{"id":259525,"date":"2025-11-03T10:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/259525\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T10:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:44:11","slug":"tumultuous-history-of-break-ups-line-up-changes-and-drug-use-explained-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/259525\/","title":{"rendered":"Tumultuous history of break-ups, line-up changes and drug use explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

They say \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t shit where you eat\u201d, but Fleetwood Mac clearly never got that memo.<\/p>\n

The classic line-up of the band was built around two couples, Buckingham and Nicks and Christine and John McVie, along with Fleetwood. But beneath the sweet harmonies and poppy tunes lay a complex web of drug use, affairs and betrayals.<\/p>\n

Trouble began in 1976 when both of those intra-band relationships broke down. All parties, however, stayed with the band. In fact, they started recording their most famous album, Rumours, around this time, funnelling heartbreak and insult into tracks the writers\u2019 respective exes would soon be performing in front of thousands.<\/p>\n

Even as the band\u2019s inner workings became increasingly toxic, the songs poured forth. The McVies stopped speaking to each other unless discussing music, and Christine even began a fling with the band\u2019s lighting designer, about whom she wrote You Make Loving Fun. Nicks wrote Dreams and Buckingham penned Go Your Own Way \u2026 each track essentially having a dig at their former partner.<\/p>\n

It was the very definition of creative tension, and it paid off in spades. Rumours spent more than 30 weeks at the top of the Billboard album chart in the United States, more than any other record of the 1970s, and ended up selling more than 40 million copies worldwide. To this day, it remains a beloved and frequently played record, continually earning new generations of fans.<\/p>\n

Touring the album wasn\u2019t much fun, though. Nicks and Buckingham had several arguments on stage, with Buckingham even throwing his guitar<\/a> at Nicks at one point, after which a fight broke out backstage between the band members.<\/p>\n

\"Stevie<\/p>\n

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, where feuds fed the music.Credit: AP<\/p>\n

To make matters even more complicated, Nicks and Fleetwood began an affair in 1977. Fleetwood then went on to cheat on the singer with her good friend, Sara Recor, just a year later.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one was speaking, and I wouldn\u2019t even look directly at Mick,\u201d Nicks said of this period in a 2011 interview<\/a>. \u201cThat went on for months. And it was great fodder for writing. The songs poured out of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold Dust Woman: cocaine and champagne<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that drugs played a huge role in the Fleetwood Mac story, and the toxic interpersonal dynamics at play within it.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Guardian<\/a> shortly before her death in 2022, Christine McVie said the male members were often provided with cocaine in Heineken bottle tops on stage, though she and Nicks were far more measured in their consumption, taking only \u201clittle spoons\u201d of the substance.<\/p>\n

\"Fleetwood<\/p>\n

Fleetwood Mac in 1977, when they recorded their 39-minute classic, Rumours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always took fairly good care of myself,\u201d she said. \u201cMy drug of choice was cocaine and champagne. I didn\u2019t use any other drugs at all. It\u2019s easy for me to say, but I think it made me perform better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicks\u2019 cocaine use, however, escalated and ultimately led to her entering rehab in 1986. Years prior, a doctor had found a coin-sized hole in her nasal cartilage, which was reportedly large enough to cause a brain hemorrhage. This was the result, apparently, of her tendency to snort aspirin dissolved in water<\/a> to combat headaches.<\/p>\n

In 1993, Nicks re-entered rehab for an addiction to Klonopin, a form of benzodiazepine.<\/p>\n

Go Your Own Way: line-up changes<\/p>\n

Fleetwood Mac formed in 1967 as a blues band. But their line-up changed practically every year, and with it, their musical style.<\/p>\n

They began with Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, and vocalists\/guitarists Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green. A year later, they added Danny Kirwan as a third guitarist.<\/p>\n

In 1970, Green quit due to mental health issues, exacerbated by heavy LSD use. That same year, John\u2019s wife, Christine, joined the band as keyboardist and vocalist.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

One of the strangest line-up changes came in 1971 when Spencer said he was going out to buy a magazine, shortly before a sold-out show was due to start. He was, in fact, actually going to join a Christian cult called The Family<\/a> (not the Australian cult of the same name).<\/p>\n

The following year, Kirwan (who struggled with alcoholism) was fired after refusing to perform following a massive fight with his colleagues backstage, during which he destroyed his own guitar.<\/p>\n

Bob Weston replaced Kirwan, though that didn\u2019t last long either. He was fired in 1973 following an affair with Fleetwood\u2019s wife, Jenny Boyd.<\/p>\n

In 1974, Nicks and Buckingham joined the party. The pair were dating at the time and had been performing as a duo before being asked by Fleetwood to join the band.<\/p>\n

Unlike the romantic relationships, the line-up was relatively stable over the next 13 years. But in 1987, Buckingham suddenly left for a solo venture, and was replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. A decade later, Buckingham rejoined, staying with the band until 2018, when he was reportedly fired over disagreements about which songs to include on the forthcoming tour (he wanted new material, the rest of the band did not).<\/p>\n

There was also some back-and-forth with Christine, who stopped touring with the band in 1990 but continued to record with them. In 1998, she fully quit, but returned to tour in 2014.<\/p>\n

Nicks, meanwhile, also quit the band in 1991, though her departure was reportedly due to a disagreement between her and Fleetwood over the song, Silver Spring, which was created for Rumours but never used. Nicks intended to use it on her Timespace album, but was refused by Fleetwood, who went on to use it on 25 Years \u2013 The Chain.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Stop: Will Fleetwood Mac ride again?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to say for sure, but you wouldn\u2019t bet against it.<\/p>\n

The long, unstable reign of one of pop\u2019s most enduring acts appeared to have come to an end after each member went their own way following their 2018-19 tour, though Fleetwood Mac never officially broke up. And while Christine McVie\u2019s death might have made a reunion less likely, that looming 50th anniversary \u2013 and the mountains of cash a tour would generate \u2013 might be the perfect balm for all those old wounds.<\/p>\n

Yesterday might be gone, but while there\u2019s still a chance of seeing the band one more time, you can bet the fans won\u2019t stop thinking about tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist<\/a> delivered every Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They say \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t shit where you eat\u201d, but Fleetwood Mac clearly never got that memo. The classic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-259525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}