Fleetwood Mac’s Guitarist Problem

By Scott Shea

Art often imitates life, and in popular music, we see it all the time. Most bands never sign with a record label. Those that do never create a hit. Those who have a hit rarely have a follow-up. Many of those who do flame out after a while because of personnel issues or bad management. Then, there are the legends, each with their own unique stories and fingerprints. For Fleetwood Mac, they seemed to go the way of their guitarists, while everything else remained steadfast and reliable. Here is the story of Fleetwood Mac through the travails of their six foundational guitarists.

Peter Green

My teenage kids are both Fleetwood Mac fans, and even though I played plenty of their songs while they were growing up, they discovered the band on their own. Of course, they’re only familiar with the Buckingham-Nicks iteration of the group, and they gave confused looks when I asked them, “Did you know the guy who founded the group was a guitarist named Peter Green?” The answer “no” is common, especially among Generation X and younger. But back in 1967 in London, he was one of those guitarists Brits labeled “God” with frightful ease. In 1966, leading British blues artist John Mayall plucked him out of Peter B’s Looners to do the impossible: replace Eric Clapton. It would’ve been a more daunting task if Peter hadn’t filled in for an absent Clapton a few times before joining up with Peter Barden, so he took it in stride, even though he had big shoes to fill and an ornery fanbase to please. He managed to do just that by making his presence felt on their 1966 LP, “A Hard Road,” earning the nickname the Green God. But Mayall couldn’t keep him long. Green wanted to branch out and do his own thing, and he felt the Bluesbreakers were moving further and further away from the traditional blues he loved.

John McVie was the anchor of Mayall’s rhythm section, having joined the Bluesbreakers in 1964. Green knew it would be a major coup to steal him away. Another Mayall alumnus he wanted, drummer Mick Fleetwood, had only been with them temporarily and was much easier to recruit. Mayall had fired him for chronic insobriety, but he was a fantastic, unique drummer who never played the same pattern twice. To persuade McVie to join the group, Green named his new band Fleetwood Mac in July 1967, but the bassist flatly refused. He was making good money in the Bluesbreakers, where he was firmly established, but Green persisted. He brought in Jeremy Spencer of the Levi Set to perform onstage with him, hired Bob Brunning, formerly of Five’s Company, to handle bass duties, and made their live debut at the Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor, England, on August 13th.

Whether by his own volition or under the influence of Peter Green’s suggestion, McVie felt Mayall was drifting toward jazz and left to join Fleetwood Mac in September 1967. The group had already signed with Blue Horizon, a blues label co-founded by Mike Vernon two years earlier, and stayed true to their pure blues sound for well over a year. In August 1968, Peter Green hired Boilermaker guitarist Danny Kirwan to augment their sound as they began moving away from traditional blues toward a more contemporary hard rock sound, culminating in a move to Warner Bros. and their first #1 U.K. hit, the sublime instrumental “Albatross.” With this new lineup, Fleetwood Mac released their first classic album, “Then Play On,” a refreshing blend of what they’d been and where they were headed, and it gave us classics like “Coming Your Way” and “Rattlesnake Shake.” Released almost concurrently as a single was their signature Peter Green-era tune, “Oh Well,” which hit the #2 spot in the U.K. and was the only song from that period to be played live by all future iterations of Fleetwood Mac.

With “Man of the World” also hitting the #2 spot followed by the now classic, “Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown),” Fleetwood Mac was one of the hottest acts in England and poised to dominate the singles and albums charts, as well as the live circuit. But it all came to a crashing end in May 1970, when Peter Green left the group. Two months earlier, after a concert in Munich, Germany, at a party in a commune, Green took a bad hit of LSD, which completely changed his character. He was no stranger to the psychedelic drug but had never exhibited these strange new characteristics, such as dressing like a shaman, eschewing his notoriety, and giving away his money. His personal hygiene, playing, and rehearsal schedule all declined, and he showed signs of a mental breakdown. It seemed unfathomable that the once-driven, prolific guitarist who named his band after his rhythm section was now ancient history, but the show had to go on.

