Stevie Nicks Described Fleetwood Mac as a “Scandalous” and “Incestuous” Soap Opera
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Romance and Trouble in the Band
Fleetwood Mac has never been just about music. The group became almost as famous for their messy personal relationships as for their hits. And no one knew this better than Stevie Nicks. When romance mixes with creative work, things can get tense, and Fleetwood Mac had no shortage of those tensions.
Nicks herself was involved in several complicated relationships. She had a brief romance with drummer Mick Fleetwood after ending things with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Around the same time, she was also linked to Don Henley from The Eagles. Meanwhile, Christine and John McVie divorced while still playing together in the band.
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A Soap Opera Set to Music
The tangled love lives inside Fleetwood Mac started to resemble something you might see on daytime television. Stevie Nicks once compared the band’s drama to an actual soap opera. She wasn’t exaggerating.
“I’ve been close to leaving Fleetwood Mac since I joined Fleetwood Mac,” Nicks said in a 1990 interview with US Magazine, as quoted by Rock a Little. “But so has everybody else. […] To be in Fleetwood Mac is to live in a soap opera. And it has been pretty scandalous and pretty incestuous, and pretty wonderful in a lot of ways.”
Stevie Thought About Leaving Often
By 1990, the band was falling apart. Lindsey Buckingham had already left, and both Nicks and Christine McVie were considering their exits. The tension behind the scenes was hard to ignore. Still, despite all the drama, Stevie never wanted to be the one to end it all.
“I threaten to quit all the time. I threaten to quit once a month. But I’m never gonna be the one to break up Fleetwood Mac,” she said. “Somebody else will break it up, not me. And it’s hard for me to imagine Fleetwood Mac ever breaking up. It’s kind of like, you know, it’s just an entity that just seems to go on and on and on. I figure Fleetwood Mac will go on until it doesn’t want to go on anymore.”
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Her Prediction Was Right
Though Nicks often felt the urge to leave, the band kept going. Fleetwood Mac continued through lineup changes and periods of rest. Her words proved true. The band lasted in some form until Christine McVie’s passing in 2022.
