The Men and the Women of Fleetwood Mac

Let’s see.

Fleetwood Mac’s original frontman, Peter Green, took a bad acid trip during the tour for their third album and messed up his head so badly that he had to quit the band.

Jeremy Spencer, the group’s other original guitarist, stepped out of his hotel room during a U. S. tour and ended up joining a religious cult and dropping out of music entirely.

Danny Kirwan, an early second guitarist in the line up, had his alcoholism get the better of him and smashed his guitar before a concert and refused to perform.  Bandleader Mick Fleetwood fired him.

John McVie had his own problems with drink, and that put his marriage to bandmate Christine McVie under a lot of stress.

During another tour, another replacement guitarist, Bob Weston, had an affair with Mick Fleetwood’s wife and got himself fired.

Then Fleetwood himself felt so devastated by this infidelity, he cancelled the rest of the band’s current tour.

For his part, guitarist Bob Welch had offered some stability to the lineup after the departures of Green and Spencer, but the constant turmoil took its toll, and after years of hard work that never quite paid off, Welch decided he’d had enough and resigned.

Which is where Mick Fleetwood found himself with his band when he offered the guitarist gig to an unknown player named Lindsey Buckingham who said he would only join Fleetwood Mac if they recruited his girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, too.

Fleetwood hesitated at first.

Ironically, after all the drama that the men in Fleetwood Mac had created over the years, the leader was uncertain about having two women in the lineup because he wasn’t sure they’d be able to get along.