speaker 1: Fleetwood has been the drummer of Fleetwood Mac for more
Speaker 1: than fifty years. And as there's usually one person in
Speaker 1: every long lasting band that brings them back together, I
Speaker 1: asked who was that person for Fleetwood Mac. It would
Speaker 1: be me and and that was and is and has
Speaker 1: been my function. I imaged it a while ago. Not
Speaker 1: nonely big deal. But I'm going like, because I don't write,
Speaker 1: I don't sing, although I'm enjoying doing some of that now,
Speaker 1: which is interesting, really actually interesting to be able to
Speaker 1: make a private fool of yourself with no pressure. I said,
Speaker 1: I think my story would be and I'm really happy
Speaker 1: about it and quietly proud of it. That my function
Speaker 1: was that I drifted into it, I learned it, and
Speaker 1: me and John always wanted to have a band to
Speaker 1: be in. Why wouldn't you? And I said, I think
Speaker 1: that story, sorry, is my song. You're a musical catilog
Speaker 1: can seen so many beautiful songs. It's beautiful music, and
Speaker 1: the poetry is beautiful, and the lyrics it still moves
Speaker 1: you to this day. Yeah. I take that as a
Speaker 1: lovely compliment on behalf of all of us in this
Speaker 1: crazy band, and thank you. And I think there is
Speaker 1: sometimes almost the lighthearted part of Fleetwood Mac or whatever
Speaker 1: word one wants to use, the sort of the poppy
Speaker 1: part of it was always balanced out by a form
Speaker 1: of reveal of a form of very often some romance
Speaker 1: of of sadness, and entertaining that type of dialogue would
Speaker 1: be for me is songbird, and there of course our others.
Speaker 1: But I remember when Chris wrote that, and I actually
Speaker 1: spoke very recently to her about it. We just drifted
Speaker 1: into a conversation and she totally remembered, and I went, Chris,
Speaker 1: this is like Edith pf on a stage alone. And
Speaker 1: she was in the studio at the record plant, and
Speaker 1: I said, this needs to be lonely. We should record
Speaker 1: it in an empty theater, not in a shag carpet studio.
Speaker 1: Let's go and do that. And we did, and we
Speaker 1: went to college over in Berkeley and recorded that song.
Speaker 1: As the imaging of it was so devastating to me.
Speaker 1: I said, you are alone, You are alone playing this lovely,
Speaker 1: lovely song, and it should be all of that. And
Speaker 1: that's exactly what we did. It was. It was the
Speaker 1: most pregnant suite moment around the song that I can tell.
Speaker 1: In our short conversation, some including Stevie Nicks, and we
Speaker 1: read about Dylan's going to sell his catalog and David
Speaker 1: Crosby is getting ready to sell his catalog. And I
Speaker 1: guess in this Cove era and beyond, in the age
Speaker 1: of streaming music, people are seeing the sources of revenue
Speaker 1: dry up. Certainly, some of these people are older, they're
Speaker 1: you know, they're not selling their catalog and they're in
Speaker 1: their thirties or whatever. But what do you think of them?
Speaker 1: I think it's great. It is I'm sure it's not
Speaker 1: for everyone or whatever. But I think the circumstances has
Speaker 1: triggered so many things. This would be one of them.
Speaker 1: I think that those decisions may or may not have
Speaker 1: been made anyhow, who's to say why not? And a
Speaker 1: body of work that is to be quite frankly translated
Speaker 1: into all sorts of lovely things for these people, whatever
Speaker 1: that might be. Because the people are talking about they
Speaker 1: certainly don't need any money from the most part, but no,
Speaker 1: well I say, let's say we doubt it. So it
Speaker 1: becomes something that will grow into all sorts of other
Speaker 1: things one would imagine. Um, what they might be is
Speaker 1: their business, you know. And one of the things I
Speaker 1: think his family. I think a lot of people are
Speaker 1: handing down to family ahead of time versus you know,
Speaker 1: people picking through when you're God forbid, whenever that moment comes.
