September 21, 2021 • 31 mins
Fleetwood Mac’s mid-’70s merger with the musical duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks changed the course of the band forever, propelling them to Top 40 mega-fame and cocaine-fueled excess. At the core of it all were rampant Rumours — both the album and the literal gossip. Breakups, divorce, drama: the same intra-band personal dynamics that stressed the group simultaneously led to the creation of one of the top-selling albums of all time. For Fleetwood Mac, Rumours was how the truth came out. And over 40 years later, there’s still a lot that needs clearing up.
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This episode was originally published on September 21, 2021.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The story of
Fleetwood Mac their beginning days as an English blues band
(00:21):
helmed by the wildly expressive and emotionally fragile guitarist Peter Green,
to their mid seventies merger with the musical duo of
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and top forty rock stardom
that drove them to Cocaine Field. Excess is so complex
that we needed two episodes to properly tell this story.
(00:42):
If you're just getting hip to this now, I suggest
you hip pause and go back to the last episode
of Disgraceland, part one of the Fleetwood Mac story. In
this episode, we get into the band's signature album Rumors
and the intra band personal dynamics that stressed the group
and simultaneously to the creation of one of the top
selling albums of all time. We also get into the
(01:05):
band's famous excess and ultimately their creative demise, but not
before delving into the great music that Fleetwood Mac made.
Unlike that music I played for you at the top
of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a
preset loop from my melotron called Game forty two point
two MK one. I played you that loop because I
(01:28):
can't afford the rights to Torn Between Two Lovers by
Mary McGregor. And why would I play you that specific
slice of on the Nose Cheese? Could I afford it?
Because that was the number one song in America On
February fourth, nineteen seventy seven, and that was the day
Fleetwood Max's album Rumors was released, marking the beginning of
(01:50):
what would become one of the most successful sales runs
of any pop record from any time in music history.
On this the second chapter of a special two part
episode Vicious Rumors, Ill advised New Wave seven miles of
On the Nose Cheese in Fleetwood Mac. I'm Jake Brennan
and this is Disgraceland. Fleetwood Mac's decision to record their
(02:36):
second album with Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks outside of
Los Angeles up in Sasolito was made in part to
pull the band out of the chaos and excess that
was fast consuming them in Los Angeles. Christine and John
mcvie's marriage had fallen apart, and Mick Fleetwood's marriage with
Jenny Boyd was also on the Rocks, Lindsay Buckingham and
(02:58):
Stevie Nicks were never married, but given the closeness of
their romantic relationship and importance of their partnership that went
back far beyond joining Fleetwood Mac, they might as well
have been husband and wife, and at the moment they
were very much split up. All of them were self
medicating with drugs and alcohol, mainly cocaine. Los Angeles, where
(03:20):
all manner of temptation and distraction was just a short
ride away, was a bad scene for the band at
the time, given their collective vulnerability. So up to Saucelito
they went, and the cocaine, of course followed them would.
Mick Fleetwood was sitting on the couch in the studio
control room. Mick was bored overdubs were happening, it didn't
(03:42):
concern him, and frankly, Mick had no idea whether the
music they were making was any good or not. The
band was hardly speaking, unless, of course, they wanted to
get stoned. Then a mutual want would momentarily saw whatever
coldness was in the air long enough to execute the
ritual of lining up some rails and getting down to
the business of getting high. The studio engineer knew what
(04:04):
Mick wanted more blow There was coke in a little
black velvet bag under the mixing poart. Not wanting to
derail the session into a mid afternoon coke party, the
engineer pretended he didn't know what mc wanted. Mick played along.
He definitely attempted to move the conversation from music to drugs.
How much cocaine do you think I've snorted in my
(04:26):
entire life? It was an interesting thought. The engineer, leaning
over the console, arms outstretched over the dials, turning this
track up and the other down, punching inputs, listening intently
to the playback, tried ignoring the question, but he couldn't.
John mcvee, seated next to Mick, gave a quick and
went back to being miserable. Stevie Nicks, also in the
(04:49):
control room, looked up from her book and widened her
big round eyes. Christine McVie said nothing, just continued listening
to Lindsay Buckingham overdubbing in the playback. Lindsay entered from
the live room and wanted to know what they all
thought of that last take. It never entered his mind
that those assembled may be interested in something other than
his playing, And at the moment they could give a shit,
(05:11):
I'll play along, Stevie said, ignoring Lindsay, A country mile,
a country mile of cocaine. No one, not even Stevie Nicks,
actually knew what a country mile was. It was just
one of those things that was in her head, possibly
from all those old country and folk tunes she sang
with Lindsay when they were coming up the Everly Brothers,
Hank Williams. That sort of thing. Mick had their attention.
(05:33):
He leaned forward in his seated position on the couch
over his gangly bent knees and started to explain that
the only way to figure this out, the question of
how much coke he'd done in his lifetime, was to
cut up an average sized line, measure it, and try
to figure out the math of it all. The engineer
was no dummy. He knew what Mick was doing, but
(05:54):
the thought experiment was just too interesting. So out came
the little velvet bag, and in no time the engine
was dicing up an eight ball on the coffee table.
He put to use one of the razor blades he
used to cut and edit the two inch tape to
create one perfectly average line of cocaine compared to what
non rock stars snorted. The line was above average in thickness,
(06:15):
but Mick Fleetwood was an above average sized man. He
stood tall at six six weighed a lean one hundred
and eighty pounds. Average was a part of his life's
equation in any respect. Using the thickness of the rail,
they assumed how long a gram of cocaine would stretch
out in one single line. Then they multiplied that by
three and a half, approximately an eighth of an ounce
(06:36):
aka and eight ball, which is what Mick estimated he'd
snorted one a ball every day for the past decade
or so. From there, it was estimated, on scientifically, of course,
that the line of coke would stretch about seven miles long.
Seven miles of cocaine. No one was impressed. They were
grossed out, but it didn't stop anyone from doing more coke.
(07:00):
Oh they didn't. By now, the drugs were the last
refuge the band had from each other. Normal bands rally
against their problems, which are largely external through making music.
For Fleetwood Mac that was impossible. They were their own problem,
and their interpersonal conflicts were now deeply entangled. Into the
music they were making. Given their dissolving romantic relationships. Christine
(07:24):
with John, Lindsay with Stevie, Mick in the middle going
through his own divorce, the band barely spoke to each other,
so they communicated through song, and the results were vicious.