Jeremy Spencer

When Peter Green left Fleetwood Mac, the band was in a state of flux that nearly led to a breakup. A soft power struggle ensued, and an examination of their fourth studio LP, “Kiln House,” released in mid-September 1970, shows that guitarist Jeremy Spencer was winning it. His blues guitar chops were first-rate, and he had an uncanny ability to imitate not only the guitar styles of contemporaries and legends but also their vocals. He was also the first member of the group to release a solo LP, a self-titled effort that came out eight months earlier on Reprise and was a bizarre tribute to 1950s music. It featured eight Jeremy Spencer originals in either R&B or teen idol arrangements, and four deep covers. Although it bombed, “Kiln House” continued in that direction. It also included some bizarre covers, Bobby Vee’s 1963 Buddy Holly tribute, “Buddy’s Song,” Donnie Brooks’ 1960 Top 10 hit, “Mission Bell,” and Big Joe Turner’s 1953 #1 R&B hit “Honey Hush,” retitled “Hi Ho Silver,” and three originals that were even more inconsistent. There was “Blood on the Floor,” a honky-tonk parody; the rockabilly opener, “This is the Rock”; and “One Together,” which actually sounds like a Fleetwood Mac song. Interspersed were two songs co-written by the rest of the band and two Danny Kirwan originals that were more in keeping with the direction the band had been heading. It was also the first album to feature Christine McVie, John’s wife, in a major capacity, though she’s not credited. She’d recorded with the British blues group Chicken Shack and under her maiden name, Christine Perfect. Although it’s aged well, thanks in part to the great success the band reached in its ensuing years, at the time it was a disappointing follow-up to “Then Play On.”

On the road in February 1971, things grew stranger, and the band’s bizarre trend continued. During the West Coast leg of their U.S. tour, a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck the San Fernando Valley outside Los Angeles, causing more than $500 million in property damage. Fleetwood Mac, which now included Christine McVie full-time, was safely upstate in San Francisco, playing a four-night stand at the Fillmore West. When Jeremy caught wind of the quake, he panicked. The Whisky a Go Go in L.A. was their next destination, and he’d been having premonitions of some sort of coming disaster. He’d also been recovering from a bad mescaline trip and was in no mood to head straight into what he perceived to be his demise. He begged Mick Fleetwood to cancel those dates, but it was out of the question. Fleetwood Mac had been in a precarious position since Peter’s departure and needed all the money and good press they could get. When they arrived in L.A. on the 15th, Jeremy was getting desperate. He was not in a good place mentally and was looking for a way out. Not long after checking into their hotel, he told Mick he was going to visit a local bookstore. He never returned. The band was forced to cancel their first-night show, and a search party ensued. He was located several days later in a religious commune run by the Children of God. He was unsympathetic to his band’s plight and refused to return to carry on the turning, telling them he’d found meaning with the cult. Even manager Clifford Davis was unable to sway him. They were forced to go on without him, and Davis convinced Peter Green to fill in for the rest of the tour.

Jeremy would be formally replaced later that year by American guitarist Bob Welch, but that didn’t dampen his personal ambitions. Since then, he’s released a dozen-and-a-half albums, beginning with a spiritual album recorded with members of the Children of God in 1972. His most interesting offering was 1979’s “Flee,” which showcased his mimicry by closely resembling the Buckingham/Nicks edition of Fleetwood Mac. Outside Fleetwood Mac’s hardcore fanbase, he’s essentially become a forgotten member.

Danny Kirwan

Fleetwood Mac’s 1971 tour showed that Mick Fleetwood had firmly taken charge of the band. Danny Kirwan had become essential to maintaining the melodic, mystical guitar sound established by Peter Green, but he was much younger than the rest of the group and lacked the mental strength to lead. He was overjoyed and a bit shy when he was asked to join them in the summer of 1968, but his confidence was bolstered by the success of “Albatross,” which he’d helped Peter finish. He became more forceful about his contributions, almost to the point of Peter’s annoyance, and some have speculated that Danny’s newfound outspokenness contributed to his abrupt departure. All that aside, he was originally brought in to help move Fleetwood Mac more toward the contemporary rock sounds being issued by artists like Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Who, and the Jeff Beck Group. He was successful, writing half of the songs on “Then Play On,” including the classics “Coming Your Way,” “When You Say,” and “Like Crying.” His meticulous presence could be felt on many of Peter’s songs, so much so that it almost seemed he was stepping aside for his young protégé.

