18 Nov 2017

Mick Fleetwood: 'We had no raging ambition to be pop stars'

From Saturday Morning, 8:35 am on 18 November 2017

Fleetwood Mac co-founder Mick Fleetwood got his first drum kit at 13, then left school at 15 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional drummer.  

The band that would make Fleetwood's name emerged from London's underground blues scene of the sixties.

A new book that chronicles these early years is dedicated to original lead guitarist Peter Green – a humble and highly sensitive man who wasn't fit for fame but without whom Fleetwood Mac wouldn't exist, Fleetwood says.

Fleetwood first played with Green and bassist John McVie in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.

Green, who had replaced Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, was considered one of the finest, if not the finest, blues guitarist of his generation.

In 1967, the three formed the first iteration of Fleetwood Mac – a very different band to the global, soft-rock behemoth that released Rumours ten years later.

Fleetwood Mac – the name a combination of the drummer and bass player’s names – went on to record the late-sixties classics 'Oh Well, Man of the World', 'Albatross' and 'Black Magic Woman'.

But by 1970, Green’s mental health – not helped by the heavy use of psychedelics – was in poor shape and he disappeared into relative obscurity. 

When Green left the band, John’s wife Christine McVie joined the band as keyboard player.

In 1974, and now based in the US, Fleetwood and the McVies signed up the starry couple Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and Fleetwood Mac went on to become one of the most successful bands in modern music.

Love that Burns - A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac Volume One: 1967-1974 celebrates the 50-year anniversary of Fleetwood Mac's debut gig at the Windsor Blues and Jazz Festival.

While many books have been written about Buckingham-Nicks era Fleetwood Mac, the story of the late-sixties incarnation hasn't really been told till now, Fleetwood says. 

“It lets people know how this strange band, that’s still going, how it started and what drove those young chaps. The book is dedicated to Peter Green. Peter put the band together with me way back in 1967.

“I learnt to be an advocate of blues music through the fact that I’d been playing with Peter and that became part of the story that’s represented in this lovely book.”

Green’s decision to call the band Fleetwood Mac was typical of his unassuming nature, says Fleetwood.

“Instead of it being the 'Peter Green, Peter Green, Peter Green' thing, he very much wanted just to be in a band. And you can tell by the nature of him choosing not to have his name slapped everywhere that he called it Fleetwood Mac.

"There would not have been a Fleetwood Mac without him and I’m always really grateful for his generosity: it starts with calling the band Fleetwood Mac and it really resonated all the way through his tenure, which was all too short.”

In those days the band were purists and their pop success came as something of a surprise, he says.

“We had no idea or any raging ambition to be pop stars or anything else. In truth, it just happened.

"Having said that, Peter was very focused on what he did, he loved what we were doing. It just was, later on, he took on the mantle of being freaked out – and in truth made himself ill or he became ill.”

Green was a sensitive and mentally delicate individual who couldn’t cope with fame, Fleetwood says.

“Peter became a greatly changed person and very detached from what all of us would consider the normal flow of life, which is basically how Peter constructs his life now. It’s very quiet and very detached and has nothing really to do with music at all, sadly.”

“It became everything he didn’t want to be part of, and when he left the ranks of Fleetwood Mac we were devastated.”

Greens sensitivity imbued his playing and singing with a unique soulfulness, Fleetwood says.

“With Peter, it’s always about the touch, always about … well, he was just the master of sensitivity, he was so soulful, magical, ethereal.”

When Green left, the band was “musically lost”, Fleetwood says, but getting through that time made it the resilient unit it became.

“Well, we survived that and we lost Peter, which was like losing everything, and we’re still here – that became my motto for better or for worse.”

Mick Fleetwood will visit New Zealand to talk about Love that Burns at the Mossgreen-Webb's auction house in Parnell (Auckland) on 8 December.