(Credits: Far Out / Fleetwood Mac)
Wed 29 October 2025 18:53, UK
It doesn’t matter how long you have been in the industry; the chance to join an impromptu jam session with some of your heroes lingers long in your mind. The same can be said for any musician, including Mick Fleetwood.
As much as they might be looking to make records until the end of time, those priceless moments come when you end up playing the guitar or laying down a groove with the same artists that made you want to pick the instrument in the first place.
Although Fleetwood has probably been that outlet for countless artists due to his incredible work with Fleetwood Mac, he admitted that he would happily hang up his sticks with ‘The Mac’ for a night to play with The Rolling Stones.
When looking at where Fleetwood started, it’s not out of the question that he would gravitate towards The Stones. Outside of being one of the mainstays of 1970s pop radio, Fleetwood’s career began with the blues, forming the group alongside John McVie after the bassist left John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
While the band got by as blues rock legends with Peter Green at the helm and even with Bob Welch performing alongside them, it wasn’t until Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined that they saw a surge in popularity. Compared to the blues roots that they started with, Nicks and Buckingham brought a folksy pop approach to their music, leading to them creating massive hits off the back of Rumours.
(Credits: Far Out / Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Although The Stones had already solidified themselves as rock legend before the 1960s had even ended, there was a good chance that they were paying attention to what Fleetwood Mac was doing as well. While both artists had their roots in blues and rock, there was a deep love of country music that suited both of them well.
Even in the age when disco was starting to rear its head, The Stones and ‘The Mac’ had a healthy respect for rootsier music, turning in ballads like ‘Far Away Eyes’ and ‘Landslide’ that reflected the wistful side of rock and roll. For Fleetwood’s money, though, the best job in the world would be playing in Charlie Watts’s drum stool for a few days.
Speaking to Louder about his favourite bands, Fleetwood said that it had always been a dream of his to play alongside Jagger and Richards, saying, “The Stones are my favourite band. My dream was always that Charlie Watts got the flu, and I get to save the day and play with the Stones for a week. But the call never came”.
The chance to see Fleetwood’s big frame sat behind the kit and ready to perform with his icons would have got a lot of musicians excited. While Fleetwood’s groove is often forgotten when considering the greatest drummers of all time, the truth is the drummer brought more than just his bandmates together, he brought the vibe.
“Growing up playing blues, it’s is all about listening and doing something that is ostensibly very simple,” Fleetwood said when sharing his love of the genre and how it could translate to his own performances. “But it involves great attention to dynamics. The breeding ground for me was just that, and it was a perfect match for me because I’m not ‘Joe Slicko/ Mr Paradiddle.’ I’m not horribly technically profound. I know people have said, ‘Well, that’s not true,’ but I really am happy doing something simple and getting a lot out of it. I was a guy who knew, through listening to blues music, when to not play – and I became an expert at it.”
Then again, no one else could play like Watts during his prime. Although the band have been able to carry on with Steve Jordan laying down the groove live, nothing compared to Watts’s unique approach to the instrument, almost never hitting his snare drum alongside his hi-hat and having a distinct shuffle inherited from jazz.
It’s not like Fleetwood wouldn’t be able to lay into that groove, though, with many Fleetwood Mac songs testing him with how versatile he had to approach his instrument. Fleetwood may have had his fair share of rock and roll stories to choose from in his main outfit, but the idea of him playing a song like ‘Paint It Black’ or ‘Satisfaction’ is a match made in heaven for him.
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