Christine rubbed John's face into the hard reality of her
new relationship with another man with her vibe you make
Loving Fun. Lindsey brutally kissed off Stevie with is excellent
(07:44):
you can go your own way. Stevie documented her heart
wrenching disappointment in Lindsay when she sang in her ballad
you could be My Silver Springs. John, monster musician that
he was, was just the bass player and therefore incapable
of speaking through song. John was fucked. Mick just did
more blow. The band were communicating through creativity, and not
(08:04):
in a good way, not as far as their emotional
well being was concerned anyhow. Imagine the worst breakup you've
ever gone through if you're married, Imagine getting a divorce,
Really imagine it. Think about just how brutal that would
be emotionally. Think about how painful it would be to
deal with on a day to day basis. Think about
(08:25):
how difficult it would be to deal with your ex,
especially during the beginning of this process, and how difficult
it would be for them to deal with you. Think
about starting to see someone new, How weird that would be,
how different, how awkward. Now think about your spouse or
your girlfriend or your boyfriend as a new ex, and
think about them starting to see other people. Think about
just how hard that would suck. Now, Think about having
(08:48):
to deal with all that while also having to go
to work every single day with your ex. That's what
it was like for Fleetwood Mac during the making of
their second album in this new lineup. It was hard
not to feel bad for them. Everyone around them knew
what was going on. The engineers crew, hell, even the
coke dealer, who was coming around so much that Mick
was lobbying to have him formally thanked on the new
(09:08):
album's liner notes. Even he knew what was up. Lindsay
had taken up with a cocktail wagress. Chris was shagging
the lighting guy make it a thing for Stevie. Stevie
was sleeping in slash stones. Bad John was running a
brothel out of his rented home. Lindsay was losing his
grip on reality. Chris hated Stevie, Stevie hated Chris. Chris
loves Stevie. Stevie love Chris. John was banging on Chris's
door late at night, screaming on her name and agony.
Mikett spent all his money on cocaine. Lindsay had collapsed
(09:31):
the exhaustion. They said. Lindsay was going to quit. Stevie
was going solo. John was buying too many guns. Mick
was the devil. Stevie was a which Lindsay was gonna
go and get religion like Peter and Jeremy. Hay Sewss
was gunning. She was gonna shoot him down, but one
of Max's guns. Rampant Rumors. Stevie Nicks later said about Fleetwood,
Max Time and Salslito trying to make her second album
with the band that the truth about Rumors was that
(09:53):
rumors was the truth, and so Fleetwood Max Rumors was born.
(10:20):
The Record Plant studio in Sasolito was partially designed by
Psychedelic funk supernova sly Stone. Sly recorded as Excellent LP.
There's a riot going on at the Record Plan at
the moment Stevie Nicks was in sly Stone's quote unquote pit,
a studio room in the record plant. Sly had specially
designed that was a literal pit, an engineering booth sunk
(10:42):
ten feet deep into a round room so the engineer
could hear a session in full three sixty. The pit
was covered in red shag and had a loft for
the bed where a singer could record lying down with
such a trip that the room was often used for
more than recording, for sex and for makeshift escape as
coke parties. Sly even had his own tank of nitrous
oxide installed in the pit for when inspiration was waning.
(11:05):
But right now, Slyestone's pit was where Stevie Nicks went
to escape the chaos of Fleetwood Mac. On this day,
she had a little keyboard with her. Stevie clicked on
a preset drum pattern and began messing with a simple
chord progression. The melody came easy, the words too, dreams, freedom,
(11:33):
a heartbeat, driving you mad, longing, longing for that thing
he once had. It's gone, now washed away, clean, thunder rain,
crystal visions. The words eventually came together and too fully
realized the lyrics scept to Stevie's heartache melody. It's Hank
Williams by way of Helena Blovatsky. Over the chords and
the simple beat. Stevie's new song was at once lonesome,
(11:53):
witchy impact with special knowledge. She called him Dreams, and
when she brought it to the rest to the band,
they latched onto its power. Quick Dreams would anchor Fleetwood
Max Rumors. The song quickly went to number one when
it was released as the album's second single in the
spring of nineteen seventy seven, and it stayed there for
(12:14):
twenty three weeks throughout the entirety of the summer nineteen
seventy seven, and Rumors as an album out of the
Gate went platinum in just one month. By nineteen eighty
it sold thirteen million, and by nineteen ninety seven sales
were at twenty five million. To date, Rumors has sold
more than forty five million copies, making it the fifth
best selling album of all time in the US, in
(12:36):
eleventh in the UK, eighth overall in the world, and
as recently as twenty twenty, Stevie Nix's Dreams once again
landed on the charts as the number one iTunes song
due to a TikTok being of a dude on a skateboard,
drinking cranberry juice and singing along to her crystal visions.
It's easy to reason that the immensely strong pop sensibility
(12:57):
of Rumors is what makes the record so popular, But
that's too simple. There's a universal truism to the album,
the depths of which could only be carved by writers
and musicians experiencing and working through such intense feelings together.
Lindsey Buckingham later explained that under all that beautiful pop
production lies a murkiness, a darkness due to an emotional
(13:18):
duress each band member was forced to endure while writing
and recording Rumors, and there was a mystery to Rumors
as well that is to this day hard to describe.
Part of it is, in fact, the actual rumors. As
a listener, you can't help but listen for the cracks,
the emotional fault lines that intra bands squabbling. Within the songs.
You can't help but play the parlor game of asking
(13:39):
yourself what this band member was saying to that band member.
But deeper than that is more of a mystery beyond
understanding a feeling a vibe. It's more than just pop.
It's heavy. It's Stevie Nicks. We'll be right back after
this word word word. The house in Florida was rented large,
(14:06):
in cavernous, hot, sticky, in old mansion, southern gothic. Outside,
the bullfrogs barked, swampy, sweaty, spooky. Overgrown vines reached down
onto the estate's grounds. Fleetwood Mac huddled inside. They were
taking a couple days off before shows. Lindsay had just
debuted you Can Go Your Own Way, his newest song,
(14:27):
to his fellow band members. It was obviously about Stevie.
It was mean, low down, accusational, unnecessary by her account,
but man wasnt a good song, so there was no
way it wasn't getting recorded. Stevie hung in her room
by herself, hurt. She felt the vibe of the house dark, mysterious,
(14:49):
Like Stevie herself. Stevie had intuition, what's some called quote
unquote special knowledge, a way to read into things, to
see around corners, to understand crystal. That old house seemed
to be telling her something. Lindsay's song wasn't wrong, you
can Go your Own Way. Stevie Nicks was brought into
(15:10):
Fleetwood Mac as part of a package deal with her
boyfriend Lindsay Buckingham. Mick Fleetwood only asked Lindsay to join
Fleetwood Mac only needed a guitar player and a front man.
Lindsay checked both of those boxes himself, and Christine McVie,
already in the group, was plenty capable of singing, leading
and composing in her own right. What did they need
Stevie Nicks for? What did Fleetwood Mac need Lindsay Buckingham's petite, cute, blonde,
(15:33):
hippy girlfriend for nothing? Which is why Mick didn't inquire
about Stevie. He inquired only about Lindsay. But Lindsay back then,
was loyal to Stevie. It insisted that they were a
package deal. To Mick Fleetwood's great credit, he quickly understood
the power of the duo and was smart enough to
bring the novel idea of adding an existing songwriting tandem
(15:55):
to his band to his husband and wife. Group members
John and Christine McVie and John and Christine were no fools.
