Rumuors and Rhythms: The story of fleetwood mac

"Music is a language that transcends everything, and our songs tell our story." - John McVie
Source: Youtube Music
So we all know Fleetwood Mac in some way, shape, or form. Whether you’re an avid fan, you’ve heard their hits like “Dreams”, or maybe you just only know who Stevie Nicks is. To put it simply… Everyone has had some sort of interaction with the band or their music. It is extremely rare for anyone in any career to have this kind of impact on culture. So, for Fleetwood Mac to still have a lingering effect on people almost 50 years after the fact is truly remarkable. Some would call it a phenomenon. But I would disagree. A phenomenon, by definition, is something that can’t be explained. Fleetwood Mac’s legacy can be explained. Agenda setting theory provides us with a unique lens to analyze their cultural significance and make sense of it. Through this, we can examine their personal relationships, music, and media portrayal to truly understand how they have withstood the test of time. But to really be cognizant of their impact on culture and how this impact was developed, first, we must take it back to the year 1967.
The Start of a Decades Long Saga...
If I were to say “Close your eyes and picture the leader of Fleetwood Mac”, who would come to mind? For most people the answer is probably Stevie Nicks. Maybe for some it would even be Lindsey Buckingham. Well, the true leader of Fleetwood Mac is none other than Mick Fleetwood himself. Some may find it odd that someone who had little to do with songwriting and who never sung on any of the albums would be regarded as the leader. Be that as it may, the drummer earned the title. He is one of the members who was there every step of the way.
Source: BBC

The band was originally founded in London, England in 1967. That lineup consisted of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Jeremy Spencer, and Peter Green. The band was originally a rhythm and blues band. We’re talking about influences from blues artists like B.B. King and Otis Rush. Their self-titled album, also known as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, debuted in 1968. That album found success and even had a hit single with Albatross. Some even argue that if the original members stuck it out longer than they did, they may have seen the same stardom as the Fleetwood Mac that the world knows today. Nevertheless, not even a year after their debut, the band began to change.
Source: Rolling Stone
The Never-ending Changes...
Danny Kirwan, at the ripe age of 18, joined the band as a guitarist in 1969. Mick Fleetwood described him as being “a quantum leap ahead of us creatively” and that he was “a huge force in our early years”. This would be far from the last change that the band would see over the next 7 years. Over the next 2 years, this five man band charted with hits like Albatross and Man Of The World. Their album Then Play On is critically acclaimed and was unlike anything they had attempted before.
Source: Rocking in the Norselands
Unfortunately, this would be the end for Peter Green. As the band began to gain traction, Green began to struggle. He was consistently taking large doses of LSD and had adopted a form of buddhism influenced by christianity. His daily attire consisted of white robes and a crucifix around his neck. According to Mick Fleetwood, the final straw was the “Munich LSD Party Incident”. The band went to a party at a commune, more like a cult, where the members were oddly fixated on Green. All members of the band had extremely bad acid trips and it was after that night, when Peter Green decided to leave the band. This would be far from the last change that the band would see over the next 7 years.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Now down to a four man band, the group decided it was time for a change. Their previous albums were heavily influenced by blues, but it was to take on a new sound. They drew heavily from early rock and roll influences on their album Kiln House. They also had a new member… Christine McVie.
Source: The Ringer
McVie was recruited in 1968 by Chicken Shack, a British blues band. Due to both bands being signed under the same label, Blue Horizon, Chicken Shack opened for Fleetwood’s 1968 tour. Because of this connection, McVie was asked to be a session musician for their album Mr. Wonderful. The 2 bands were around each other all the time, so naturally, John McVie was instantly smitten with Christine. The pair married in 1969 and Christine stepped back from the music industry so she could focus her time on John. Little did she know, she was about to get the offer of a lifetime. The band ascended into chaos after Green left the band, but after consideration, they felt that Christine could be their answer to their prayers. Without a second thought, she accepted the offer. This opportunity allowed her to both collaborate with her husband and keep playing music, so she was all for it.
Source: Getty Images
Next to go was guitarist Jeremy Spencer. Like his fellow o.g. band member Peter Green, Spencer had a pretty bad acid trip that would cause some pretty intense mental issues. In February of ‘71, the band was set to play at Whiskey A Go Go. While sharing a room together, Spencer told Mick Fleetwood that he was “heading to a bookstore to get a magazine”, but he never returned. The band had to cancel the sold-out show and spent days looking for him. They would later find out that he joined a christian cult known as The Family (formerly The Children of God). This would be the end of Spencer’s time in Fleetwood Mac. Bob Welch would join as his replacement.
Source: Ultimate Guitar
Later in August of 1972, Danny Kirwan would be fired from the band. Kirwan was a very emotional person, often brought to tears on stage. The stress of touring drove him to drugs and alcohol, not unlike his other band members. During the band’s U.S. tour, Kirwan was blinded by rage in his backstage dressing room and smashed in Les Paul guitar, then subsequently refused to go on stage. After the show, Fleetwood promptly told him he was out of the band. He would go on to be replaced by Bob Weston, but this would prove to be short-winded.
In 1970, Mick Fleetwood married Jenny Boyd. Her older sister, Pattie Boyd, was married to none other than George Harrison, the guitarist for The Beatles. During Promotion for their album, Kiln House, Boyd and Weston began an affair. When Fleetwood found out he was devastated. He immediately fired Weston from the band and the rest of the tour was canceled. After their final show in Nebraska, the band temporarily split.
Source: Daily Mail
A Tale of Two Lovers...
A year later in 1974, Fleetwood, the McVies, and Welch came back together, packed their bags, and said goodbye to England and made their way to the United States. One day while visiting Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, Mick Fleetwood heard Frozen Love by a little duo called Buckingham Nicks...
First, let me give you some backstory on how Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks met. Nicks and Buckingam actually went to the same high school, Menlo-Atherton High School, but didn’t actually meet until her senior year. At a house party in 1966, Lindsey was singing a cover “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & the Papas and Stevie, so like the icon she is, Stevie ever so boldly decided to join in. After a couple years of being in bands who couldn’t hack it, the duo headed out on their own. At this point, they were lovers as well as musical confidants.
Source: Ultimate Classic Rock
Their self-titled album went absolutely nowhere, leaving a desperate Stevie to work a waitress job just to make rent. In an interview with Uncut she said that “If we hadn’t joined Fleetwood Mac, would Lindsey and I have carried on and made it? I was really tired of having no money and being a waitress. It’s very possible that I would have gone back to school and Lindsey would have gone back to San Francisco”.
The duo was mere weeks from throwing in the towel when they received the call from Fleetwood. When he heard Frozen Love that day in the studio, Mick initially was only interested in Lindsey’s vocal and guitar skills. Fleetwood and Buckingham met up one day and he was asked to join the band. Since Bob Welch had just left, this meant that Lindsey would be their seventh guitarist in the last 7 years. So, this meant that he had some leverage and he used it to his advantage. He agreed to join the band with one little, tiny condition: Stevie would come with. Due to both intrigue and desperation, Mick happily agreed.
They officially became a part of Fleetwood Mac on New Year’s Eve 1974 and the band that would go down in rock and roll history was finally, after a long 7 years, was set in stone.
Source: NPR
The World's First Musical Soap Opera...
So now that we know the history and backstory of the band, the big question is why them? What set them apart from other musicians at the time? What makes them so special? One word… Drama.
The band released their second self-titled album in 1975 and it was pretty successful. It sold over a million copies. Some singles you may know are Landslide and Rhiannon, both written by Nicks. The release of this album introduced a shift in sound, characterized by a more pop-oriented approach. Media coverage started to spotlight the band's internal dynamics, particularly the romantic relationships and personal conflicts among members. From an agenda-setting perspective, the media coverage on their relationships began to eclipse their musical narrative of the band.
Source: Ultimate Classis Rock
I mean it was obvious in the coverage leading up to and following the release of their landmark album, Rumours, in 1977. The album's production was charged with tension. Nicks and Buckingham were in a tumultuous relationship, while John and Christine McVie were navigating their own marital struggles. Media outlets seized on these stories.
For example, in an article written by John Rockwell for The New York Times in 1977, he writes that “The last ingredient to Fleetwood Mac's success was the growing awareness on the part of its huge new audience of its curious past and the present traumas of its members’ love lives”.
Source: The New York Times
With this new found stardom, the band got back in the studio and started working on Rumours. The release of Rumours in 1977 was a game-changer for both Fleetwood Mac and the music industry. The album became one of the best-selling of all time, selling over 40 million copies worldwide. Its success wasn’t just about catchy songs and great production; it was also closely linked to the personal lives of the band members. Personal turmoil FUELED this album. Fleetwood said in an interview that “We were all in an emotional ditch. Everybody knew everything about everybody”. Usually when someone is going through a hard time, they talk it out to their friends or family. Their feelings were expressed in their music.
The confessional song writing style was laced with emotional undertones of their volatile relationships. Nicks and Buckingham were the most vocal about their issues. Buckingham’s Go Your Own Way was a direct reflection of his breakup with Stevie and really captures his pain and anger of their split. Meanwhile, Nicks’ Dreams offered a more contemplative take on love and loss which really resonated with the fans who found solace and comfort within it. I mean it was quite literally like a musical soap opera.
Source: NPR

