30 Mind-Blowing Facts About The Fan Favorite Band - Fleetwood Mac

10 April 2019, 10:41 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Fleetwood Mac, with over 100 million records sold worldwide, was founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer. The band's line-up currently consists of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Mike Campbell and Neil Finn. Here are some really interesting facts about the British-American rock band:

Select members of the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, in the year 1998.
The original Fleetwood Mac was led by guitarist Peter Green, who is widely considered to be one of the best English blues guitarists of all time. Green is said to have left the band in the year 1970 after developing an LSD habit.
Jeremy Spencer reportedly left the group abruptly before a gig at the Whiskey a Go Go in Los Angeles, and wasn't found for days. He went on to refuse to rejoin the band, but later joined the Children of God cult.
Christine's maiden name was actually Christine Perfect, and she has also released her first solo album in the year 1970 under that name.
It was said that initially, the band wanted to hire only Buckingham, being blown away by his playing, but he had refused to join the ban, unless Nicks was also accepted.
The most successful line-up of the band featuring - Fleetwood, Nicks, Buckingham, Christine and John McVie, was reportedly the 10th lineup of the band. The version has been mostly intact, though Christine has retired from music.
It was reported that Christine was initially not impressed with the first draft of Nicks' "Dreams," from the band's eleventh studio album "Rumours." However, the song went on to become the biggest hit of the band.
The most popular single "The Chain," which is the only song that is credited to all the five members of the band, was reportedly created by merging three distinct songs - "Lola (My Love)," a Buckingham Nicks outtake, an unfinished track called "Keep Me There," by Christine McVie, and an early acoustic version of "The Chain" by Stevie Nicks.
Band member Danny Kirwan left the band after a bizarre episode in which he went flipped out while the band was tuning up, ran into a bathroom, and smashed his head against a wall before destroying his guitar.
The group were banned from London’s Marquee Club after original guitarist Jeremy Spencer wore a giant phallus on stage.

It was during the band’s 1968 tour, founder Peter Green took his first tab of LSD in San Francisco. He quit the band on May 20, 1970 after a breakdown which was linked to his LSD usage.
In the year 1998, Stevie Nicks was stalked by Ronald Anacelteo, who was arrested and sent to Denver psychiatric facility. Anacelteo, after leaving the facility, claimed that planned to kidnap and impregnate her, since he believed her witchcraft would cure his homosexuality.
The famous single "You Make Loving Fun," written by Christine, is said to be all about her affair with the band's lighting director, Curry Grant, while she was still married to John McVie.
It was reported that Nicks' ballad "Silver Springs" was cut at the last minute from the "Rumours" album because there was not enough space on the LP. The rest of the band didn't think it fit with the rest of the songs, and decided to use it as the b-side for "Go Your Own Way."
Nicks was not supposedly happy with this plan, and was upset when the band did not allow her to release it on her solo album. However, the re-recording of the ballad for the 1997 "The Dance," became a massive hit.
When the "Silver Springs" song was decided to be dropped, the band had to replace it with another Nicks number, and it was Buckingham who chose "I Don't Want To Know," which they had performed as a duo. This was a surprise to Nicks who was happy about the song, but was still bitter about removing "Silver Springs."
The "Rumours" follow-up album "Tusk," is said to have flopped in the marketplace, as it was priced much higher than other albums at the time – $15.99 for the double vinyl set.
In the year 1979, Nicks was sued for plagiarism by Carol Hinton, claiming the song "Sara" written for her best friend Sara Recor, to be very similar to a song that she had submitted to Warner Bros. However, Hinton backed out of the case, when Nicks proved that she had demoed the song months earlier.
The most popular song "Gypsy," written by Nicks, is reportedly about the initial days of career, when she and Buckingham were totally broke and slept on a single mattress on the floor decorated with lace and a flower vase at its side.
In the 70s and 80s, Nicks was so addicted to cocaine that she burned a hole in the cartilage of her nose. However, she managed to quit cocaine after a stint in rehab, which led to psychiatric treatment, which in turn led to the powerful prescription tranquilizer Klonopin.

Their best-selling album "Rumours," which has spent more than 680 weeks in the UK’s Official Albums Chart Top 100, is said to have spent more time in the UK chart than the rest of the band's studio albums put together.
During the re-purposing of "Tango in the Night," the sessions were said to be quiet tense and Buckingham quit the band just after the record was released. This led to the drafting of Rick Vito and Billy Burnette as a replace to him, for the tour.
In the year 2018, the 1977 single 'Dreams' re-entered the US Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart, peaking at No. 16, following a meme posted on Twitter captioned "Fleetwood Mac's music is so boring you can't even dance to it."
The chain balls hanging from Mick's belt on the "Rumours" album cover, which later became his fashion signature, is actually toilet chains that he stole from the bathroom at a club that the band was performing at for good luck.
Their 1979 album "Tusk" was lengthy to be fit onto the original CD pressings, and the band had to trim Nicks’ song "Sara" from 6.22 down to 4.39. This is the second instance Nicks’ contributions had been unceremoniously lopped, with the first being her track "Silver Springs" removed from "Rumours."
In the 1970s, the band was known for their cocaine addiction. They were also known for the illegal affairs among the band members and crew. Nicks was with Buckingham, but was also involved in an affair with Fleetwood, who was already married. In the meantime, Fleetwood was also having an affair with Nicks best friend Sara.
It was reported that the rhythm of the most popular "Rumours" album's opening track "Second Hand News" was influenced by the 1975 single "Jive Talkin’" from The Bee Gees', which was a favorite of Lindsey Buckingham.
In the year 1977, Lauper recorded a version of the Fleetwood Mac track "You Make Loving Fun," while working as a session singer. It was reported that she was asked to mimic Christine's vocal so the song could be included on re-recorded hits compilations.
The acoustic guitar line from the band's most popular 1982 track "Eyes Of The World" was actually recycled from the "Buckingham Nicks" album’s instrumental track "Stephanie".
It was reported that the masters of their self-titled album containing the hits "Rhiannon", "Say You Love Me" and "Over My Head" were lost during studio sessions. However, it was later found in a discarded pile of tapes marked for destruction.