They got it, but still to Stevie, who didn't consider
herself as advanced a musician and songwriter as her boyfriend Lindsay.
A boyfriend whose talent she believed in so strongly that
she worked all day and night at a shitty theme
(16:15):
restaurant in West Hollywood while he choked reefer with waddiwoch
Tell and fucked with his four track to financially support
him in their dreams of a life in music. To Stevie,
the fact remain she was just an add on a
sidecar a foil. Had Lindsay not insisted on her being
in the band, Fleetwood Mac very well could have existed
as a foursome without her. But it was becoming clear
(16:36):
to Stevie Nicks and to everyone else with eyes and ears,
that Fleetwood Mac would not have gotten anywhere close to
the level of success they achieved without Stevie Nicks. And
in that room, on that hot, sticky flower to night,
anger pulsing through her veins, Anger at Lindsay insecurity turned
to confidence. Fuck Lindsay. It wasn't you can go your
(16:57):
own way, as he put it, It was you can
go your own way, as in she was Stevie fucking Nicks.
She had a voice like no other, and she could
write too. Maybe she didn't have the comprehensive musical vision
Lindsay had, but she had her own musical intuition, and
she knew how to put songs together, songs that reinforced
her essence, her vibe. What is now known as the
whole Stevie Nicks thing. You can go your own Way.
(17:20):
That thing was Stevie's image. It was contrived out of
second hand lags, chiffon, black flowy dresses, foods, long blonde locks,
and a signature black top hat like the mansion she
was holed up in the moment. Her new style was witchy,
and that style played beautifully with her songs him In Dreams,
Landslide and gold Dust Woman. Stevie Nicks was her own trip.
(17:42):
You can go your own way, a witchy diva who
appeared to be on some secret shit, special knowledge. They said,
America ate it up. Stevie Nicks took Lindsay Buckingham's advice
and indeed went her own way and became the focal
point of his band, Fleetwood Mac. Their live shows became
Witchy Rights. During Stevie's songs, thousands of women showed up
(18:05):
at football stadiums to cheer Stevie on, dressed as Stevie
in all black, flowing dresses and with black top hats.
They staked her out at her hotel, jammed the entrance
to the venues, looking for not only autographs, but insight
advice visions of the future. It freaked Stevie out and
the cocaine didn't help. Like the rest of the band,
she descended deeper into the dust. As Rumors became the
(18:27):
top selling album in the US and made Fleetwood Mac
one of the biggest bands in the world. Everything became bigger,
the shows, the crowds, the traveling entourage, the set pieces,
the expectations. The band dove headfirst into the deep end
of mega rock stardom and employed all the trappings. They
traveled everywhere, now by private jet. They had fourteen limousines
(18:48):
on call in every city to use at their whim
for whatever the hell they wanted. Each band member wants
to ride solo to a gig, No problem, we have
a limo for that. The Koch dealer needs a lift
to the hotel room from the pool haul downtown, No problem,
we have a limo for that. Need a pack of
smokes from the corner store down the block, No problem,
we have a limo for that. The band insisted that
every hotel they stayed in in every city. Usually Ritz
(19:11):
Carlton's are four seasons painted one of their suites pink
for Stevie, and that the suite came equipped with a
white grand piano. Ritz Carlton's in four seasons hotels don't
have pink suites and they don't have grand pianos in
the suites that they do have, so the rooms would
have to be freshly painted before Fleetwood max Wichi Diva arrived,
and more often than not, the grand piano would have
(19:32):
to be lifted by crane up to the suite's window
and brought in that way. This wasn't a one time thing.
This was every show, every night, in every city. And
at the gig there was the standard rock star rider,
a fair of gargantuan buffets that the band rarely touched
due to the fact that the cocaine killed their appetites.
The endless bottles of Kannac wine, Russian vodka, Heineken, and
(19:53):
whatever else they wanted, all of it there for the
after parties that seemed to never end. On stage, each night,
cocaine was arranged at each band member's stationed by a
roady carefully loaded into Heineken bottle caps and refilled by
said rody as needed. Fleetwood Mac wanted for nothing excess ruled.
(20:16):
Some years later, it was estimated that Stevie Nicks herself
snorted a million dollars worth of cocaine. And there were
other rumors too, like the fact that her septum was
blown out from snorting too much coke, leaving a hole
you could pass a gold ring through. And that rumor
happened to be true, But it kicked off another rumor,
the rumor that Stevie Nicks just couldn't say no, that
(20:38):
she couldn't not do cocaine. If she couldn't minister it
through her nose, then she'd find another way. But what
was the point of having all this paid help around
if you couldn't put them to work. The roady was
one of the better looking ones, of course he'd do.
The gig was only demeaning if you looked at it
that way, it could be said that it was glamorous.
This was Stevie Nicks, after all, She was a beauty
(20:59):
like no and one of the most famous pop stars
in the world. How many other roadies got to do
this perform what could only be described as a cocaine enema,
blowing the powdery drug of the backside of one of
the world's most famous women, so the blow could penetrate
her anal membrane and thus bypass the nose with its
damage septum, and ultimately keep Stevie Nicks high on coke. None,
(21:23):
no other roadies. That's how many, just Stevie Nick's roady
got to perform a cocaine enema on his boss. It
was a holy, unique gig only in rock and roll,
except Stevie Nick swore it never happened. She heard the
rumor like everyone else in the music industry and had
the same reaction to it. Shock. The fact that this
rumor was at least somewhat believable to those who knew
(21:45):
Stevie and who knew the band's reputation. Their bend toward
excess and now legendary addiction gave Stevie pause with or
without cocaine enemas Stevie Nix's excessive use of the drug
had exposed her to the very real danger of life,
losing her voice, her looks, and quite possibly her life. Naturally,
she was petrified was clean up time. The Betty Ford
(22:08):
Clinic rehab. Drug rehab was no joke. Betty Ford put
(22:30):
her addicts to work alongside members of Arrowsmith, backup singers
from James Taylor's band, high powered Hollywood attorneys Boord, Beverly
Hills housewives and Braddy children of Mega rich studio executives.
Stevie Nicks Rose Early cleaned her room, did the rest
of her chores, and kept her nose clean. It was
nineteen eighty six, nine years since Rumors was released. After
(22:53):
the album hit, Stevie took Lindsay's whole you can Go
your Own Way thing to its literal conclusion, began a
short ten t affair with their drummer Mick Fleetwood, and
then in nineteen eighty one, took a brief hiatus from
the band and released her first solo album, Bella Donna.