Danny’s stylings dominated their next two albums, “Future Games” and “Bare Trees,” launching the new-look Fleetwood Mac featuring California guitarist Bob Welch and singer/keyboardist Christine McVie in an expanded role. His dreamy, ethereal guitar and vocals were perfectly suited to the era of the softer singer/songwriter and shone brightly in songs like “Woman of 1,000 Years,” “Sands of Time,” “Child of Mine,” and the instrumental “Sunny Side of Heaven.” His contributions to Bob Welch’s “Future Games” and “Lay It All Down” helped keep some of the original Peter Green style evident. But four years of constant touring and carrying the weight of the band’s original songwriting took a toll on his fragile psyche. He started drinking heavily early in his tenure and was a full-blown alcoholic by the time of “Bare Trees,” becoming a nightmare to work with. It all came to a head in September 1972 during another U.S. tour.

Not long before heading onstage for a show whose location and date seem lost to time, Danny had the mother of all meltdowns, the kind that lives in rock-and-roll lore and is more suited to a Spinal Tap parody. His alcoholism had spiraled out of control, often leaving him falling-down drunk. On this night, he argued with Bob Welch over tuning, and the argument escalated into a violent rage. He banged his head into a wall, started punching it, then threw his Gibson Les Paul into a mirror and began trashing the rest of the room. His bandmates were shocked and sickened. Shortly after he finished, with his head and hands bleeding, he told the rest of the group he couldn’t go on and stormed out of the room. He stood near the mixing deck, watched the band struggle mightily through their performance, then had the gall to come backstage afterward and criticize them. It only took the band a couple of hours to agree to fire him. The incident left Danny completely embittered and hastened his downward slide, even though manager Clifford Davis secured a three-album deal with DJM Records for him. The release of “Hey There, Big Boy” in 1979 was the last time the public heard from Danny Kirwan. Broke, divorced, and with untreated mental illness, he spent the rest of his life in and out of homeless hostels and died in 2018 from pneumonia.

Bob Welch

Although Bob Welch’s later life became fraught with drug addiction and ended tragically, his time with Fleetwood Mac was relatively straightforward despite the madness around him. He was an exceptionally gifted guitarist and songwriter from a Hollywood family. His father, Bob Sr., wrote and produced several Bing Crosby and Bob Hope films for Paramount, and his mother, Templeton Fox, was a singer and actress whose greatest success came on NBC’s radio soap operas. Bob turned to music after his plans to attend the Sorbonne in Paris fell through. After returning to L.A., he joined the Seven Souls, a mixed-race soul band that recorded four singles between 1967 and 68 on the Okeh, Venture, and Princess labels and found success in France and Italy. Their song, “I’m No Stranger,” would become something of a soul harmony classic, covered by Joe Bataan, Sunny & the Sunliners, and Eric Burdon & War.

After they broke up, Bob and his bandmates, Henry Moore and Robert Hunt, moved to Paris and formed the funky power trio Head West, which recorded one album for Disques Vogue in 1970. The three parted ways for good a year later. Bob remained in Paris, subsisting on rice and beans and growing poorer by the day, until an old high school friend named Judy Wong threw him a lifeline in April. She happened to be a part-time secretary for Fleetwood Mac and recommended Bob after Jeremy Spencer left. They bought him a plane ticket to London and auditioned him at their communal home in Benifold. The band was looking to move away from their blues reputation, and Bob showcased a softer, more ethereal tone in his playing, along with pleasant, distinctive vocals that appealed greatly to Mick and John. He got the job and moved in. The first album he played on, “Future Games,” was named after one of his songs, and his other contribution, “Lay It All Down,” became a fan favorite and was performed live on the German music program, Beat Club.

After Danny was fired from the band, Bob became the lead guitarist. In November 1972, new addition Bob Weston joined, along with vocalist Dave Walker. Neither lasted very long. Dave was fired during the sessions for their seventh studio LP, “Penguin,” and Weston followed in October (more on that below). On their next studio album, “Mystery to Me,” Bob handed most of the lead guitar duties to Weston and wrote his signature Fleetwood Mac tune, the dreamy “Hypnotized,” which the Buckingham/Nicks version of Fleetwood Mac would perform live early in their tenure. But the toll of being in the band was especially heavy on Bob in 1974, even after he convinced the entire group to relocate to Los Angeles. Between a crumbling marriage and writing nearly 2/3 of the material on their ninth album, “Heroes Are Hard to Find,” Bob felt physically and emotionally drained and resigned from the band in December 1974.

