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ichael John Kells
Mick Fleetwood & Parents |
Fleetwood was born on June 24, 1947 in Redruth, England to Mike and Brigid Fleetwood.
Since his father was a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force,
Mick and his two older sisters, Sally and Susan, moved around
quite a bit while growing up. Fleetwood was educated in boarding
schools, but seemed to have more of an interest in drumming than
in schoolwork. His father bought him his first drum kit when he
was thirteen, and Mick taught himself to play to records by the
Everly Brothers, Cliff Richard, and The Shadows.
s a young teen attending King's School
in Sherbourn-- "the equivalent for underachievers like myself"--
Fleetwood grew more "obsessed" with drumming; other
interests included fencing and the theatre group (Fleetwood played
Mick Fleetwood Photo © Chris Walter |
Ophelia in the school's production of Hamlet). Academically,
though he continued to have serious problems, and by the time
he was fifteen, it was decided that he would go and live with
his sister, Sally, in London, to pursue his dream of being a drummer.
hile living in Notting Hill Gate with
his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, Mick worked briefly at
Liberty's department store before being fired. One day while playing
his drums in the garage, he caught the attention of a young neighborhood
musician named Peter Bardens; he later got Fleetwood his first
gig with a band called the Senders before inviting him to join
his own band, The Cheynes, in 1963. While playing the club circuit
with the Cheynes, Mick met and became friends with eighteen year
old, John McVie, the bass player in John Mayall's
Bluesbreakers. At age sixteen, he also met the girl he would later
marry, Jenny Boyd. After the collapse of the Cheynes in 1965,
Fleetwood drummed for a short while with a band called the Bo
Street Runners. Next, Mick was recruited once again by Peter Bardens
to play in his new band, Peter B's Looners (later known as just
the Peter B's) where Mick got to know a talented young guitarist
named Peter Green. By May, 1966, the band
Fleetwood Mac Photo © Chris Walter |
added two singers, Rod Stewart and Beryl Marsden, and changed
their name to Shotgun Express. Green left the band in 1966 to
join John Mayall, and Shotgun Express disbanded in early 1967.
ick was out of work when Aynsley Dunbar,
the Bluesbreakers' drummer, quit in the spring of 1967, and Fleetwood
was surprised when Mayall asked him to join: "It was never
a serious long-term venture in my mind, which was just as well,
because I was asked to leave after a month (for drunkenness)."
Although his stay in the band was brief, it was long enough for
Fleetwood, Peter Green, and John McVie
to realize they had a good working and social relationship. When
Green decided to form his own band several months later, he immediately
knew who should make up his rhythm section.
founding member of Fleetwood Mac, Mick
has seen the group through its many incarnations, through struggles
Fleetwood Mac, 1970 or 1971 |
and successes. His devotion
to the band put stresses through his own personal relationships--
he often seemed to be "married to the band." He did
eventually marry Jenny Boyd in 1970 and had two daughters; Amy
Rose was born in January, 1971 and Lucy was born in April, 1973. [Here is an anti-drug clip by Mick and Amy Fleetwood (Age 3) from Get Off II ]
In October 1973, Mick found out that Jenny was having an affair
with bandmate Bob Weston-- the tour
was cut short and Weston had to be fired. After the legal battle
that ensued with manager Clifford Davis (over the rights of who
owned the name 'Fleetwood Mac'), Mick took over the role of band
manager and continued to do so until 1979. When Bob Welch decided
to leave the group in 1974, Mick was the one who happened to notice
the talents of Lindsey Buckingham and
Stevie Nicks while out looking for a
Mick & Jenny |
studio; Keith Olsen played him 'Frozen Love' off the Buckingham
Nicks
album to demonstrate the acoustics of the room. The
drummer admits that his initial inquiry was "Who's that guitarist?"
but he very quickly learned that Buckingham would not join without his partner: " I was aware of them coming as a package pretty early on, but there was a point where I was truly after Lindsey Buckingham, and the fact that Stevie was an afterthought is why she never forgave me. " In the end, the two ended up hitting it off so well with the others in the group that they were hired without an audition.
n 1977, he managed Bob Welch's
solo career, and tried unsuccessfully to do the same for Peter Green,
hoping to get him to sign a record deal: "The day he was
supposed to sign it, he freaked out. I looked a bit stupid.
After all, who would believe that he didn't want to sign a contract
because he thought it was with the Devil?" During the Rumours
period, Fleetwood's life was as wrought with problems as the other
four members of the band. After divorcing, remarrying, and again
Mick Fleetwood Photo © Dave & Torri Liden | divorcing his wife Jenny (who went on to become a psychologist,
and has written a book entitled Musicians in
Tune) by 1977, Fleetwood had an affair with Stevie Nicks.
Stevie recalls: "...we did in fact keep it completely to
ourselves...we didn't even let the band know." In 1979,
Fleetwood took up with Sara Recor, who "was there to hold
my hand and look after me" during a rough period in which
his father passed away and Fleetwood was diagnosed with a mild
case of diabetes: "I thought it was a brain tumor. I was
afraid I was going to die. It was eighteen months of hell."
He and Sara were wed at his home in Malibu in 1988; the two have
now split. Fleetwood married Lynn Frankel on July 26, 1995 in New York, while Fleetwood Mac was still on tour. Fleetwood credits Lynn with helping him to sober up-- only
two years ago, he says, "I was overweight and miserable,
and wasn't playing...I was also abusing myself with cocaine, although
not to the extent that I used to. Am I and was I an addict? Yes."
Although recently becoming a grandfather, Mick and Lynn are still
planning a family of their own.
ver the years, Mick Fleetwood has made
several solo albums-The Visitor (which included guitarists Todd Sharp and George Hawkins), I'm Not Me, and
Shakin' the Cage
Mick Fleetwood |
(which included keyboardist Brett Tuggle). In fact, both current Mac guitarist
Billy Burnette and
vocalist Bekka Bramlett
were in Fleetwood's band, the Zoo, before being asked to join
Fleetwood Mac. In 1990, Mick wrote his autobiography, and also
helped to put together My Twenty-Five Years in Fleetwood Mac
in 1992. In 1994, he opened a restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia
called 'Fleetwood's' (the first 'Fleetwood's', a restaurant and
blues club, opened in West Hollywood in 1991, but folded soon
after). The second 'Fleetwood's' also went bankrupt in the summer of 1996.
ick completed a U.S. tour with the reunited Fleetwood Mac in 1997, and has said he hopes that there will be more music from the group in the future. He has also expressed a desire to work with former bandmate Peter Green (who is currently involved in music and doing shows in Europe) once again. Mick was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 12, 1998 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

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