It was, of course, a hit hit, sold a million
copies and went platinum in less than three months, hit
(23:14):
number one of the charts in the US and Australia,
and produced the mega hit Edge of seventeen that went
to number four on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts. Who
knew if Fleetwood Mac Would get back together? Stevie remembered
back to the beginning of the end nineteen seventy eight,
Rumors was huge, But suddenly rumors wasn't hit. A new
(23:36):
form of music was making inroads and captivating critics and
kids alike. Punk It was everything. Fleetwood Mac was not
stripped down, devoid of pomp and excess, raw, not pop, clubs,
not stadiums, heroin not coke, and just like that, Fleetwood Mac,
despite their record still selling like mad were out. Punk
(23:57):
new wave was in the class Elvis Costello talking heads.
The urgency and hipness demonstrated by these artists captivated Lindsay Buckingham, who,
by his estimation, was now charged with creatively shepherding a
band of English blues dinosaurs led by a witchy diva
who he used to share a bed with. Fleetwood Mac
was so old in comparison to this new wave of
(24:19):
punk that their first album was released when most of
these artists were wearing short pants back in grade school.
Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine Perfect were literally from
another generation. Elvis Costello was a bona fide Peter Green
fan and had been since he was a little boy,
and in nineteen seventy eight, as far as musicians and
songwriters were concerned no one was cooler than Elvis Costello.
(24:46):
He was smarter, angrier, peggier, better dressed, and more mysterious
than anyone putting songs together in LA. At the time,
he was an enigma, so much so that when his
first album was released My Aim Is True with the
pigtoed Buddy Holly lookalike on its cover, some smart American
listeners refused to believe that Elvis Costello was real. He
was too good to be true. That sound, that image,
(25:08):
those songs, that perspective. It had to be a Nick
Low joke some Dave Edmunds protege cooked up in the
studio to take the piss out of dumb American audiences.
A music industry prank on a ride, one that resulted
in busting radio formats. In America's old garb, popsmiths like
Lindsay Buckingham questioning their approach, but Elvis Costello was very real.
(25:28):
Lindsay Buckingham's old friend, guitarist Waddi Wattell, told him that
LA's much revered songstress Linda Ronstadt was going to record
three of Elvis's tunes for her hotly anticipated next album,
No Shit no shit. Lindsay Buckingham cut off all of
his hair, He stopped wearing unbuttoned blouses and opted for
bespoke Armani suits. Robert planned as an Avatar was out
(25:51):
and David Byrne was in. Lindsay went at the writing
of Fleetwood Mac's next album from an entirely different direction.
No more pomp, no more excess. They would strip everything down,
he would let his anger loose. Following up the success
of Rumors was not going to be easy. The album
sold ten million copies worldwide in its first year, eight
million in the US alone, and the pressure was immense.
(26:14):
The rest of the band cleared the way. They let
Lindsay be Lindsay, that is to say controlling. He had
a vision, or so he said. They believed him, and
that meant more pressure. Again. The cocaine did not help.
At this point Fleetwood Max used to the drug was
way out in the open. Stevie and Chris wore coke
spoon necklaces wherever they went. Lindsay didn't have time for
(26:34):
going anywhere. He holed up in the studio. There was
a rock and roll revolution going on, and King Fleetwood
Mac was about to be dethroned, and there was no
time to waste. New music, different music, edgi or music.
Smarter music was needed. Lord Lindsay Buckingham dug himself in.
He would not be outflanked by the punk revolutionaries storming
the castle. He worked harder than he ever had. Day
(26:55):
and night he collapsed. He worked more, crashed work some
more kept him seeing hours. Became a real life of
Hollywood vampire, lost all perspective. He turned the knobs on
the board into the red. He taped microphones to the
studio floor, planked himself over them, and recorded vocal takes
while doing pushups. Lindsey Buckingham burned himself out, and there
(27:16):
were rumors always there were rumors of real darkness where
it was. Lindsay lost it, raised his hand in anger
to his new girlfriend Carol, and this did not surprise
Stevie Nix. Lindsay denied it. Lindsey Buckingham crashed. It was
one of those parties that came on way too fast.
(27:38):
Last night's party had ended just hours before. Everyone was
still hungover and the sun was blinding even inside the
Hollywood home of this Evening's host Lindsay Buckingham and the
fact that it was a Halloween party made the drag
ass vibe even weirder. Lindsay was dressed as a Pope,
Mick as a vampire Stevie, and all white as a
wintery Coke spooned Witch Chris and faces on Jemima John
(28:01):
in full Naziss regalia. Fleetwood Mac was shockingly out of touch.
And it wasn't just their offensive costume choices. Their music.
The new music Lindsay was spearheading that would become their
next record, entitled Tusk, was also out of touch. Lindsay
Buckingham was so obsessed with creating a record that was
as authentic and inspired as the new wave and punk
(28:24):
music that was captivating America that, in trying to be authentic,
he wound up creating an inauthentic, uninspired mess of a record.
He is not solely to blame. His bandmates did him
no favors by turning the reins over to him with
little creative governance. Tusk sounds disconnected, random and flat, the
irony being that, in attempting to sound authentic, Lindsay Buckingham
(28:46):
sold out by trying to be something they weren't, something
less than the glorious, amalgamated messive excess and emotional duress
that they were when they made Rumors, proper rock stars,
not punks, stupidly debotch, not smartly pissed. But in Fleetwood
Mac's defense, recreating rumors would have been impossible. Rumors was
born out of painful emotions so real that a group
(29:08):
of people couldn't live through twice. It is such a
product of a specific moment in time. You go through
what you go through. And Fleetwood Mac were no longer
the same five people who set up camp at that
Saucelito studio. The romance had been extracted from their relationships
with each other for good, and they had dealt with
that in song and moved on to expect Fleetwood Mac
to live through that hell and then linger in that
(29:30):
limbo just to tell us all about it again, as
secondhand news would be unfair. The band would live on.
Of course, Stevie Nicks would make it out of rehab
more than once, and through her solo career, Lindsey Buckingham
would find success on his own as well, and then
find his way back to Fleetwood Mac. At the behest
of the country's first baby boomer President Bill Clinton, who
would reintroduced the band to Generation X by adopting Fleetwood
(29:53):
Max's nineteen seventy seven hit from Rumors Don't Stop as
his nineteen ninety two campaign song, and as Mick fleet
would put it, the band would play on as they
do to this day without Lindsay Buckingham. Of course, he
was kicked out of the band in twenty eighteen, but
the rumors are that he's about to make his return.
(30:14):
Of course, there are rumors, always rumors. Anything less would
be a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
(30:44):
Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
found on the show notes page at disgracelamdpod dot com.