A few months later, he formed another power trio, Paris, which released two albums in 1976 and broke up the following year. In September 1977, he released “Sentimental Lady,” which he’d originally recorded with Fleetwood Mac for their 1972 “Bare Trees” album. The single, featuring Lindsey Buckingham on guitar, Mick Fleetwood on drums, and Christine McVie on keys and backing vocals, peaked at #8 on Billboard. It was the first of four Top 40 hits over the next two years. Success eluded Bob after that, and he sank into a cocaine and heroin addiction, but he got clean in 1985 and maintained it for the rest of his life. His tenure in Fleetwood Mac was completely overshadowed by the success of what came after he left, and when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, he was not included. On June 7, 2012, three months after unsuccessful spinal surgery, Bob committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest. It put a tragic exclamation point on the life of a talented man who’d been unjustifiably overlooked.

Bob Weston

If you didn’t think the saga of Fleetwood Mac could get any weirder, brace yourself. Bob Weston, Danny Kirwan’s replacement, was well known to Fleetwood Mac because he played regularly with Long John Baldry, who often opened for them. Weston began playing in London pop bands in 1967, starting with the Kinetic, which recorded a couple of EPs on the French Disques Vogue label. After the Kinetic broke up, he went bluesier, replacing Paul Kossoff in Black Cat Bones, a move that eventually led to playing with Graham Bond and then Baldry. He was also a London session guitarist, often used by British blues groups, and was playing in Savoy Brown when Fleetwood Mac returned to England without Danny. Weston was offered the job and accepted immediately.

Things seemed to be going well. Weston was measured, easygoing, and a good guitarist who played his parts with precision and gave the band none of the headaches Danny had. Bob Welch trusted him so much that he handed over lead guitar duties during the “Mystery to Me” sessions and even co-wrote “Forever,” which appeared on the album. But unbeknownst to anyone, he began an extramarital affair with Mick’s wife, Jenny Boyd. Once again, during a U.S. tour in October, Fleetwood Mac nearly came to a crashing end after Mick discovered it. Sickened and betrayed, Mick tried to soldier on because of the financial catastrophe that would result from canceled gigs, but changed his mind after a show in Lincoln, Nebraska. He told the band he could no longer work with Bob Weston. They agreed to fire him, but tensions within the band led everyone else to drop out and return to England.

Facing 26 canceled dates, financial ruin, and a severely damaged reputation, Mick and manager Clifford Davis decided to recruit a band to tour as Fleetwood Mac. He rescheduled most of the dates for right after the New Year and turned to veteran London musicians Elmer Gantry and Kirby Gregory to assemble a replacement band. The plan was for them to cover those dates as Fleetwood Mac, hoping nobody would notice. Both had played together in the groups Velvet Opera, Armada, and Curved Air, which Davis also managed. After a meeting with Mick Fleetwood at their home, which ended with a promise from him that he would join them on the tour, they recruited session bassist Paul Martinez and rehearsed their set. Things went badly from the start. Mick Fleetwood never showed up for any gigs, forcing the band to rely on deputy drummer Craig Collinge. Even if you squint and tilt your head, Elmer Gantry kind of looked like Bob Welch, but fans were not buying it. It blew up at a gig in New York, where Davis got into an argument backstage with promoter Howard Stein and ended with Davis yelling into the microphone, “I am Fleetwood Mac!” He did, after all, have part-ownership in the name, but that didn’t stop them from firing him with great haste. The fake Fleetwood Mac regrouped as Stretch and scored a #16 U.K. hit in 1975 with “Why Did You Do It,” a scathing indictment of Mick.

Lindsey Buckingham

Palo Alto, California, native Lindsey was only 17 when Fleetwood Mac made their debut over 5,000 miles away at the Jazz and Blues Festival in Windsor, England. He was as far from British blues as possible, yet he was still making music. He joined the Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band in 1966, a group composed mostly of high school friends, including its leader, Javier Pacheco. In 1968, they shortened the name to Fritz, invited classmate and singer Stephanie Lynn Nicks to join, and focused mainly on the hard rock and psychedelic hits of the day. If you had told either of them that in eight years they’d be leading a veteran British blues band, they probably wouldn’t have believed it. But they certainly had visions of something bigger, especially after opening for Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

