As history has shown us, bands have an abundance of ripe opportunities for controversy. And that’s just for a band that doesn’t involve romantic entanglements. Now, when a band has members who are involved with one another, a whole new complication comes into play, and we need not spell it out for you. One band and person that is no stranger to this complication is Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks, as they had their fair share of romantic scandals and affairs.
Videos by American Songwriter
Connecting the series of romantic affairs in Fleetwood Mac is like playing a fairly complicated game of connect the dots. However, the one that turned the most heads was between Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood. In short, Nicks and Fleetwood had a fling after Nicks left Lindsey Buckingham and started dating The Eagles’ Don Henley. Also, Christine and John McVie had a rough patch in their marriage, as they experienced a divorce while working together in Fleetwood Mac.
If just the last paragraph makes you think of Days Of Our Lives or The Young & The Restless, then you’re not alone, as Stevie Nicks also believed that the dynamics in Fleetwood Mac were comparable to a steamy soap opera. As a matter of fact, she once made that exact comparison.
It Made Stevie Nicks Want To Quit the Band Regularly
In 1990, Fleetwood Mac was slowly falling apart. Lindsey Buckingham had left, and Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie were on their way out. In light of this news, Nicks sat down for an interview with US Magazine and divulged the tempestuous nature of romance within the band.
“I’ve been close to leaving Fleetwood Mac since I joined Fleetwood Mac,” Nicks said, per Rock a Little. “But so has everybody else. […] To be in Fleetwood Mac is to live in a soap opera. And it has been pretty scandalous and pretty incestuous, and pretty wonderful in a lot of ways.”
Despite the environment that Stevie Nicks so clearly was not a fan of, she was not going to be the one to break up Fleetwood Mac.
“I threaten to quit all the time. I threaten to quit once a month. But I’m never gonna be the one to break up Fleetwood Mac. Somebody else will break it up, not me. And it’s hard for me to imagine Fleetwood Mac ever breaking up. It’s kind of like, you know, it’s just an entity that just seems to go on and on and on. I figure Fleetwood Mac will go on until it doesn’t want to go on anymore.”
Outside of the comments regarding the band’s romantic affairs, Nicks’ hypothesis about Mac’s future was spot on. As the group continued to exist in variations up until the death of Christine McVie in 2022.
Photo by Pete Still/Redferns
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.