If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And
if not, you can become a member right now by
going to disgrace lampod dot com. Slash Membership members.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Can listen to every episode of disgracelanm ad free, plus
you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month weekly
unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to
merchandise and events. Visit disgraylampod dot com slash membership for details,
Rate and review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
(31:27):
and Facebook at disgracelampod, and on YouTube at YouTube dot
com slash at disgracelampod Rock a Roller
Speaker 1 (31:37):
He theddan Man
Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The story of
Fleetwood Mac their beginning days as an English blues band
(00:21):
helmed by the wildly expressive and emotionally fragile guitarist Peter Green,
to their mid seventies merger with the musical duo of
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and top forty rock stardom
that drove them to Cocaine Field. Excess is so complex
that we needed two episodes to properly tell this story.
(00:42):
If you're just getting hip to this now, I suggest
you hip pause and go back to the last episode
of Disgraceland, part one of the Fleetwood Mac story. In
this episode, we get into the band's signature album Rumors
and the intra band personal dynamics that stressed the group
and simultaneously to the creation of one of the top
selling albums of all time. We also get into the
(01:05):
band's famous excess and ultimately their creative demise, but not
before delving into the great music that Fleetwood Mac made.
Unlike that music I played for you at the top
of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a
preset loop from my melotron called Game forty two point
two MK one. I played you that loop because I
(01:28):
can't afford the rights to Torn Between Two Lovers by
Mary McGregor. And why would I play you that specific
slice of on the Nose Cheese? Could I afford it?
Because that was the number one song in America On
February fourth, nineteen seventy seven, and that was the day
Fleetwood Max's album Rumors was released, marking the beginning of
(01:50):
what would become one of the most successful sales runs
of any pop record from any time in music history.
On this the second chapter of a special two part
episode Vicious Rumors, Ill advised New Wave seven miles of
On the Nose Cheese in Fleetwood Mac. I'm Jake Brennan
and this is Disgraceland. Fleetwood Mac's decision to record their
(02:36):
second album with Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks outside of
Los Angeles up in Sasolito was made in part to
pull the band out of the chaos and excess that
was fast consuming them in Los Angeles. Christine and John
mcvie's marriage had fallen apart, and Mick Fleetwood's marriage with
Jenny Boyd was also on the Rocks, Lindsay Buckingham and
(02:58):
Stevie Nicks were never married, but given the closeness of
their romantic relationship and importance of their partnership that went
back far beyond joining Fleetwood Mac, they might as well
have been husband and wife, and at the moment they
were very much split up. All of them were self
medicating with drugs and alcohol, mainly cocaine. Los Angeles, where
(03:20):
all manner of temptation and distraction was just a short
ride away, was a bad scene for the band at
the time, given their collective vulnerability. So up to Saucelito
they went, and the cocaine, of course followed them would.
Mick Fleetwood was sitting on the couch in the studio
control room. Mick was bored overdubs were happening, it didn't
(03:42):
concern him, and frankly, Mick had no idea whether the
music they were making was any good or not. The
band was hardly speaking, unless, of course, they wanted to
get stoned. Then a mutual want would momentarily saw whatever
coldness was in the air long enough to execute the
ritual of lining up some rails and getting down to
the business of getting high. The studio engineer knew what
(04:04):
Mick wanted more blow There was coke in a little
black velvet bag under the mixing poart. Not wanting to
derail the session into a mid afternoon coke party, the
engineer pretended he didn't know what mc wanted. Mick played along.
He definitely attempted to move the conversation from music to drugs.
How much cocaine do you think I've snorted in my
(04:26):
entire life? It was an interesting thought. The engineer, leaning
over the console, arms outstretched over the dials, turning this
track up and the other down, punching inputs, listening intently
to the playback, tried ignoring the question, but he couldn't.
John mcvee, seated next to Mick, gave a quick and
went back to being miserable. Stevie Nicks, also in the
(04:49):
control room, looked up from her book and widened her
big round eyes. Christine McVie said nothing, just continued listening
to Lindsay Buckingham overdubbing in the playback. Lindsay entered from
the live room and wanted to know what they all
thought of that last take. It never entered his mind
that those assembled may be interested in something other than
his playing, And at the moment they could give a shit,
(05:11):
I'll play along, Stevie said, ignoring Lindsay, A country mile,
a country mile of cocaine. No one, not even Stevie Nicks,
actually knew what a country mile was. It was just
one of those things that was in her head, possibly
from all those old country and folk tunes she sang
with Lindsay when they were coming up the Everly Brothers,
Hank Williams. That sort of thing. Mick had their attention.
(05:33):
He leaned forward in his seated position on the couch
over his gangly bent knees and started to explain that
the only way to figure this out, the question of
how much coke he'd done in his lifetime, was to
cut up an average sized line, measure it, and try
to figure out the math of it all. The engineer
was no dummy. He knew what Mick was doing, but
(05:54):
the thought experiment was just too interesting. So out came
the little velvet bag, and in no time the engine
was dicing up an eight ball on the coffee table.
He put to use one of the razor blades he
used to cut and edit the two inch tape to
create one perfectly average line of cocaine compared to what
non rock stars snorted. The line was above average in thickness,
(06:15):
but Mick Fleetwood was an above average sized man. He
stood tall at six six weighed a lean one hundred
and eighty pounds. Average was a part of his life's
equation in any respect. Using the thickness of the rail,
they assumed how long a gram of cocaine would stretch
out in one single line. Then they multiplied that by
three and a half, approximately an eighth of an ounce
(06:36):
aka and eight ball, which is what Mick estimated he'd
snorted one a ball every day for the past decade
or so. From there, it was estimated, on scientifically, of course,
that the line of coke would stretch about seven miles long.
Seven miles of cocaine. No one was impressed. They were
grossed out, but it didn't stop anyone from doing more coke.
(07:00):
Oh they didn't. By now, the drugs were the last
refuge the band had from each other. Normal bands rally
against their problems, which are largely external through making music.
For Fleetwood Mac that was impossible. They were their own problem,
and their interpersonal conflicts were now deeply entangled. Into the
music they were making. Given their dissolving romantic relationships. Christine
(07:24):
with John, Lindsay with Stevie, Mick in the middle going
through his own divorce, the band barely spoke to each other,
so they communicated through song, and the results were vicious.
