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If you thinkFleetwood Macis “everywhere,” you may be right.
Over their more than fifty years of ups and downs as a band, Fleetwood Mac has been celebrated for hits like “Dreams,” “Landslide,” “Rhiannon” and “Don’t Stop.”
Despite many well-documented,tumultuous relationshipsover the years, which included the McVies' divorce, Buckingham and Nicks' split, and Fleetwood’s marriage from his wife, Jenny, dissolving, the band churned out records. Amid personal turmoils, they recorded the Grammy-winning albumRumoursin 1976; it has become one of thebest-selling records of all time, selling over 40 million copies.
“We were all in an emotional ditch. Everybody knew everything about everybody. But I was the piggy in the middle because I had less trauma than the others,” Fleetwood told PEOPLE in 1977 ofrecording the album.
Fleetwood Mac went on to release follow-up LPs and solo projects until 1987, when they had a 10-week tour scheduled to promote their fourteenth studio album,Tango in the Night.Buckingham wasn’t thrilled with how his creativity was handled and quit the band. In the years that followed, the lineup shifted as members left and rejoined the group, but the core five would come together for special occasions and select tours. In total, the band recorded eighteen studio albums and nine live albums over the decades.
“When I decided I wanted to write a book about rock ‘n’ roll, I kept coming back to that moment when Lindsey watched Stevie sing ‘Landslide,’ " Reid wrote in a 2019 blog forHello, Sunshine. “I wanted to write a story about that, about how the lines between real life and performance can get blurred, about how singing about old wounds might keep them fresh.”
Reid has noted that other ’70s rockers influenced her fictional band, includingBruce Springsteen,Joni Mitchelland The Eagles, but she “started with the germ of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac.” “I’d always been fascinated with them ever since I was a kid,” she said in aPenguin Books interview.
In 1998, Fleetwood Mac was inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame. Original or early members Fleetwood, John McVie, Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan were inducted, as well as Christine McVie, Nicks and Buckingham.
“I did not demand he be fired,” Nicks said in a statement. “Frankly, I fired myself. I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my well-being. I was done. If the band went on without me, so be it.”
Fleetwood Mac in 2018.Dia Dipasupil/Getty
In June 2022, Christine toldRolling Stonethat Fleetwood Mac “kind of broke up” following that last tour of nearly 100 shows. If they were to reunite, she wanted estranged bandmate Buckingham to join them, but Christine had said her health wasn’t good enough for a farewell tour anyway.
“I don’t communicate with Stevie very much either,” she said, noting that Fleetwood Mac “as we know it” no longer existed. “When we were on the last tour, we did a lot. We always sat next to each other on the plane and we got on really well. But since the band broke up, I’ve not been speaking to her at all.”
Christinedied five months lateraftersuffering a stroke. Ahead of the 2023 Grammys, Fleetwood said the band is likely no more.
“I would say the band is done. The thought of doing things without [Christine] right now seem to be very far-fetched,” the drummer toldAccess Hollywood.“After a while of healing, who knows what may or may not happen, but I would suspect that Fleetwood Mac is put to bed … It’s a bit of a tall order to imagine doing something as Fleetwood Mac, but stranger things have happened. It’s been a strange band all together, and we have survived loss in the past, but it’s sort of unthinkable right now.”
Here’s a look into the lives of the members of Fleetwood Mac, then and now.
Stevie Nicks, 74
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A singer, songwriter and producer, Stevie Nicks was born Stephanie Nicks in Phoenix, Arizona, on May 26, 1948. Her father, Jess Nicks, was the vice president of Greyhound, and the family moved frequently, living in major cities in the southwest and California. Nicks received her first guitar at 16 and joined her first band, the folk-rock group Changing Times, while in high school in Arcadia, California.
She met Lindsey Buckingham during her senior year at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California. Buckingham asked her to join his psychedelic rock band, Fritz, and both attended San Jose State University before dropping out to further pursue their music careers. Fritz called it quits in 1972 and the pair released the albumBuckingham Nicksthe following year to little commercial attention. She joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 after Buckingham was invited and insisted that the two were a package deal. Her songs like “Landslide,” “Dreams” and “Gypsy” would go on to become some of the band’s most famous tunes.
Nicks and Buckingham’s relationship went through tumultuous ups and downs over the years but sheended things in 1976, shortly before the recording of the band’s most successful album to date,Rumours.
“When we joined Fleetwood Mac, I said, ‘OK, this is what we’ve been working for since 1968. And so Lindsey, you and I have to sew this relationship back up. We have too much to lose here,'” Nicksrecalled toBillboardin 2014 of working with her ex at the height of the band’s fame.
She later had a brief affair with bandmate Mick Fleetwood while he was still married to his wife, dated Don Henley in 1977 and 1978, was briefly married to Kim Anderson in 1983, and was in a partnership with Joe Walsh from 1983 to 1986.