They were both writing songs about the relationship, but absolutely hated that the other was doing it. For example, one lyric that Nicks hated was in Buckingham’s Go Your Own Way. He sings that “Tell me why, everything turned around, packing up, shacking up is all you want to do”. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Stevie says that “Everytime those words would come out… I wanted to go over and kill him. He knew it, so he really pushed my buttons through that.”
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGykwC0fdJ4 In this live performance of "The Chain" from the "Rumuors: album, you could literally cut the tension with a knife. Stevie and Lindsey hated that they loved each other, while simultaneously loving that they hated each other, it was visceral and you felt it in everything they did.
The media took this and ran with it. Media stories often focused on the band’s personal relationships, especially the ups and downs between Nicks and Buckingham, as part of their artistic identity. This attention not only grabbed people’s interest but also highlighted the band’s emotional authenticity, which was a big part of their appeal. As they wove through the highs and lows of love and life, they crafted an emotional landscape that resonates even today. Fleetwood Mac has solidified their place in culture, with their music still inspiring and touching hearts around the globe. Their legacy showcases how powerful storytelling can be through music, showing us that being vulnerable can actually be a strength. This connection was amplified by the media, which played a key role in shaping public perception through agenda-setting theory. By focusing on the band’s rocky relationships, they made these personal dramas a key part of the band’s identity. Their legacy isn't just about the music—it's about the real stories behind it, making them an enduring force in the cultural landscape. So, whether you’re a lifelong fan or a casual listener, remember: every note carries a piece of their journey, and that’s what makes Fleetwood Mac truly special.

Sources

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