"It's just horseshit. I play bass."
- the ever-underestimated John McVie.
"Because, if you come in too late, I'll fucking brain you. Alright?" - Peter
"As far as Stevie and Lindsey go, well they actually are married to each other, and living in my garage!" - Bob Welch
Lindsey: "the angriest dog in rock" - RS 772
"They're a good group. Holy smokes! They've got talent!" - An excited fan
"[We'd say] 'Let's pretend to be Fleetwood Mac!' There's a song on Abbey Road, The Sun King, that tried that. At the same time, Albatross was out, with all the reverb on guitar... So we said, 'Let's be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get things going.' It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac... but they were the point of origin." - George Harrison
"Fleetwood Mac style is my kind of drumming: dead straight, right down the stropping!" - Paul McCartney
"While living with Mayall, John McVie joined a group of a different nature, called The Brain Damage Club. According to Christine McVie, 'In order to join, you had to dive off the third floor naked into the pool. I'm still amazed he didn't kill himself. Needless to say, I didn't join the club!'" - from The Penguin (I think).
"Rhiannon: By far the best exorcism ever performed on stage."
"Rumours took twelve months because we were all trying to hold the foundation of Fleetwood Mac together, and trying to speak to each other in a civil tone, while sitting in a tiny room listening to each other's songs about our shattered relationships. It was very *very* tense - a room full of divorced people who didn't dare bring anybody new into the same room, because nobody was going to be nice to *anybody* brought into the circle." - Stevie
"Stevie's words can be pretty obscure... at best. Sometimes I didn't know what she was singing about, but in her mind those words made complete sense and I often used to wonder what on earth she was talking about. But then, you didn't care because the words just sounded so good." - Christine
On Lindsey: "I was afraid that women would go for him because he was so darling." - Stevie
On Stevie: "Yeah, we bring out the corn in each other." - Lindsey
"We had gone to some party, and he was sitting in the middle of this gorgeous living room playing a song. I walked over and stood next to him, and the song was California Dreaming, and I just started singing with him. And I just threw in my Michelle Phillips harmony and... he was so beautiful. And then I didn't really see him again until two years later, when he called me and asked me if I wanted to be in his rock and roll band." - Stevie
"It's something people forget sometimes with Fleetwood Mac - we're loud!" - Mick
"Well, when I met Chris her name was Perfect. And then she married me." - John
On Rumours: "We heard that album so much that we were beginning to puke!" - Richard Dashut
On 'What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You' - "Stevie has no rancor abour the song's total elimination, asserting with a sigh that Fleetwood Mac usually prefers her 'stranger, more demented rock and roll'."
"Well, let's see... I think Mick Fleetwood was looking for a recording studio. Stevie and I had just finished an album, and Keith, our engineer, put something on tape to show his work as an engineer. It turned out to be our song Frozen Love, which had a searing guitar solo. At that time, Stevie and I just happened to be in the back room, and when we walked in there was this really tall guy stomping his feet to our song..." - Lindsey
"You know, before Lindsey and I joined Fleetwood Mac, we'd have to steel ourselves not to go into stores. Six months later, we were earning $400 a week and I was totally famous. We used to pin $100 bills up on the walls of our apartment, just for fun. You go through that with someone, you don't forget." - Stevie
"Mick is the king. He's the head of the band. He comes in and you think you ought to curtsy. In the studio, Lindsey's word was law. Christine almost always delivered the hits. She's like an earth mother, and I'm her little sister. And John is the other fixed point around which the band revolves. Sometimes it got really funny, this giant percussionist, and two couples in front of him. Especially when all the relationships broke up." - Stevie
"At the inauguration, I just realized I wanted it to be back the way it was, or I didn't want to be in it anymore. I couldn't continue to be in a Fleetwood Mac that didn't have Lindsey in it... The music is easy. It's the other stuff that's hard. If it can't be with him, then let's not do it!" - Stevie
"Lindsey and I were as close to married as I'll probably ever be. I took care of him, I cooked for him, I ironed his jeans, I embroidered stars and moons on them, I adored him." - Stevie
"Believe me, when I stop singing I'm gonna have a yard sale like you're not gonna believe. We're talking chiffon, chiffon, and more chiffon."- Stevie
"I think Gypsy was one of my best collaborations ever with Stevie... I think that was one of the most effective pieces we've ever done." - Lindsey, Guitar Mag.
"Standing next to Mick Fleetwood is ridiculous. Anybody standing next to Mick is ridiculous, so imagine a five-footer. You blend into his drums, which he loves because then he's the star. So I say, 'Wait a minute, Mick. I'm going to get tall. I get far on these boots." - Stevie
"They saw that Christine could write music, play piano, sing like an angel, rehearse all day with the men, and cook a big dinner without batting an eye. In addition, Benifols was as neat as a pin and spotless, and Chris was a superb artist and sculptor. She was down-to-earth, very pretty, and attractive to everybody. People were amazed. What kind of superwoman was this?" - Mick, in his book.
"Then there were the Sausalito sessions. 'Trauma!' Christine groans. 'Trau-ma'."
"You can feel the sparks between Stevie and Lindsey because they're both sparky, wiry people together." - Mick
"Stevie was my woman. When we would perform, she would have all of these men staring at her. Yes, you could say I was a little jealous." - Lindsey
"Fleetwood Mac was not just another pop band, but one bad mother of a rock band." - Steve MacDougall
"Lindsey is absolutely against duplicating anything. So if he even thinks people are gonna think he's trying to duplicate, he will go so far the other way...so the best thing to do with Lindsey is to not even remind him,so he doesn't get too radical. Cause you know, he's just one of those men, he'll get totally radical - 'I'm not going to do anything else like the last one, for my own cultural growth and the pursuit of the work'." - Stevie
"If we hadn't been able to put that energy into the music and rise above it that way, then maybe we would have just gone totally freaked out on each other!" - Stevie, BBC Radio 2, Rumours 11/11/98.
"She first arrived at my school when I was a junior, and she just kind of flew in flamboyantly and became popular at school. I think she was working on being a bohemian type even then, with the poetry and all of that." - Lindsey, 9/97
On Rumours: "It would have happened anyhow if we'd been sort of vestal virgins, you know!" 0 Mick BBC Radio 2 - Rumours 11/11/98.
"I was singing with Lndsey the whole time [I was in school] and found it real difficult to study." - Stevie, Creem 1982.
"I realized that if I wanted to be in FM, I was going to really have to figure out a gimmick - like toe-dancing or something nobody else could do." - Stevie, Creem 1982.
"I think there was always something between me and Lindsey... There was always just really weird things going on between us." - Stevie, RS 235.
"Being in this band really fucks up relationships with chicks." - Lindsey, RS 235.
"About the only relationship that hasn't happened is between me and Lindsey. But there's still time!" - John, The First 30 Years.
"John, however, wasn't in the mood for idle chatter during the call and ended the evening by inexplicably hurling a glass of vodka and tonic in Lindsey's face. Lindsey oddly took no offense at all at this gesture."- The First 30 Years.
"When I sing things like 'Go Your Own Way' to Billy, the looks I give him! Well! I have apologized! The fire, you know! I'm amazed he doesn't blow up!" - Stevie, 1987, The First 30 Years.
