Tulsa World Review of Mick's Book, October 24, 1990
"FLEETWOOD: MY LIFE AND ADVENTURES IN FLEETWOOD MAC" by Mick Fleetwood and Stephen Davis (Morrow, $17.95)
In its 23-year history, Fleetwood Mac has been many things - underground blues-rock band, multimillion-selling pop phenomenon and rock 'n' roll soap opera.
Now the veteran British band has a book.
Mick Fleetwood, who has been the group's drummer through all its personnel changes, love affairs, near-breakups and his own bankruptcy, has written "Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac."
Co-authored with Stephen Davis, best-known for "Hammer of the Gods," the orgy-and-tell book about Led Zeppelin, "Fleetwood" will disappoint those looking for intimate details of the drummer's affair with Stevie Nicks and the group's other amorous adventures.
Ever the British gentleman, Fleetwood, 43, said he purposely "avoided smut."
"I would never have put anything like that in there," he said in a recent telephone interview. Still, his refusal to let anyone in the band read the book before publication caused some conflicts.
Fleetwood's life story is also the story of modern rock 'n' roll. The son of a British soldier whose hobbies were drumming and writing poetry and children's stories, the 6-foot-6 Fleetwood left home at 15. He packed up his drum kit in 1963 and set out for swinging London.
He got involved in the British Invasion blues scene, playing with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and forming a band with Bluesbreakers bassist John McVie and guitarist Peter Green.
The self-effacing Green dubbed the group Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood also became a Beatle in-law, marrying Jenny Boyd, sister of George Harrison's then-wife Patti.
The marriage didn't last, and it was his fault, Fleetwood admits.
But, in what has become a Fleetwood Mac trademark, Fleetwood and McVie found new members and forged on, adding McVie's wife Christine and guitarist Bob Welch to the group. Welch would be replaced in 1975 by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
That combination clicked, selling 15 million copies of "Rumours" and becoming the premier pop group of the mid-'70s.
In the book, Fleetwood reveals he earned $3 million from "Rumours," remarkable considering that he got no writer's royalties (all the songs were written by Buckingham, Nicks and McVie). He also pegs the cost of "Tusk," the double album that followed "Rumours," at $1.2 million, an unheard-of-figure in 1979.
Since then, the band has not matched its "Rumours" success, but "Tango in the Night" sold 9 million copies and "Behind the Mask" sold 3 million.
And, of course, having a potential best-seller (there's now talk of a movie) doesn't hurt. Writing the book also saved him money on therapy.
"I've never been to a psychiatrist, but it was probably the nearest thing to being on the couch," Fleetwood said. Having set down his life in print, he says, he would have done only one thing differently: "I would be a little better at handling my personal relationships, being more aware of other people's feelings."
- Larry Nager Scripps Howard Service
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