99 Fun Facts About Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac was formed in London in 1967 by which guitarist, fresh from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers?

Peter Green took over from Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers in 1966 and played so well that he was nicknamed 'the Green God', then left in 1967 to start a blues band of his own.

Fleetwood Mac's name combines the surnames of which two members?

Mick Fleetwood and John McVie gave their names first to an instrumental the founder recorded with them, then to the band itself, though McVie only joined after its first few gigs.

Which 1968 instrumental gave Fleetwood Mac their only UK No. 1 single?

Albatross topped the UK chart in early 1969, then climbed back to No. 2 when it was reissued in 1973, three years after the guitarist who wrote it had quit the band.

Which Abbey Road track did George Harrison say began as the Beatles imitating Fleetwood Mac's 1968 instrumental hit?

Sun King: Harrison recalled the Beatles saying 'Let's be Fleetwood Mac' and borrowing its reverb-heavy guitar to get going, before John Lennon sang lines of made-up Spanish over the top.

Which early Fleetwood Mac song became a much bigger hit when Santana covered it?

Black Magic Woman, a 1968 Fleetwood Mac single that reached No. 37 in Britain, became a US No. 4 hit for Santana in 1970; its writer played it with Santana at the 1998 Hall of Fame induction.

Bandmates traced the decline of Fleetwood Mac's founding guitarist to a 1970 LSD party at a commune near which German city?

Munich: on a March 1970 tour he was taken to a commune outside the city and given LSD. Bandmates said he was never the same, and he quit that May while pressing them to give their money away.

Guitarist Jeremy Spencer walked out of Fleetwood Mac's Los Angeles hotel in 1971 and joined which religious group?

The Children of God took in Jeremy Spencer after he left the band's hotel on an errand in February 1971. Found days later, he refused to come back, so the band's founder flew in to finish the tour.

Christine McVie sang in which British blues band before joining Fleetwood Mac?

Chicken Shack gave her a UK hit with I'd Rather Go Blind in 1969, but she quit to be a housewife after marrying Fleetwood Mac's bassist, until his band asked her to join in 1970.

What was Christine McVie's maiden name?

Perfect was her name until she married the band's bassist in 1968. As Christine Perfect she made a solo album in 1970, but she couldn't stand life as a solo act and joined Fleetwood Mac.

Which American guitarist joined Fleetwood Mac in 1971 and later had a solo hit re-recording 'Sentimental Lady'?

Bob Welch first recorded Sentimental Lady with the band for 1972's Bare Trees. When he remade it for his 1977 solo debut, two members of the band he had left sang backup on the hit.

Guitarist Bob Weston was fired in 1973 after an affair with whose wife?

Mick Fleetwood's wife Jenny Boyd, whose sister Pattie was married to George Harrison, had an affair with Weston. When it came out mid-tour he was sacked and the remaining dates were scrapped.

In early 1974, manager Clifford Davis sent a completely different lineup on tour under what name?

Davis claimed he owned the name and sent out 'The New Fleetwood Mac' in January 1974 with none of the real members; audiences rebelled, and the ensuing lawsuit kept the genuine band idle until it moved to California.

Mick Fleetwood discovered his future guitarist after hearing the track Frozen Love from which 1973 album?

Fleetwood heard Frozen Love from the duo's 1973 album Buckingham Nicks while touring Sound City studios in Van Nuys; Buckingham agreed to join only if Stevie Nicks came too.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were recruited to Fleetwood Mac on which holiday in 1974?

New Year's Eve 1974 brought the pair into the band. Songs they had demoed for a second album of their own, such as Monday Morning, went onto Fleetwood Mac's next record instead.

Fans gave Fleetwood Mac's self-titled 1975 album what nickname?

The White Album, as fans came to call it, was a slow burner: released in July 1975, it was still climbing the US chart when the band started recording its follow-up early the next year.

Which Stevie Nicks song from Fleetwood Mac's 1975 album first became a single over twenty years later, in a live version?

Landslide was only an album track in 1975, and a live recording finally reached the Hot 100 in 1998. Nicks wrote it in Aspen, Colorado, while deciding whether to stay in music or go back to school.

Rumours beat which Eagles album to Album of the Year?

Hotel California lost Album of the Year to Rumours at the 1978 Grammys, but its title track took Record of the Year on the same night.

Rumours was recorded in early 1976 at the Record Plant in which Californian town?

Sausalito's Record Plant was the band's base for the first two months of the sessions. The men all lived together in the studio's own house while two couples in the band were breaking up.

Which Rumours single is Fleetwood Mac's only US No. 1?