As the lead singer, Nicks contributed greatly to Fleetwood Mac’s success, writing their biggest hit, “Dreams,” which was the band’s onlyBillboard100 hit, as well as “Rhiannon” and “Gold Dust Woman.” She embarked on a solo career in 1981 with the albumBella Donna. She recorded seven more solo studio albums and two live ones, with her biggest solo hits including “Edge of Seventeen,” “Leather and Lace” and “After the Glitter Fades.”
“I loved being in a band. Until 1981, I was not the least bit interested in having a solo career,” she said in 2021 onTim McGraw’s Apple Music Country showBeyond the Influence Radio. “Even when I decided I did want to do a solo record, I was not at all interested in leaving my band and not being in a band anymore. I just wrote way too many songs for Fleetwood Mac.”
Nicks wasinducted into the rock and Roll Hall of Fameas a solo artist in 2019, marking the first time a woman received the honor twice. In recent years, she’s collaborated with some of today’s biggest artists, includingMiley Cyruson 2020’s"Edge of Seventeen” and “Midnight Sky” mashup, “Edge of Midnight (Midnight Sky Remix).” She went on a limited tour in 2022, her first since before the COVID-19 pandemic, andreturned to the Hollywood Bowlin Los Angeles. In March 2023, she embarked on a nine-dateco-headling tourwithBilly Joelcalled “Two Icons, One Night.”
In May 2023, Nicks spokeabout McVie’s deathduring a concert in Atlanta, mentioning that aTaylor Swiftsong, “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” helped her process her grief. “That is the sadness of how I feel,” Nicks said.
The “Landslide” singer also took a moment to look back on her relationship with McVie. She recalled a sisterly relationship that could withstand long periods of time apart. “It was like never a minute had passed. Never an argument in our entire 47 years — never,” she recalled.
Lindsey Buckingham, 73
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The lead guitarist and singer of Fleetwood Mac as well as a music producer, Lindsey Buckingham, was born in Palo Alto, California, on Oct. 3, 1949, to Rutheda and Morris Buckingham. He attended Menlo-Atherton High School, where he met his muse and future bandmate, Stevie Nicks, and briefly attended San Jose State University with her before they left to pursue music full-time. He was a part of the psychedelic rock group Fritz, which he invited Nicks to join as a backing singer, and the two began dating after the band split in 1972.
He left the band for the first time following the group’s 1987 album,Tango in the Night. Initially reuniting with the band for a one-night-only performance in 1993 at the request of then-presidentBill Clinton, he officially rejoined the group in 1997. In addition to his work with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham has dropped seven solo studio and three live albums. His most popular was his debut, 1981’sLaw and Order, which spawned the charting single, “Trouble.” He also released an eponymous 2017 collaborative album with bandmate Christine McVie.
In 2018, Buckingham waskicked out of Fleetwood Macfollowing an in-group disagreement after a MusiCares performance. Heplaced the blame on Nicks, telling PEOPLE, “Stevie basically gave the band an ultimatum that either I had to go or she would go. It would be like [Mick] Jagger saying, ‘Well, either Keith [Richards] has to go or I’m going to go.’ " He would end up filing a lawsuit in October 2018 that was settled two months later and he has sincereconciled with Fleetwood.
Though Buckingham told PEOPLE he wasn’t happy with how he was released from the band, he is opento rejoining them, saying, “Mick knows I would come back like a shot. But I’m not hanging my hat on all that.” In order to do so, he would have to reconcile with Nicks, whomhe said he hadn’t spoken to since she texted him followinghis 2019 open-heart surgery.
After his infamous relationship with Nicks ended in 1976, Buckingham lived with model and record company secretary Carol Ann Harris until 1984. He went on to marryKristen Messnerin 2000, whom he met in the late ’90s after Messner photographed him for a solo album. The pair share three adult children, daughters Leelee and Stella and son William. In 2021, Buckingham and Messner announcedthey were divorcing, but three months after the filing, the musician told PEOPLE the two were “working on our relationship.” Outside of music and love, he participated in theviral “Dreams” TikTok challenge, taking to horseback for the occasion.
Known for his fingerpicking style,Rolling Stonenamed Buckingham one of their top 100 greatest guitarists of all time in 2015. “It’s not acceptable classical technique,” he has said of his guitar style, according to the outlet. “You do what you can to get the sound you want.”
His most recent musical collaborations included a guest appearance onHalsey’s 2021 album,If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, and joining The Killers onstage in Los Angeles in August 2022. He canceled a handful of European tour dates in late 2022 due toongoing health issues.