But, alas, Fritz never made it. They broke up in 1971, and Lindsey and Stephanie, who went by the nickname Stevie, bolted to Los Angeles and became an item, both romantically and professionally. They called themselves Buckingham-Nicks, began writing songs in the new breezy L.A. singer/songwriter style, secured a record contract with Polydor Records, and released their self-titled debut in early September 1973. Though it was a domestic failure, it hit the Top 20 in many European countries and, for some reason, in Alabama. A year later, when Mick Fleetwood was scouting studios to record their follow-up to “Heroes Are Hard to Find,” he visited Sound City in Van Nuys. To give Mick an example of the sound they could get from the facilities, house engineer Keith Olson cranked up Buckingham-Nicks’ “Frozen Love” on the studio speakers, and the drummer was suitably impressed. It just so happened that Lindsey was there that day, working on some demos. Hearing his song playing at full blast, he popped his head in and introduced himself. Mick mentally filed it away. There was still some possibility of Bob Welch returning. But a few weeks later, when he formally resigned, Mick called up Lindsey and invited him to join. He agreed, but only on the condition that Stevie join too. Of course, he couldn’t say yes to that without consulting the other members of the band, especially Christine. She was agreeable to it, and on New Year’s Eve 1974, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks became the two newest members of Fleetwood Mac.

For the first time ever, the band achieved stability with their latest lineup and released their second eponymous album in the summer of 1975. Mick’s gamble paid dividends as they came out of the gate swinging with Christine’s “Over My Head,” which hit #20 on the Billboard charts, their first single to chart in the U.S. since “Oh Well” in 1969 and their first ever to break the Top 40. And it didn’t stop there. They followed that up with Stevie’s “Rhiannon” and Christine’s “Say You Love Me,” both of which peaked at #11, and the album hit #1. But this version of Fleetwood Mac was only getting started. In early February 1977, they released their 11th studio album, “Rumours,” which also hit #1 and stayed at the top spot for 200 non-consecutive weeks. It also hit the #1 spot in England, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, was named Album of the Year by Billboard, Cash Box, and Record World, and won the 1978 Grammy for Album of the Year. It also spawned four Top 40 hits, three of which hit the Top 10, including the #1, “Dreams,” and, as of this writing, has sold over 40 million copies worldwide.

But there was a price to pay for such success. Right before the “Rumours” sessions began, Lindsey and Stevie broke up, and so did the McVies. Stevie began an affair with Mick Fleetwood, and Christine with the band’s lighting director, Curry Grant. Tension escalated, and the band met only to discuss music, nothing else. When they began working on their highly anticipated follow-up to “Rumours,” eventually titled “Tusk,” Lindsey took the reins and offered a double LP of mixed-bag songs. Whereas Christine and Stevie’s songs followed the trend set by their previous two albums, Lindsey’s songs featured sparser arrangements and were more aligned with the post-punk, new wave subgenre that was on the rise. At the time, it was the most expensive rock album ever produced and didn’t match the success of its predecessor. It peaked at #4 in the U.S. and yielded three Top 40 hits, two of which reached the Top 10. Though it’s aged well and has become a fan favorite, Lindsey was blamed for the hiccup, and resentment began to build in him. The tour that followed was full of rivalry, bitterness, and drug and alcohol abuse. At one show in Wellington, New Zealand, Lindsey openly mocked his ex-girlfriend on stage and reportedly even kicked her. When it was all over, the band took a yearlong hiatus. During that time, Stevie released her solo debut, “Bella Donna,” which Lindsey viewed as a betrayal. Back when their relationship broke up, he wanted to leave the group and go solo, but Stevie talked him out of it.

Fleetwood Mac reconvened in France in the spring of 1981 to work on their next album, “Mirage,” intended as a return to form. Though it yielded the classics “Gypsy” and “Hold Me,” both of which were big hits on radio and MTV, the album largely fell flat. Relationships were still strained. During filming for the “Hold Me” video in the Mojave Desert, each member’s scenes were shot separately because they couldn’t stand to be around one another for very long. Lindsey was still resentful of Stevie, and Stevie and Mick’s relationship had soured after he began an affair with her best friend, Sara Recor, whom he later married. After a brief 32-city tour that lasted approximately two months, the group took a three-year hiatus, and everyone except John McVie worked on solo albums. He spent his time sailing and not making music. Stevie found massive success with the release of her second LP, “The Wild Heart,” which contained her colossal hit “Stand Back.” Lindsey and Christine also found chart success with “Go Insane” and “Got a Hold on Me,” respectively. It seemed likely that Fleetwood Mac would never get back together, but on April 13, 1987, their 14th album, “Tango in the Night,” was released, and it was their strongest post-“Rumors” effort yet. For the first time, one of Lindsey’s songs, “Big Love,” hit the Top 5, and Christine’s “Little Lies” reached the #4 spot. It seemed they were poised to finally recapture the magic of those early Buckingham-Nicks days, but Lindsey had other plans.