Christine rubbed John's face into the hard reality of her
new relationship with another man with her vibe you make
Loving Fun. Lindsey brutally kissed off Stevie with is excellent
(07:44):
you can go your own way. Stevie documented her heart
wrenching disappointment in Lindsay when she sang in her ballad
you could be My Silver Springs. John, monster musician that
he was, was just the bass player and therefore incapable
of speaking through song. John was fucked. Mick just did
more blow. The band were communicating through creativity, and not
(08:04):
in a good way, not as far as their emotional
well being was concerned anyhow. Imagine the worst breakup you've
ever gone through if you're married, Imagine getting a divorce,
Really imagine it. Think about just how brutal that would
be emotionally. Think about how painful it would be to
deal with on a day to day basis. Think about
(08:25):
how difficult it would be to deal with your ex,
especially during the beginning of this process, and how difficult
it would be for them to deal with you. Think
about starting to see someone new, How weird that would be,
how different, how awkward. Now think about your spouse or
your girlfriend or your boyfriend as a new ex, and
think about them starting to see other people. Think about
just how hard that would suck. Now, Think about having
(08:48):
to deal with all that while also having to go
to work every single day with your ex. That's what
it was like for Fleetwood Mac during the making of
their second album in this new lineup. It was hard
not to feel bad for them. Everyone around them knew
what was going on. The engineers crew, hell, even the
coke dealer, who was coming around so much that Mick
was lobbying to have him formally thanked on the new
(09:08):
album's liner notes. Even he knew what was up. Lindsay
had taken up with a cocktail wagress. Chris was shagging
the lighting guy make it a thing for Stevie. Stevie
was sleeping in slash stones. Bad John was running a
brothel out of his rented home. Lindsay was losing his
grip on reality. Chris hated Stevie, Stevie hated Chris. Chris
loves Stevie. Stevie love Chris. John was banging on Chris's
door late at night, screaming on her name and agony.
Mikett spent all his money on cocaine. Lindsay had collapsed
(09:31):
the exhaustion. They said. Lindsay was going to quit. Stevie
was going solo. John was buying too many guns. Mick
was the devil. Stevie was a which Lindsay was gonna
go and get religion like Peter and Jeremy. Hay Sewss
was gunning. She was gonna shoot him down, but one
of Max's guns. Rampant Rumors. Stevie Nicks later said about Fleetwood,
Max Time and Salslito trying to make her second album
with the band that the truth about Rumors was that
(09:53):
rumors was the truth, and so Fleetwood Max Rumors was born.
(10:20):
The Record Plant studio in Sasolito was partially designed by
Psychedelic funk supernova sly Stone. Sly recorded as Excellent LP.
There's a riot going on at the Record Plan at
the moment Stevie Nicks was in sly Stone's quote unquote pit,
a studio room in the record plant. Sly had specially
designed that was a literal pit, an engineering booth sunk
(10:42):
ten feet deep into a round room so the engineer
could hear a session in full three sixty. The pit
was covered in red shag and had a loft for
the bed where a singer could record lying down with
such a trip that the room was often used for
more than recording, for sex and for makeshift escape as
coke parties. Sly even had his own tank of nitrous
oxide installed in the pit for when inspiration was waning.
(11:05):
But right now, Slyestone's pit was where Stevie Nicks went
to escape the chaos of Fleetwood Mac. On this day,
she had a little keyboard with her. Stevie clicked on
a preset drum pattern and began messing with a simple
chord progression. The melody came easy, the words too, dreams, freedom,
(11:33):
a heartbeat, driving you mad, longing, longing for that thing
he once had. It's gone, now washed away, clean, thunder rain,
crystal visions. The words eventually came together and too fully
realized the lyrics scept to Stevie's heartache melody. It's Hank
Williams by way of Helena Blovatsky. Over the chords and
the simple beat. Stevie's new song was at once lonesome,
(11:53):
witchy impact with special knowledge. She called him Dreams, and
when she brought it to the rest to the band,
they latched onto its power. Quick Dreams would anchor Fleetwood
Max Rumors. The song quickly went to number one when
it was released as the album's second single in the
spring of nineteen seventy seven, and it stayed there for
(12:14):
twenty three weeks throughout the entirety of the summer nineteen
seventy seven, and Rumors as an album out of the
Gate went platinum in just one month. By nineteen eighty
it sold thirteen million, and by nineteen ninety seven sales
were at twenty five million. To date, Rumors has sold
more than forty five million copies, making it the fifth
best selling album of all time in the US, in
(12:36):
eleventh in the UK, eighth overall in the world, and
as recently as twenty twenty, Stevie Nix's Dreams once again
landed on the charts as the number one iTunes song
due to a TikTok being of a dude on a skateboard,
drinking cranberry juice and singing along to her crystal visions.
It's easy to reason that the immensely strong pop sensibility
(12:57):
of Rumors is what makes the record so popular, But
that's too simple. There's a universal truism to the album,
the depths of which could only be carved by writers
and musicians experiencing and working through such intense feelings together.
Lindsey Buckingham later explained that under all that beautiful pop
production lies a murkiness, a darkness due to an emotional
(13:18):
duress each band member was forced to endure while writing
and recording Rumors, and there was a mystery to Rumors
as well that is to this day hard to describe.
Part of it is, in fact, the actual rumors. As
a listener, you can't help but listen for the cracks,
the emotional fault lines that intra bands squabbling. Within the songs.
You can't help but play the parlor game of asking
(13:39):
yourself what this band member was saying to that band member.
But deeper than that is more of a mystery beyond
understanding a feeling a vibe. It's more than just pop.
It's heavy. It's Stevie Nicks. We'll be right back after
this word word word. The house in Florida was rented large,
(14:06):
in cavernous, hot, sticky, in old mansion, southern gothic. Outside,
the bullfrogs barked, swampy, sweaty, spooky. Overgrown vines reached down
onto the estate's grounds. Fleetwood Mac huddled inside. They were
taking a couple days off before shows. Lindsay had just
debuted you Can Go Your Own Way, his newest song,
(14:27):
to his fellow band members. It was obviously about Stevie.
It was mean, low down, accusational, unnecessary by her account,
but man wasnt a good song, so there was no
way it wasn't getting recorded. Stevie hung in her room
by herself, hurt. She felt the vibe of the house dark, mysterious,
(14:49):
Like Stevie herself. Stevie had intuition, what's some called quote
unquote special knowledge, a way to read into things, to
see around corners, to understand crystal. That old house seemed
to be telling her something. Lindsay's song wasn't wrong, you
can Go your Own Way. Stevie Nicks was brought into
(15:10):
Fleetwood Mac as part of a package deal with her
boyfriend Lindsay Buckingham. Mick Fleetwood only asked Lindsay to join
Fleetwood Mac only needed a guitar player and a front man.
Lindsay checked both of those boxes himself, and Christine McVie,
already in the group, was plenty capable of singing, leading
and composing in her own right. What did they need
Stevie Nicks for? What did Fleetwood Mac need Lindsay Buckingham's petite, cute, blonde,
(15:33):
hippy girlfriend for nothing? Which is why Mick didn't inquire
about Stevie. He inquired only about Lindsay. But Lindsay back then,
was loyal to Stevie. It insisted that they were a
package deal. To Mick Fleetwood's great credit, he quickly understood
the power of the duo and was smart enough to
bring the novel idea of adding an existing songwriting tandem
(15:55):
to his band to his husband and wife. Group members
John and Christine McVie and John and Christine were no fools.