Speaker 1: And to see family enjoying stuff that can be allocated
Speaker 1: before you do pop off. So, if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: Rumors is the best selling album again now as the
Speaker 1: direct result of some guy on a skateboard swinging down
Speaker 1: cranberry juice. What did you think and what did you
Speaker 1: think of when you first came across the TikTok phenomena
Speaker 1: that has occurred? Well, I know him as Nathan. His
Speaker 1: online name is dog Face, and it is quite believe
Speaker 1: all hell was breaking loose because he made a decision
Speaker 1: one day to do his thing. It happened in the
Speaker 1: most charming way. And then someone said, well would you
Speaker 1: would you? I said, well, I can't get on a skateboards.
Speaker 1: I hung myself off the back of a of a
Speaker 1: golf cart and did the thing. And the next thing
Speaker 1: I know, we're all on halftime sports programs and god
Speaker 1: knows what else his whole life has changed. Uh. And
Speaker 1: I actually loved it because it was so not thought of.
Speaker 1: One of the lovely things I was able to say
Speaker 1: on a zoom call. He was doing an interview in
Speaker 1: England with some very upstanding BBC chap and he had
Speaker 1: no idea I was going to come on the zoom call.
Speaker 1: So that's when I first met him, you know, face
Speaker 1: to face, and and his family came on. They sang
Speaker 1: songs to me and stuff, and I said, let me
Speaker 1: tell you, Nathan Fleetwood macOS, it's been a fantastic moment
Speaker 1: in time that that when a wall and typical Fleetwood Matt.
Speaker 1: Just when you think, you know, we've survived, We've been
Speaker 1: really lucky, you know, and so many some of the
Speaker 1: things we've touched on in our talk, where as hopeless odds,
Speaker 1: we've prevailed. And I always joke about, especially with Lindsey
Speaker 1: Buckingham years ago. I used to sit with him and
Speaker 1: you go like, we are the most abused rock and
Speaker 1: roll franchise in the world. Meaning we've never capitalized on anything. Really,
Speaker 1: we're all idiots, but it's sort of good and we're
Speaker 1: still here. It's unbelievable. I mean again, I say this
Speaker 1: because it's easy, and that is you're still here and
Speaker 1: people are picking songs of yours too, soundtrack, they're kind
Speaker 1: of playfulness, TikTok and so forth, because the music is great.
Speaker 1: I mean you, and you're going back to hypnotized and Welsh.
Speaker 1: I love hypnotized. I love Mystery to me. I love
Speaker 1: I love those early records. I play them to death.
Speaker 1: I love everything the guys and then solo acts, Christie,
Speaker 1: you know, Stevie, solo albums, blah blah blah. I love
Speaker 1: it all. But I mean you. You live in people's
Speaker 1: hearts because the music is that good. You guys made
Speaker 1: some of the greatest music in the history of the
Speaker 1: music that sins. Thank you so much now, it's been
Speaker 1: an absolute pleasure. And I remember something my father said,
Speaker 1: and it seems to really apply to a lot of
Speaker 1: the storytelling about this funny life and most certainly Fleetwood
Speaker 1: Mac and the fact that there have been all sorts
Speaker 1: of ups and downs and around the Marlbury Bush and
Speaker 1: pain and a lot of happiness as well. My dad
Speaker 1: would always say one thing, Mick, I can tell you
Speaker 1: it's all been worth a dam. And and hearing you
Speaker 1: say that about the music makes me feel that it's
Speaker 1: all been worth a dam. And thank you, lots of
Speaker 1: loved you and my love to you, Nick Flipworthy and
Speaker 1: the radio, I'm Alec Baldwin and this is here's the
Speaker 1: thing from my heart. Radio can leave and you lad
Speaker 1: no no K, I'm gonna I'm gonna be