The sessions were held mostly at Lindsey’s home studio, and recording the band was still stressful and more tedious than ever. Many of the tracks were recorded at half speed and then sped up, an arduous process in those days, and there was extensive vocal overdubbing. Mick was also doing more drugs than ever, and Stevie was fresh out of the Betty Ford Clinic and already off the wagon. Her contributions were noticeably weaker than normal, and her only single, “Seven Wonders,” peaked at #19. Lindsey and Christine were the only sober ones who lifted everybody through it all, although Christine might’ve had a little nip here and there. But the little goodwill that resulted blew up at a band meeting at Christine McVie’s house. Lindsey came in hot with a bundle of resentment. “Tango in the Night” was originally intended to be his third solo album, but he felt he was strong-armed into turning it into a Fleetwood Mac project after Christine asked him to produce a song she was working on for a movie soundtrack. Mick’s drug use in his house also pushed him to the edge. It got so bad that a Winnebago was rented for his notorious activities and parked in the driveway. Lindsey had always felt unappreciated, and when he announced he had no intention of joining the band on the subsequent tour, after initially agreeing to a 10-week one, fireworks erupted. There was plenty of screaming, shouting, and blaming, and when Stevie told him he broke her heart, Lindsey flipped out on her and began chasing her through the halls of the house. According to Stevie, things got dangerously physical. It sealed the deal. Lindsey Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac after 12 years, and it probably gave him some satisfaction that it took two guitarists, Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, to replace him. Though Stevie Nicks had become the face of the band once again, major changes came when the guitarist left.

It Never Really Died

Though Fleetwood Mac carved out a place in rock-and-roll immortality, their relevance faded after “Tango in the Night.” They would never again chart in the U.S. or U.K. Top 40, and Stevie Nicks would leave after their 1990 album, “Behind the Mask.” For all intents and purposes, Billy Burnette took Lindsey Buckingham’s place, but he was neither the force nor the headache his predecessor had been. The penultimate lineup formed in 1995, when 1960s/70s music scene veteran Dave Mason, formerly of Traffic, joined Mick, John, and Christine, along with Bekka Bramlett, the daughter of Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. The lineup did not excite the fanbase, and after a short tour called the “Another Link in the Chain Tour,” which did not feature Christine, the band went back into hibernation. The classic five reunited for a live performance on May 23, 1997, which was released as an album, and again several months later at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Five years later, Mick, John, Stevie, and Lindsey got together to release Fleetwood Mac’s 17th and final studio album, “Say You Will,” a collection of new songs and overdubbed outtakes from previous albums. Around the same time, Christine released her third and final solo album, “In the Meantime,” and announced her retirement. She changed her mind 11 years later when the classic five reunited for a 120-show world tour. In 2017, Christine and Lindsey collaborated on an album and a subsequent 38-date tour.

But with Fleetwood Mac, the good vibes never lasted. In April 2018, it was announced that Lindsey Buckingham was, once again, no longer with the band. Another disagreement over tour dates led to a lawsuit. Yet the show went on. Under the name “An Evening with Fleetwood Mac,” Mick, John, Christine, and Stevie were joined by Neil Finn, formerly of Crowded House, and Mike Campbell, formerly of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Any hopes of the classic five ever getting together again were dashed when Christine McVie died on November 30, 2022, but the music lives on forever.

It seems every group has its fingerprint. For Fleetwood Mac, it was a mystical sound, anchored by the ever-present rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Christine McVie’s keys and warm, smoky contralto, and powerful, often ethereal lead guitar work from someone who could be gone at a moment’s notice. It almost defies belief that this group could produce such incredible guitarists, whose tones were both distinct and similar, coloring their catalog with unique hues and grays. But it remains Mother Nature’s way that anything great in this life comes at a cost, and that can definitely be said about Fleetwood Mac.

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