Washington Post, Mick Fleetwood

Washington Post, Sunday, November 6, 1983

By Richard Harrington

WHAT do you do when you're a drummer for a rock 'n' roll circus that doesn't like to tour? You form a rock 'n' roll Zoo, which is exactly what Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac has done. The band, which includes singer-guitarist Billy Burnette (his father and uncle set the style in rockabilly 25 years ago), has just released an album, "It's Not Me," and will perform Tuesday at the Bayou.

Zoo is, Fleetwood admits, a drummer's way of keeping up his chops. "I don't write music and I can't make an album literally on my own, which I'm glad of because I like to be with people. I can hold a tune, but I'm not a singer. I'm involved in the way things turn out, but I'm not able to sit down at a piano and bash out chords. This is a working band," says the gangly drummer. "Luckily, everyone is real close friends and it was put together with that in mind. I didn't want it to be a pickup, clock-in and clock-out type of situation. And I'm looking forward to playing in small clubs again--it should be refreshing for me, working six, sometimes seven nights a week, grinding it out, traveling around in a bus."

"I am the 'leader,' but we all get paid the same, and you'd be surprised how much that makes someone feel they're a part of something. It's a situation I sort of got used to in Fleetwood Mac."

Speaking of Mac, Fleetwood and Zoo's singer-bassist George Hawkins have just returned from working on Christine McVie's solo album. "Come summer, we're going to get ready to think about going in the studio. Christine will have her album out, Stevie Nicks will be off the road by then, Lindsey Buckingham will have his album out. In one way or another there's going to be a lot of Fleetwood Mac-connected music out there."

The band, of course, has not recorded in almost a year and a half, and hasn't toured for almost two years. "I feel that we will tour ," Fleetwood says. "I talked to Lindsey the other night and he's not a particularly avid roadmonger--John McVie and I would jump at it--and he surprisingly enough said we should talk about ideas for the next album and maybe augmenting our live show with extra musicians and percussionists, trying something a little bit different. If we make a record, I'm sure we'll go out and tour."

Thanks to Lesley Thode for transcribing this article and sending it to us.