Dreams was written on a day Stevie Nicks wasn't needed at the sessions: she carried an electric piano into a side studio used by Sly Stone and wrote the song sitting on the bed in it.

Which Rumours single did Lindsey Buckingham write as a pointed message to Stevie Nicks about their break-up?

Go Your Own Way was his message to her. She asked him to cut a line accusing her of shacking up, he refused, and the song went out as the album's first single.

Which Rumours track is the only Fleetwood Mac song credited to all five members of that line-up?

The Chain is the one Rumours song with a writing credit for all five band members; it was assembled from separate fragments, including the bass-riff outro the band had jammed on.

Which sport's British TV coverage made a Rumours track its famous theme?

Formula One: the BBC opened its Grand Prix coverage with the song's bass-led finale for nearly two decades from the late 1970s, and brought it back when the races returned to the BBC in 2009.

Which Stevie Nicks song was recorded for Rumours but relegated to a B-side?

Silver Springs was squeezed off Rumours for lack of room and left on a B-side. Twenty years later a live version from the band's reunion concert earned it a Grammy nomination.

Which college ensemble plays on the title track of Fleetwood Mac's 1979 double album Tusk?

The USC Trojan Marching Band, 112 strong, played its part in an empty Dodger Stadium while the Dodgers were away. The drummer pushed the idea through and had the session filmed for the video.

Fleetwood Mac's Tusk held what distinction on its release in 1979?

Most expensive rock album ever recorded at the time: the bill for Tusk ran past $1 million, much of it spent fitting out a Los Angeles studio room to the band's own taste.

Fleetwood Mac's drummer blamed Tusk's weaker sales on what?

A radio chain airing the whole album early was his culprit: he argued that the full broadcast, just before release, let listeners tape all of Tusk at home instead of buying it.

Fleetwood Mac began recording 1982's Mirage at a château studio in which country?

France: the band moved into the Château d'Hérouville, where Elton John had made Honky Château, hoping that living together again would bring back the closeness of the Rumours sessions.

Fleetwood Mac headlined the 1982 US Festival, bankrolled by which computer pioneer?

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, paid for the US Festival out of his own pocket and lost millions on it. Fleetwood Mac closed the first one on 5 September 1982.

Which 1987 album, begun as a Lindsey Buckingham solo project, gave Fleetwood Mac the hits Little Lies and Big Love?

Tango in the Night started life as his third solo album until the band talked him into making it theirs. He finished producing it, then quit rather than go out on tour.

Christine McVie co-wrote Little Lies with whom?

Her new husband Eddy Quintela shared the credit on Little Lies, released months after their 1986 wedding, yet it is no newlyweds' song: its singer asks to be lied to rather than told the truth.

Which two guitarists replaced Buckingham when he quit in August 1987?

Billy Burnette and Rick Vito both came in to fill one man's place, and neither had to audition. Burnette was close at hand: he had played in the drummer's side band, the Zoo, and written a song with Christine McVie.

Which US president reunited Fleetwood Mac's classic line-up in 1993 by asking them to play his inaugural ball?

Bill Clinton's campaign had adopted one of the band's songs, and at his request the Rumours line-up reunited to play it at his inaugural gala in Washington in January 1993.

Which Fleetwood Mac song did the 1992 Democratic presidential campaign adopt as its theme?

Don't Stop, written by Christine McVie and sung by her and Buckingham, was the 1992 Democratic campaign's anthem; the band reunited to play it at the inaugural gala in January 1993.

Which 1997 live album took Fleetwood Mac back to No. 1 on the US album chart?

The Dance brought the five who made Rumours back together for their first album in ten years, taped in one night for an MTV special on a Burbank soundstage.

Which animal became Fleetwood Mac's mascot, thanks to the bassist's fascination with it?

Penguin: the bassist lived near London Zoo, joined its Zoological Society and spent hours watching the birds, so the band took one as its emblem and named a 1973 album after it.

Stevie Nicks holds what distinction at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

First woman inducted twice: Nicks went in with Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and again as a solo artist in 2019, when Harry Styles gave her induction speech.

Which 1981 album, Stevie Nicks's first as a solo artist, went to No. 1 in the US?

Bella Donna topped the US chart in September 1981, but Nicks said she never got to enjoy it: as the album peaked, her best friend Robin told her she had terminal leukemia.

Which 2003 album was Fleetwood Mac's first studio record after Christine McVie's retirement?

Say You Will was the band's first album of new songs with Lindsey Buckingham back on board since 1987. Several of his tracks were years old, written for a solo record he had shelved.

