Latest / DISGRACELAND / Fleetwood Mac Pt. 1: Guns, God, Cocaine and Rumours

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Fleetwood Mac Pt. 1: Guns, God, Cocaine and Rumours · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac are insane. Drummer Mick Fleetwood reportedly snorted over
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: seven miles of cocaine in his lifetime. The band lost
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: not one but two guitarists to predatory Jesus freaks. Two
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: band members were arrested on gun charges, another was believed
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to pay roadies to administer cocaine via enema. Come on,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I couldn't not say it. It's only like the most
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: famous rock and roll rumor of all time, despite being
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: total bullshit. But more on this to come later in
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: the episode. And famously, band members involved themselves with each
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: other romantically in ways that brought on jealousy, distrust, angered, divorce,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and resulted in one of the most successful albums ever.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac made great music from their earliest days as
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: an English blues band to the pop superstars they would
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: become in the mid to late seventies. Unlike that music
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I played for you at the top of the show.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop for
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: my melotron called Mustache Montage MK one. I played you
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: that loop because I can't afford the rights to Tonight's
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the night Gonna be Alright by Rod Stewart, And why
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: would I play you that specific slice of Rod the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Bad Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: number one song in America on January first, nineteen seventy seven,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And that was the day the Hot one hundred charts
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: would feature a song that didn't come from Fleetwood. Max
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: rumors for fifty three straight weeks, marking with authority the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: undeniable success of one of the biggest albums of all time.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: On this part one of a special two part episode
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Smuggled Guns, Predatory Cults, tourd love Affairs, Cocaine, and the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: ever evolving lineup of Fleetwood Mac. I'm Jake Brennan and
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: this is disgrace lam Tara Brown, heir to the Guinness fortune,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: as prominent a member of London's swinging set as his father, Dominic,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: fourth Baron Ornmore, and Brown was a member of the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: House of Lords. The younger Brown, Tara Brown, pushed his
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: tiny but fast Lotus elon through the curve of the road.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: He felt the tiny machine hug him tight. His girlfriend
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: sat in the passenger seat like him. She was blurry
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: eyed from drugs and alcohol. Nineteen sixty six had been
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: a whirlwind. The booze, the hashish, the lsd it all,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the night's pass in technicolor, in the day's drag in
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: various shades of hungover gray. Tara's twenty first birthday party
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: from earlier that year was on his mind. Still it was,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: by all accounts, one of society's most talked about affairs.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Tara Brown knew how to throw a party and how
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: to take care of himself and his famous friends. He
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: flew them in by private jet. Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Brian Jones, another heir, John Paul Getty, and poet Brian
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Bian among others, were all assembled by Tara at one
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: of his family's castles in Ireland's county Wicklow, five thousand
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: acres of greens and woods, surrounding a grand lodge, complete
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: with full staff, chauffeurs and all the requisite posh and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: decadence befitting a young heir on the eve of his
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: twenty first trip around the sun, including a performance that
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: night by the Love and Spoonful, who currently enjoyed a
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: massive US Top ten hit with the song do You
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Believe In Magic? Mick Fleetwood and John mcvee, hardly upper
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: echelon members of Swinging London, had managed their way into
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the party, no doubt because of their relationship with one
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: of London's most promising blues guitarists at the time, Peter Green.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: The three were currently mixing it up with a cocky,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: young Sam Cook inspired blues singer named Rod Stewart in
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: a band called Shotgun Express. Word had it that Peter Green,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: who was becoming known around London as the Green God,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: was about to leave Shotgun Express to replace that other God,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Eric Clapton and John Mayle's Blues Breakers, and when he did,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: he'd be taking his rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: McVie with him. As for young Rod Stewart's future, time
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: would tell Mick Fleetwood entered Tarre Brown's castle wide eyed
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and full of appreciation of the moment. In the United Kingdom,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: unlike in the United States, you were born into your position,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: and there you likely stayed. Class and social structure prevented
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: you from upward mobility, achieving anything beyond your station in life.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Rock and Roll challenged that rule. Tara Brown challenged that
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: rule as well, and in The Rolling Stones in nineteen
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: sixty six personified that challenge. For young London's upper class
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: in the mid sixties, there was no greater accessory than
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a rough and tumble Rolling Stone. Mick Fleetwood was not
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: born into this, but young, as he was eighteen at
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the time he knew he had arrived. Brian Jones, guitarists
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and founding member of the Rolling Stones, flung open the
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: castle's giant double doors. Brian, cooler than most devilish but
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: somehow kind at the same time, gave Mick Fleetwood a
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: warm smile as he paced backwards slowly with the door
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: in one hand and his other arm extending behind him
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: to reveal the party in full swing. Men in the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: latest Tommy Nutter tailored savel rose suits danced with women
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: in short skirts and smart new cropped hairstyles. English blues
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: blared from the speakers. Jugglers mixed among the cut with
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: costumed goblins for extra effect. Brian Jones was in possession
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: of all of his charm, greetings, how is my favorite
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Mick doing this evening? Come come, Bick, Come inside out
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: of the cold. With that, Nick Fleetwood entered and was
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: quickly ushered by Brian upstairs into a large private bedroom.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: The room was mostly empty and quiet, but for the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: sounds of the party leaking through its walls. In the
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: center of the room, on a small table, a giant
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: ball of opiated hash and an orneat hookah. Mick Fleetwood's
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: jaw nearly hit the floor. Is it yours, Brian, he asked, Sure,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: it is, Mick, it's mine, it's ours. It's here for everyone,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: so let's have some. Tara couldn't remember who procured the hash.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Maybe it was the Count. He did remember that Brian
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Jones and Mick Fleetwood did their damnedest to make it disappear.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Tara pressed into the Lotus' gas pedal and pushed him
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and his girlfriend through another curve at one hundred miles
