(Credits: Far Out / Fleetwood Mac)
Tue 2 December 2025 12:36, UK
Sometimes a legacy can outperform the talent of the musician in question. For one band, in particular, that’s certainly the case. The world knows Fleetwood Mac for two things: their songs and their disruptive behaviour.
The name Fleetwood Mac immediately brings to mind the bitter romantic break-ups and infighting that produced their 1977 masterpiece, Rumours. Elsewhere, mention of the band might prompt the image of their founder and original frontman, Peter Green, a revolutionary guitar player who’s inspired the likes of Radiohead and Noel Gallagher but does not get the plaudits he deserves due to his severe mental decline.
Yet, one thing a discussion of the group certainly doesn’t often stoke is a discussion about Mick Fleetwood and the drums. Without him, the group simply wouldn’t have been able to function at the high level they did. But while his position as one of the main components of their success is confirmed, signed, sealed and delivered, his prowess as a percussionist is often forgotten.
When we talk about the towering figure who gave the band half their name, usually, it’s about his position as the captain of the yacht. Following Green’s tragic mental collapse after that fateful night in Munich, it was Fleetwood who took the mantle as their leader, carrying them through losing bandmates, increased drug abuse, and, during the mid-1970s, the weird interpersonal clusterfuck the group became.
This added to the fact that Fleetwood has always been regarded as one of the nicest men in rock. While it is a nice moniker to have, it also means that people often overlook that the Cornish rocker is actually a great drummer. Inspired by early rock drummers such as The Shadows’ Tony Meehan and later given more fire by The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds, he is such an excellent percussionist that in 1960s London, he was hot property.
Mick Fleetwood with Fleetwood Mac in 1972. (Credits: Far Out / YouTube)
For this reason, after Fleetwood’s band, the short-lived Shotgun Express broke up, their guitarist Green wanted him to join one of the most storied bands of the era, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.
Recalling that moment in Classic Rock in 2021, Fleetwood, despite being lauded around the city, recalled that he could not believe he was being asked to replace the outgoing Aynsley Dunbar, who had joined The Jeff Beck Group, a drummer he thought he couldn’t match. However, that was precisely the point.
Fleetwood explained: “Yeah. They had Aynsley Dunbar, an incredible drummer, technically astounding. So when Greeny said he wanted me in the Bluesbreakers I was like: ‘What do you mean? I can’t do that!’ But very quickly, Greeny said: ‘That’s exactly why we want you – because you can’t do that.’ Peter Green had a well-worn phrase that we still use, especially me and John, as a blueprint. He used to say: ‘Less is more’. And that’s what he saw in me.”
Famously, Fleetwood’s time with the constantly changing blues rock group was brief. He was fired after just two months, which set the wheels in motion for the formation of Fleetwood Mac, as Green joined him to form their own group. The drummer revealed that he and John McVie, the future Fleetwood Mac bassist who gave the group the other half of their name, drank far too much in the Bluesbreakers.
McVie was so unruly with his drinking that Mayall fired him on a couple of occasions, but he always took him back because he’s a great bassist. However, when you added Fleetwood to the mix, things became too much for the great band leader to bear. One night, Fleetwood was too drunk and sat in the back of the band’s Transit van; he knew he’d squandered his chances. Looking at the gig sheet, he wrote “I’m fired” under a date, and almost to the day, he was right.
Little did he know, even greater success was on the way.
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