Which two musicians replaced Lindsey Buckingham when Fleetwood Mac fired him in 2018?

Mike Campbell and Neil Finn, of the Heartbreakers and Crowded House, were named in April 2018, after a row over tour plans cost the guitarist his place. He sued the band that October.

In a viral 2020 TikTok set to a Fleetwood Mac hit, skateboarder Nathan Apodaca swigs what from the bottle?

Ocean Spray cran-raspberry juice was in his hand because his vehicle had broken down on the way to work at a potato warehouse, so he skated there. The company later gave him a new truck.

How old was Christine McVie when she died?

Christine McVie was 79: born in July 1943 in the Lake District village of Bouth, she died in hospital on 30 November 2022 after a short illness.

Mick Fleetwood and Samantha Fox co-hosted a chaotic live 1989 edition of which music awards show?

The Brit Awards of 1989 went so badly, with missed cues, fluffed lines and one act introduced as another, that the ceremony was taped in advance for almost two decades afterwards.

Where was Stevie Nicks born?

Phoenix, Arizona: Stevie Nicks was born there in May 1948, and her father's climb through Greyhound's executive ranks moved the family through New Mexico, Texas, Utah and California.

The band's founder died in his sleep in July 2020 on which Essex isle?

Canvey Island, in the Thames estuary, was where he died in his sleep on 25 July 2020, aged 73, five months after the tribute concert for him at the London Palladium.

Under what billing did the band play its first gig, at the 1967 National Jazz and Blues Festival?

Billed as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer, the band debuted at Windsor on 13 August 1967 with Bob Brunning on bass; the regular bassist joined a few weeks later.

Fleetwood Mac's 1969 blues sessions with Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy were recorded in which studio?

Chess Records Studio in Chicago had the young British band for a single day in January 1969. In that one session with the city's bluesmen they taped enough to fill a double album.

Which Fleetwood Mac song did Stevie Nicks write after reading Mary Leader's novel Triad?

Rhiannon grew out of Triad, a novel about a woman possessed by a spirit of that name. Nicks only found out years later that Rhiannon was also a figure from old Welsh legend.

Which Tusk single began as a Stevie Nicks demo some 16 minutes long?

Sara was cut down hard from that demo and still reached the US top ten. Nicks has said it was partly about her friend Sara Recor, who went on to marry the band's drummer.

What was Fleetwood Mac's first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100?

Oh Well, a No. 2 hit in Britain, crept only to No. 55 in America in 1970, yet it stayed the band's sole Hot 100 entry until the line-up with Buckingham and Nicks arrived five years later.

Which Christine McVie ballad from Rumours was recorded in a Berkeley concert hall rather than the studio?

Songbird was taped at Berkeley's Zellerbach Auditorium, where the producer lit a bouquet of flowers on Christine McVie's piano to set the mood.

Which Rumours hit did Christine McVie write about her affair with Fleetwood Mac's lighting director?

You Make Loving Fun was about lighting director Curry Grant, though Christine McVie told her husband John that she had written it about her dog.

On the cover of Rumours, what dangles between Mick Fleetwood's legs as he poses with Stevie Nicks?

Two wooden balls hang from lavatory chains between Mick Fleetwood's legs on the cover, while his left hand holds a crystal ball.

Which TV musical comedy built a whole 2011 episode around Rumours, sending it back up the charts?

Glee covered six songs from the album in the episode, and Rumours reentered the Billboard 200 at number eleven the week after it aired.

Which anthology series had Stevie Nicks guest star as herself in its witch-themed third season?

American Horror Story cast Stevie Nicks as a 'white witch' version of herself, and the season finale opened with her performing Seven Wonders.

Which Stevie Nicks solo hit supplied the guitar riff sampled on Destiny's Child's 2001 single Bootylicious?

Edge of Seventeen got its title when a friend's Southern accent made 'age of seventeen' sound like a phrase Stevie Nicks liked better.

Which pop star played uncredited synthesizer on Stevie Nicks's 1983 hit Stand Back after she borrowed his melody?

Prince came to the studio after Stevie Nicks phoned to tell him she had written the song to the melody of his Little Red Corvette.

What did Christine McVie blame for her decision to stop touring and leave Fleetwood Mac after 1998?

A fear of flying kept Christine McVie out of the band for 16 years, until she rejoined in 2014 for the On with the Show tour.

Mick Fleetwood shaved off his beard to play a heavily made-up alien ambassador in which science-fiction series?

Star Trek: The Next Generation cast Mick Fleetwood, a huge fan of the show, as an Antedean dignitary in the 1989 episode Manhunt.

Which rock star duetted with Stevie Nicks on Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, her biggest solo chart hit?