They got it, but still to Stevie, who didn't consider
herself as advanced a musician and songwriter as her boyfriend Lindsay.
A boyfriend whose talent she believed in so strongly that
she worked all day and night at a shitty theme
(16:15):
restaurant in West Hollywood while he choked reefer with waddiwoch
Tell and fucked with his four track to financially support
him in their dreams of a life in music. To Stevie,
the fact remain she was just an add on a
sidecar a foil. Had Lindsay not insisted on her being
in the band, Fleetwood Mac very well could have existed
as a foursome without her. But it was becoming clear
(16:36):
to Stevie Nicks and to everyone else with eyes and ears,
that Fleetwood Mac would not have gotten anywhere close to
the level of success they achieved without Stevie Nicks. And
in that room, on that hot, sticky flower to night,
anger pulsing through her veins, Anger at Lindsay insecurity turned
to confidence. Fuck Lindsay. It wasn't you can go your
(16:57):
own way, as he put it, It was you can
go your own way, as in she was Stevie fucking Nicks.
She had a voice like no other, and she could
write too. Maybe she didn't have the comprehensive musical vision
Lindsay had, but she had her own musical intuition, and
she knew how to put songs together, songs that reinforced
her essence, her vibe. What is now known as the
whole Stevie Nicks thing. You can go your own Way.
(17:20):
That thing was Stevie's image. It was contrived out of
second hand lags, chiffon, black flowy dresses, foods, long blonde locks,
and a signature black top hat like the mansion she
was holed up in the moment. Her new style was witchy,
and that style played beautifully with her songs him In Dreams,
Landslide and gold Dust Woman. Stevie Nicks was her own trip.
(17:42):
You can go your own way, a witchy diva who
appeared to be on some secret shit, special knowledge. They said,
America ate it up. Stevie Nicks took Lindsay Buckingham's advice
and indeed went her own way and became the focal
point of his band, Fleetwood Mac. Their live shows became
Witchy Rights. During Stevie's songs, thousands of women showed up
(18:05):
at football stadiums to cheer Stevie on, dressed as Stevie
in all black, flowing dresses and with black top hats.
They staked her out at her hotel, jammed the entrance
to the venues, looking for not only autographs, but insight
advice visions of the future. It freaked Stevie out and
the cocaine didn't help. Like the rest of the band,
she descended deeper into the dust. As Rumors became the
(18:27):
top selling album in the US and made Fleetwood Mac
one of the biggest bands in the world. Everything became bigger,
the shows, the crowds, the traveling entourage, the set pieces,
the expectations. The band dove headfirst into the deep end
of mega rock stardom and employed all the trappings. They
traveled everywhere, now by private jet. They had fourteen limousines
(18:48):
on call in every city to use at their whim
for whatever the hell they wanted. Each band member wants
to ride solo to a gig, No problem, we have
a limo for that. The Koch dealer needs a lift
to the hotel room from the pool haul downtown, No problem,
we have a limo for that. Need a pack of
smokes from the corner store down the block, No problem,
we have a limo for that. The band insisted that
every hotel they stayed in in every city. Usually Ritz
(19:11):
Carlton's are four seasons painted one of their suites pink
for Stevie, and that the suite came equipped with a
white grand piano. Ritz Carlton's in four seasons hotels don't
have pink suites and they don't have grand pianos in
the suites that they do have, so the rooms would
have to be freshly painted before Fleetwood max Wichi Diva arrived,
and more often than not, the grand piano would have
(19:32):
to be lifted by crane up to the suite's window
and brought in that way. This wasn't a one time thing.
This was every show, every night, in every city. And
at the gig there was the standard rock star rider,
a fair of gargantuan buffets that the band rarely touched
due to the fact that the cocaine killed their appetites.
The endless bottles of Kannac wine, Russian vodka, Heineken, and
(19:53):
whatever else they wanted, all of it there for the
after parties that seemed to never end. On stage, each night,
cocaine was arranged at each band member's stationed by a
roady carefully loaded into Heineken bottle caps and refilled by
said rody as needed. Fleetwood Mac wanted for nothing excess ruled.
(20:16):
Some years later, it was estimated that Stevie Nicks herself
snorted a million dollars worth of cocaine. And there were
other rumors too, like the fact that her septum was
blown out from snorting too much coke, leaving a hole
you could pass a gold ring through. And that rumor
happened to be true, But it kicked off another rumor,
the rumor that Stevie Nicks just couldn't say no, that
(20:38):
she couldn't not do cocaine. If she couldn't minister it
through her nose, then she'd find another way. But what
was the point of having all this paid help around
if you couldn't put them to work. The roady was
one of the better looking ones, of course he'd do.
The gig was only demeaning if you looked at it
that way, it could be said that it was glamorous.
This was Stevie Nicks, after all, She was a beauty
(20:59):
like no and one of the most famous pop stars
in the world. How many other roadies got to do
this perform what could only be described as a cocaine enema,
blowing the powdery drug of the backside of one of
the world's most famous women, so the blow could penetrate
her anal membrane and thus bypass the nose with its
damage septum, and ultimately keep Stevie Nicks high on coke. None,
(21:23):
no other roadies. That's how many, just Stevie Nick's roady
got to perform a cocaine enema on his boss. It
was a holy, unique gig only in rock and roll,
except Stevie Nick swore it never happened. She heard the
rumor like everyone else in the music industry and had
the same reaction to it. Shock. The fact that this
rumor was at least somewhat believable to those who knew
(21:45):
Stevie and who knew the band's reputation. Their bend toward
excess and now legendary addiction gave Stevie pause with or
without cocaine enemas Stevie Nix's excessive use of the drug
had exposed her to the very real danger of life,
losing her voice, her looks, and quite possibly her life. Naturally,
she was petrified was clean up time. The Betty Ford
(22:08):
Clinic rehab. Drug rehab was no joke. Betty Ford put
(22:30):
her addicts to work alongside members of Arrowsmith, backup singers
from James Taylor's band, high powered Hollywood attorneys Boord, Beverly
Hills housewives and Braddy children of Mega rich studio executives.
Stevie Nicks Rose Early cleaned her room, did the rest
of her chores, and kept her nose clean. It was
nineteen eighty six, nine years since Rumors was released. After
(22:53):
the album hit, Stevie took Lindsay's whole you can Go
your Own Way thing to its literal conclusion, began a
short ten t affair with their drummer Mick Fleetwood, and
then in nineteen eighty one, took a brief hiatus from
the band and released her first solo album, Bella Donna.
