May 1995: FM talks Spencer, George Bush

[michelej1]

[I didn't see this article online anywhere and thought it had interesting comments about Jeremy Spencer sitting in with the band, playinig for the Republican party and John getting up early to get Molly off to school]

Memphis Commercial Appeal (TN), May 5, 1995

Section: Playbook

FLEETWOOD SOAP OPERA HAS UNPREDICTABLE CAST

Larry Nager The Commercial Appeal

You won't find Stevie Nicks or Christine McVie onstage with Fleetwood Mac tonight at the Memphis In May Beale Street Music Festival. But anyone familiar with the band's checkered 28-year history knows not to be surprised at just who will be there when the band plays the River Stage at 11:10 p.m.

The latest incarnation of the group that began as arguably the best band in the '60s British blues revival features founders Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass, along with longtime Mac member Billy Burnette on guitar and vocals, singer Bekka Bramlett and newest member Dave Mason, a co-founder of Traffic and a longtime solo performer.

But old-time members also occasionally show up. Christine McVie remains a member of the band, but only in the recording studio, said her ex- husband McVie .

''She won't tour , she's hung up her rock-and-roll shoes, but she likes to record,'' McVie said from his home in the L.A. hills. ''Which presents an interesting situation,'' he added thoughtfully. ''I'm not quite sure how we're going to handle that when we come to do the next tour .''

This version of the band will be hitting the amphitheater circuit this summer with what looks like a late-'70s oldies tour featuring Pat Benatar and REO Speedwagon. Their current set looks to the past and future of the band, ranging from such classics as Oh Well, sung by Burnette, son of the late Memphis rockabilly great Dorsey Burnette, to Don't Stop, from the band's days as one of the '70s' biggest hitmakers and up to Mason's solo material and some of the band's newest songs from the forthcoming album, which, like the Mac's multiplatinum ''Rumours,'' will be on Warner Bros.

Fleetwood Mac is known as one of rock's longest-running soap operas, with a stranger-than-fiction history of various romantic combinations and acrimonious breakups among its members, drug and alcohol problems, Mick Fleetwood's much-publicized bankruptcy in the midst of the band's biggest commercial successes, and, in its early days, the group's tendency to lose members to drug-induced psychosis, in the case of guitarist Peter Green, and religious cults, in the case of guitarist Jeremy Spencer.

Spencer recently sat in with the band during a brief Fleetwood Mac tour of Japan, McVie said. ''He's still with the Children of God, and what he was saying to Mick is his mindset now is not that aggressive style that he used to have. But he sat in on one of Billy's songs, Tear It Up, and there was flashes of that. I think another couple of songs and it would have all come back. But it's just the way he thinks these days. He's a very tranquil person and it's reflected in his playing. But it was neat to just look over and there he was, Mr. Spencer. I hadn't seen him in 17 years.''

It was a different sort of reunion when the Mac played an AT&T convention in Puerto Rico. The guests of honor were George and Barbara Bush, and though McVie is a self-professed Republican, it was his band's song Don't Stop that served as the campaign battle cry for Bush's nemesis, Bill Clinton.

''We were asked not to do it,'' McVie said of the convention organizers. ''And all we could say was, 'Look, it's an integral part of the show. No one's going to make any jokes about it, although there are a few that would spring to mind.' But we went on and behaved ourselves and it went down very well. I think we're gonna get invited back.''

Clearly, Fleetwood Mac's wilder days are behind the band. McVie was calling at 7:15 a.m., but it wasn't at the end of a long night of partying; he was up early getting his 6-year-old daughter Molly ready for kindergarten.

McVie laughs about his new domesticity, remembering the days he first played with Fleetwood 30 years ago in the rhythm section of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. McVie was fired twice by Mayall for drinking on the job; so he gave up Mayall and formed Fleetwood Mac.

He remains friends with Mayall, now 60. McVie himself is looking at 50 this year, a milestone he never figured he'd reach, let alone as a member of Fleetwood Mac, a band that continues to think about tomorrow.

''Geez, I didn't think I'd make 30, mate,'' McVie said with a hearty laugh. ''I thought I had a very limited span.''