Tom Petty co-wrote the song for his own band, the Heartbreakers, before producer Jimmy Iovine arranged for Stevie Nicks to sing on it.

Which Eagles singer, once romantically linked to Stevie Nicks, duetted with her on the 1981 hit Leather and Lace?

Don Henley stepped in after the song missed its intended home: Stevie Nicks wrote it for a duet album by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter.

Lindsey Buckingham wrote and sang the theme song for which 1983 road-trip comedy film?

National Lampoon's Vacation director Harold Ramis asked Lindsey Buckingham for two songs, and Holiday Road went on to reappear in three later Vacation films.

Christine McVie's failed romance with which Beach Boys drummer inspired the 1982 Fleetwood Mac hit Hold Me?

Dennis Wilson dated Christine McVie from 1979 to 1982, and Hold Me became the band's first single to break the US top five since 1977.

Fleetwood Mac filmed the video for Tusk's title track at which California sports venue?

Dodger Stadium's shoot went ahead without John McVie, who was in Tahiti, so a cardboard cutout of the bassist sat in the stands instead.

The title of Fleetwood Mac's 1969 album Then Play On comes from the opening line of which Shakespeare play?

Twelfth Night opens with a lovesick duke calling for more music, and the album it named was Fleetwood Mac's first release for Reprise Records.

Mick Fleetwood's restaurant and bar, Fleetwood's, was lost to the 2023 wildfires on which Hawaiian island?

Maui has been Mick Fleetwood's home for years, and his restaurant stood in Lahaina, the historic town the fire destroyed.

Mick Fleetwood played a resistance leader named Mic in which 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger action film?

The Running Man is set in a totalitarian future America, where Mick Fleetwood's rebel leader helps expose the truth behind a deadly TV game show.

Which Saturday Night Live cast member played a silent Lindsey Buckingham in the recurring sketch What Up with That?

Bill Hader's Lindsey Buckingham never got to speak before the sketch ran out of time, and in 2011 the real guitarist turned up beside him.

Mick Fleetwood's first wife, Jenny, was the younger sister of which 1960s model, who married George Harrison?

Pattie Boyd's sister Jenny married and divorced Mick Fleetwood twice, and also inspired Donovan's song Jennifer Juniper.

At which famous clinic did Stevie Nicks spend 30 days in 1986 to overcome her cocaine addiction?

Betty Ford Center admission came straight after an Australian tour, and the stay later inspired the Fleetwood Mac song Welcome to the Room...Sara.

In the Tusk music video, Stevie Nicks shows off which skill that she learned in high school?

Baton twirling was a skill Stevie Nicks picked up in high school, and the clip also uses footage from the song's recording session.

Which singer of the 2007 hit Bubbly is the daughter of a co-producer of Rumours and Tusk?

Colbie Caillat's father Ken co-produced Rumours, Tusk and Mirage, and her childhood nickname Coco became the title of her debut album.

In her senior year of high school, Stevie Nicks first sang with Lindsey Buckingham on which Mamas & the Papas hit?

California Dreamin' was what he was playing at a Young Life club when she joined in, years before the pair entered Fleetwood Mac together.

Lindsey Buckingham's older brother Greg won a 1968 Olympic silver medal in which sport?

Swimming ran in the family: Lindsey Buckingham also swam competitively at Menlo-Atherton High School before dropping athletics for music.

Christine McVie spent five years at a Birmingham art school studying what, intending to become a teacher?

Sculpture was Christine McVie's subject at Moseley School of Art, and her art training showed when she drew the cover of the album Kiln House.

Mick Fleetwood recorded his 1981 solo album The Visitor with local musicians in which West African country?

Ghana's capital Accra hosted the sessions after Warner Brothers declined to pay to fly the recording equipment out there.

Mick Fleetwood co-hosted the notoriously chaotic 1989 Brit Awards alongside which British model and pop singer?

Samantha Fox later blamed errors in the hosts' information, and the missed cues led the Brit Awards to be pre-recorded for the next 18 years.

Which Tony-winning Broadway play about a 1970s band making an album drew comparisons to the Rumours sessions?

Stereophonic earned 13 nominations at the 2024 Tony Awards, then a record for a play, and a lawsuit later claimed it borrowed from a memoir about making the album.

Stevie Nicks sang the hit duet Whenever I Call You Friend with which soft-rock star?

Kenny Loggins co-wrote the song with Melissa Manchester, and because Stevie Nicks went uncredited on the single it counted as his first major solo hit.

The jungle painting on the cover of Fleetwood Mac's 1987 album is a homage to which French artist?