Mick Fleetwood, 75
Richard E. Aaron/Redferns ; Ethan Miller/WireImage
The only member to be with the band since its iteration was co-founderMick Fleetwood. The self-taught drummer was born on June 24, 1947, in Cornwall, England, the second child of Bridget and Joseph Fleetwood. His father was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and the family moved with him to Egypt and Norway; Fleetwood learned Norwegian while attending school in the latter. Joseph was also a poet and amateur drummer, and he and his wife encouraged their son’s artistic pursuits, supporting Fleetwood’s decision to drop out of school at 15 to move to London to pursue music.
Fleetwood was part of the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, performing for the first time at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival in August 1967. Their first fixed lineup consisted of Fleetwood, John McVie (replacing bassist Bob Brunning), Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. They released their first album in 1968,Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, to succeed in their native England, but the band found their footing and more permanent lineup after moving to Los Angeles in 1974.
Rumoursmay not have happened if it weren’t for Fleetwood finding a new recording location in Sausalito, California, and keeping the group together there when members wanted to record elsewhere or began fighting amidst dissolving relationships. Fleetwood was cited as working his calming magic again when the band made 1979’sTusk, shortly after he was diagnosed with diabetes.
In addition to his work with Fleetwood Mac, the musician worked on a number of side projects, including forming Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo in 1983, performing on his bandmate’s solo albums, co-writing 1990’sFleetwood—My Life and Adventures with Fleetwood Mac, and acting in small roles, including 1987’sThe Running Man.He is also the reason that the BRIT Awards were pre-recorded for 18 years after aco-hosting gigwent wrong in 1989.
After taking his twins to aHarry Stylesconcert in 2014, Fleetwood struck up a friendship with the “Watermelon Sugar” singer, and became the face of the younger musician’s brand,Pleasing, in 2022.
Fleetwood’s seventh and most recent solo record, Mick Fleetwood and Friend’sCelebrate the Music of Peter Green, dropped in 2021. In addition to his artistic pursuits, Fleetwood is a vino and restauranteur with a namesake wine line, Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar.
In 2012, the drummer opened the bar and restaurant Fleetwood’s on Front St., as well as Fleetwood’s General Store, in Maui, Hawaii. In August 2023, the former was “closed until further notice” when it sustained damage during theMaui wildfires.
Christine McVie, died at 79
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Christine McVie, the keyboardist and vocalist for Fleetwood Mac, was born into a musical family in Bouth, England, on July 12, 1943. Her father, Cyril Percy Abseil Perfect, was a concert violinist and music lecturer at a local school, and her grandfather played the organ in Westminster Abbey, while her mother, Beatrice Edith Maud (Reece) Perfect, was medium and psychic.
While continuing to record with Fleetwood Mac, she released three solo albums, including a self-titled record in 1984 that peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard 200 and one in 2004 during semi-retirement. She earned the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 1998. She took a 15-year break from the band, performing with them in London in 2013 before officially rejoining them in 2014 ahead of their On With the Show Tour. In 2017, she released aduets album with Buckingham.
Christinedied on Nov. 30, 2022, after a brief illness. She was 79. In a social media statement after her death, the band wrote of their late friend, “She was truly one-of-a-kind, special and talented beyond measure. She was the best musician anyone could have in their band and the best friend anyone could have in their life. We were so lucky to have a life with her. Individually and together, we cherished Christine deeply and are thankful for the amazing memories we have. She will be so very missed.”
In April 2023, Christine’s cause of death was revealed. According to her death certificate, the songstressdied of a stroke, with a secondary cause of death listed as cancer.
John McVie, 77
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Bassist John McVie was born in Ealing, England, on Nov. 26, 1945, to Reg and Dorothy McVie. He began his musical pursuits on the trumpet but later switched to bass. At age 17, around the same time he started pursuing music seriously, he trained to be a tax inspector. A formative gig learning to play the blues with John Mayall and the Bluesbreaker cut his tax career short. After John Green started Fleetwood Mac in 1966, John was persuaded to leave the Bluesbreakers to join the new group. They recorded their first self-titled album in 1968.
Fleetwood Mac often performed at the same venue as fellow British blues band Chicken Shack, which is how John met his future wife, Christine Perfect. The two married after a short romance and Christine joined the group after Green left in 1970. They divorced in 1976, the same year the band recordedRumours. John married Julie Ann Reubens in 1978 and the pair share one daughter, Molly.
John has been a constant member of Fleetwood Mac, though not as high profile as the other members. Most of his music after 1967 was recorded with the band, though he did release a solo album in 1992 and performed on Buckingham and Christine’s 2017 album.
John has been sober since 1987, when he suffered an alcohol-induced seizure. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2013 and Fleetwood Mac canceled the Australia and New Zealand leg of their tour at the time so he could undergo treatment. Christine told theToronto Sunin 2017 that he was in remission but “has slowed down a little bit.” She also noted that “he loves sailing now,” though he was noted for being asailing bufffor quite a while before that.
source: people.com