It was, of course, a hit hit, sold a million
copies and went platinum in less than three months, hit
(23:14):
number one of the charts in the US and Australia,
and produced the mega hit Edge of seventeen that went
to number four on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts. Who
knew if Fleetwood Mac Would get back together? Stevie remembered
back to the beginning of the end nineteen seventy eight,
Rumors was huge, But suddenly rumors wasn't hit. A new
(23:36):
form of music was making inroads and captivating critics and
kids alike. Punk It was everything. Fleetwood Mac was not
stripped down, devoid of pomp and excess, raw, not pop, clubs,
not stadiums, heroin not coke, and just like that, Fleetwood Mac,
despite their record still selling like mad were out. Punk
(23:57):
new wave was in the class Elvis Costello talking heads.
The urgency and hipness demonstrated by these artists captivated Lindsay Buckingham, who,
by his estimation, was now charged with creatively shepherding a
band of English blues dinosaurs led by a witchy diva
who he used to share a bed with. Fleetwood Mac
was so old in comparison to this new wave of
(24:19):
punk that their first album was released when most of
these artists were wearing short pants back in grade school.
Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine Perfect were literally from
another generation. Elvis Costello was a bona fide Peter Green
fan and had been since he was a little boy,
and in nineteen seventy eight, as far as musicians and
songwriters were concerned no one was cooler than Elvis Costello.
(24:46):
He was smarter, angrier, peggier, better dressed, and more mysterious
than anyone putting songs together in LA. At the time,
he was an enigma, so much so that when his
first album was released My Aim Is True with the
pigtoed Buddy Holly lookalike on its cover, some smart American
listeners refused to believe that Elvis Costello was real. He
was too good to be true. That sound, that image,
(25:08):
those songs, that perspective. It had to be a Nick
Low joke some Dave Edmunds protege cooked up in the
studio to take the piss out of dumb American audiences.
A music industry prank on a ride, one that resulted
in busting radio formats. In America's old garb, popsmiths like
Lindsay Buckingham questioning their approach, but Elvis Costello was very real.
(25:28):
Lindsay Buckingham's old friend, guitarist Waddi Wattell, told him that
LA's much revered songstress Linda Ronstadt was going to record
three of Elvis's tunes for her hotly anticipated next album,
No Shit no shit. Lindsay Buckingham cut off all of
his hair, He stopped wearing unbuttoned blouses and opted for
bespoke Armani suits. Robert planned as an Avatar was out
(25:51):
and David Byrne was in. Lindsay went at the writing
of Fleetwood Mac's next album from an entirely different direction.
No more pomp, no more excess. They would strip everything down,
he would let his anger loose. Following up the success
of Rumors was not going to be easy. The album
sold ten million copies worldwide in its first year, eight
million in the US alone, and the pressure was immense.
(26:14):
The rest of the band cleared the way. They let
Lindsay be Lindsay, that is to say controlling. He had
a vision, or so he said. They believed him, and
that meant more pressure. Again. The cocaine did not help.
At this point Fleetwood Max used to the drug was
way out in the open. Stevie and Chris wore coke
spoon necklaces wherever they went. Lindsay didn't have time for
(26:34):
going anywhere. He holed up in the studio. There was
a rock and roll revolution going on, and King Fleetwood
Mac was about to be dethroned, and there was no
time to waste. New music, different music, edgi or music.
Smarter music was needed. Lord Lindsay Buckingham dug himself in.
He would not be outflanked by the punk revolutionaries storming
the castle. He worked harder than he ever had. Day
(26:55):
and night he collapsed. He worked more, crashed work some
more kept him seeing hours. Became a real life of
Hollywood vampire, lost all perspective. He turned the knobs on
the board into the red. He taped microphones to the
studio floor, planked himself over them, and recorded vocal takes
while doing pushups. Lindsey Buckingham burned himself out, and there
(27:16):
were rumors always there were rumors of real darkness where
it was. Lindsay lost it, raised his hand in anger
to his new girlfriend Carol, and this did not surprise
Stevie Nix. Lindsay denied it. Lindsey Buckingham crashed. It was
one of those parties that came on way too fast.
(27:38):
Last night's party had ended just hours before. Everyone was
still hungover and the sun was blinding even inside the
Hollywood home of this Evening's host Lindsay Buckingham and the
fact that it was a Halloween party made the drag
ass vibe even weirder. Lindsay was dressed as a Pope,
Mick as a vampire Stevie, and all white as a
wintery Coke spooned Witch Chris and faces on Jemima John
(28:01):
in full Naziss regalia. Fleetwood Mac was shockingly out of touch.
And it wasn't just their offensive costume choices. Their music.
The new music Lindsay was spearheading that would become their
next record, entitled Tusk, was also out of touch. Lindsay
Buckingham was so obsessed with creating a record that was
as authentic and inspired as the new wave and punk
(28:24):
music that was captivating America that, in trying to be authentic,
he wound up creating an inauthentic, uninspired mess of a record.
He is not solely to blame. His bandmates did him
no favors by turning the reins over to him with
little creative governance. Tusk sounds disconnected, random and flat, the
irony being that, in attempting to sound authentic, Lindsay Buckingham
(28:46):
sold out by trying to be something they weren't, something
less than the glorious, amalgamated messive excess and emotional duress
that they were when they made Rumors, proper rock stars,
not punks, stupidly debotch, not smartly pissed. But in Fleetwood
Mac's defense, recreating rumors would have been impossible. Rumors was
born out of painful emotions so real that a group
(29:08):
of people couldn't live through twice. It is such a
product of a specific moment in time. You go through
what you go through. And Fleetwood Mac were no longer
the same five people who set up camp at that
Saucelito studio. The romance had been extracted from their relationships
with each other for good, and they had dealt with
that in song and moved on to expect Fleetwood Mac
to live through that hell and then linger in that
(29:30):
limbo just to tell us all about it again, as
secondhand news would be unfair. The band would live on.
Of course, Stevie Nicks would make it out of rehab
more than once, and through her solo career, Lindsey Buckingham
would find success on his own as well, and then
find his way back to Fleetwood Mac. At the behest
of the country's first baby boomer President Bill Clinton, who
would reintroduced the band to Generation X by adopting Fleetwood
(29:53):
Max's nineteen seventy seven hit from Rumors Don't Stop as
his nineteen ninety two campaign song, and as Mick fleet
would put it, the band would play on as they
do to this day without Lindsay Buckingham. Of course, he
was kicked out of the band in twenty eighteen, but
the rumors are that he's about to make his return.
(30:14):
Of course, there are rumors, always rumors. Anything less would
be a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
(30:44):
Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
found on the show notes page at disgracelamdpod dot com.
If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And
if not, you can become a member right now by
going to disgrace lampod dot com. Slash Membership members.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Can listen to every episode of disgracelanm ad free, plus
you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month weekly
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Rate and review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
(31:27):
and Facebook at disgracelampod, and on YouTube at YouTube dot
com slash at disgracelampod Rock a Roller
Speaker 1 (31:37):
He theddan Man
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