Henri Rousseau's jungle scenes inspired the picture by Australian artist Brett-Livingstone Strong, which was hanging in Lindsey Buckingham's house.

Which Rolling Stones song inspired the drum feel that Lindsey Buckingham wanted for Go Your Own Way?

Street Fighting Man gave him the groove, but Mick Fleetwood built his own variation across the tom-toms instead of copying it.

Mick Fleetwood first heard his future guitarist at which Los Angeles studio, later the subject of a Dave Grohl film?

Sound City was also where the band taped Never Going Back Again for Rumours, and Dave Grohl later bought its famous Neve mixing console.

Lindsey Buckingham's infatuation with which new wave band helped push Tusk toward a sparser, stranger sound?

Talking Heads were among the bands he admired as he steered Fleetwood Mac away from the polish of Rumours and toward a leaner post-punk sound.

Which guitarist joined Fleetwood Mac at 18 and was sacked in 1972 after refusing to go on stage?

Danny Kirwan was spotted fronting a pub trio called Boilerhouse, which had been playing support slots for Fleetwood Mac around London.

Which Metallica guitarist bought the 1959 Les Paul once played by Fleetwood Mac's founder and by Gary Moore?

Kirk Hammett acquired the guitar in 2014, and its unusual out-of-phase tone comes from a neck pickup with its polarity reversed.

Jeremy Spencer filled early Fleetwood Mac sets with slide-guitar tributes to which American bluesman?

Elmore James's version of Dust My Broom was the template for many of the songs Jeremy Spencer brought to the band's first two albums.

Which former Traffic guitarist joined Fleetwood Mac for the 1995 album Time?

Dave Mason arrived alongside singer Bekka Bramlett, but Time failed to chart in the US and that line-up broke up soon afterwards.

Stevie Nicks contributed to the soundtrack of which 1998 film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witches?

Practical Magic let Stevie Nicks finally release her own version of If You Ever Did Believe, a 1970s song that missed the cut for Rumours.

Which former One Direction singer joined Anne-Marie on a 2021 charity cover of Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere?

Niall Horan and Anne-Marie recorded it for the BBC's Children in Need appeal, and Christine McVie said she was thrilled with the new version.

Feeling ridiculous beside the towering Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks took to wearing which six-inch stage footwear?

Platform boots stayed in her wardrobe long after they went out of style, because she did not want to go back to her natural height on stage.

Which 1981 single, built on a four-second drum loop of Mick Fleetwood, was Lindsey Buckingham's first solo hit?

Trouble reached number nine in the US, and its drums were looped because no complete take by Mick Fleetwood satisfied Lindsey Buckingham.

Which 1984 Christine McVie solo single, featuring Steve Winwood on synthesizer, reached the US top ten?

Got a Hold on Me also topped the Adult Contemporary chart, the first time any member of Fleetwood Mac had reached number one there.

The desert video for Fleetwood Mac's Hold Me was based on paintings by which surrealist artist?

René Magritte's dreamlike imagery shaped the clip, whose Mojave Desert shoot one producer called a nightmare because of the band's strained relationships.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks both played in which psychedelic band that opened for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin?

Fritz broke up in 1972, leaving the two to write together and record demos at night in the coffee-roasting plant owned by Buckingham's father.

Which bassist played Fleetwood Mac's first shows as a stand-in before John McVie agreed to join?

Bob Brunning stood down after a few weeks, and went on to a 30-year teaching career that included two London primary-school headships.

Which British independent label, founded by producer Mike Vernon, released Fleetwood Mac's first two albums?

Blue Horizon grew out of a blues fanzine called R&B Monthly, and Fleetwood Mac left it in 1969 for Immediate and then Reprise Records.

Which Walter Egan hit was inspired by Stevie Nicks, who also sang backing vocals on it?

Magnet and Steel was co-produced by Lindsey Buckingham, who sang backing vocals too, and it later resurfaced in the film Boogie Nights.

Which Christine McVie single ended Fleetwood Mac's six-year absence from the US Hot 100 in 1975?

Over My Head surprised the band as a single choice, since they thought it the least likely song on the album to be released that way.

In 2018 Fleetwood Mac became the first group to receive which music honour?

MusiCares Person of the Year had gone only to solo artists since 1991, beginning with David Crosby, Bonnie Raitt and Natalie Cole.

Fleetwood Mac's 1968 single Need Your Love So Bad was first recorded in 1955 by which American R&B singer?

Little Willie John's original featured guitarist Mickey Baker, whom Fleetwood Mac's producer later hired to write the orchestral score for their version.