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: per hour. He sped into the intersection at Redcliffe Square
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: in Redcliffe Gardens. He didn't notice that the lights had changed.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Another car was coming. Tarras slammed on the brakes, cut
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the wheel to his left, and collided with maximum impact
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: with his driver's side into a parked lory. He died
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the next day of his wounds. One of Swinging London's
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: first rock and roll casualties. It shook mcfleetwood, who read
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: about it in the news. So it did John Lennon
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: as well, who would later write about it in the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Beatles song A Day in the Life. What Brian Jones
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: thought about Tara Brown's death is unknown, for he was
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: fast on his way to becoming one of London's next
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: rock and roll casualties. Mickfleet Would could sense the danger
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: of his chosen profession. The rock and roll game was
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: no joke, especially with the way mixed generation played. Non
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: survivors need not apply. Bass player John mc v was
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Mick Fleetwood's partner in crime as well as his rhythm
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: section mate, and John mcvee was a survivor. He and
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Mick made it through the sixties together through that heady
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: stint in John Male's Blues Breakers. In the first few
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: incarnations of the band that bore their names Fleetwood Mac
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: named after the rhythm section, yet fronted by their incomparable
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: guitarist and frontman, the highly expressive and emotional blues player
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Peter Green. The band that led to John's marriage to
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Christine Perfect, one of London's most sought after female blues players.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: She'd take his name mcvee and Christine mcvee would play
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: on in a band that now bore her name as well.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Her husband, John mcvee, or Mack as he was called,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: along with Christine and Mick Fleetwood, survived the tumult of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the sixties, the confusion of the early seventies, and the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: excess of their unprecedented late seventies success. John mcvee would
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: eventually even survive cancer, but first, in nineteen eighty one,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: he'd need to survive hanolul lose top drug sniffing dog Max.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Max was an alpha, not only among his canine counterparts,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: but also among the members of the Honolulu Police Department
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: he worked for. If Max really was a dog, he
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: didn't seem to know or care. One look at the
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: way he carried himself, and you'd think Max saw Burt
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Lancaster's sergeant Milton Warden character in From Here to Return.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: It was staring back at him in the mirror. Tall,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: broad shouldered for a dog anyway, and authoritative. Max, like
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Warden, did not fuck around. Max. While on his airport,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Beat caught the smell in the expensive luggage immediately. Cocaine
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: tucked away in a brown and white tape package was
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: too easy what hubris the owner had, who'd barely tried
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: even hiding it. Max's police partners used the package to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: quickly obtain a search warm with it. They followed the
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: scheduled delivery of the package to what was no doubt
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: a very rich person's home in the wealthy resort area
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: of Nepali. Hanolu Lulu police with Max at their side,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: rang the bell. Upon entry, they heard the sounds of
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: someone frantically rushing upstairs, along with the unmistakable sound but
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: toilet being frantically flushed. Max barked non stop. An hour
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: long search ensued. Max quickly turned up the brown and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: white package. In it four grams of cocaine. The police
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: also found marijuana and some pills, along with seven guns,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: a Remington shotgun, three loaded pistols, and three rifles, all
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: illegally in the possession of their owner. The owner of
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: this home. This home, with its gold and platinum records
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: hanging from its walls, alongside all of its occulent furnishings,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: the home of no ordinary Honolulu resident, The home of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: a rock star of rock and roll survivor, John mcvee
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: of none other than Fleet with Mac, who would now
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: have to survive a trial for possession of illegal drugs
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and weapons and face jail time impossible deportation. He would,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: of course survive this incident, just as he had survived
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: all of the previous high wire acts, incidents that nearly
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: spelled his doom in the past, like they had for
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: numerous members of Fleetwood Mac, doom brought on by drugs, money,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: and Jesus Christ. Peter Green, guitarist for Fleetwood Mac, founder
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: of Fleetwood Mac, the mid sixties blues guitarist so skilled
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: he was able to replace Eric Clapton and John Mayle's
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: blues breakers, so impressive he would later be cited as
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: influencing such rock and roll luminaries as English songsmith Elvis
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: caught Stello, an American journalist and screenwriter director Cameron Crowe.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Peter Green, the man who gave Fleetwood Mackett's name after
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: its rhythm section, the best rhythm section in the world
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: by his account, the man who wrote Oh Well, Albatross
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: and Black Magic Woman, a song later recorded by Santana
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and sent all the way up to number four in
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the US charts. That Peter Green was not having it,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: and by it I mean money. Take the money back,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: take the fucking money, man. I don't want to fucking
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: take the savage milk and take him, take it back.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: This was in nineteen seventy seven, but in nineteen seventy
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac was off like a rocket from nineteen sixty seven.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty nine, after Peter left the Blues Breakers,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac had climbed to steady success as a heavy
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: blues band with their first solid lineup Green, Mick Fleetwood,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: John McVie and Jeremy Spencer. They had talent and influence
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: to spare peterswriting, especially earning them all the trappings of
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: rock and roll success. They could ask for hit singles
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: in their homeland international tours Drugs Women, But it started
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: to turn for Peter Green. In New Orleans in nineteen seventy,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac were sharing a bill with San Francisco's Grateful Dead.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: The Grateful Dead sound man chemist Augustus Auseley Stanley Third
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: dosed the members of Fleetwood Mac. Peter Green did not
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: react well to the LSD, yet after that trip he
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: kept taking it. He grew morose, sullen, moody, and it
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: started showing up and is already highly emotional playing music
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: in his opinion, became commodified. Music for money increasingly became
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: a ridiculous notion. Music was about expression and expression only
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Peter Green could no longer wrap his brain around playing
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the same song the same way more than once. How
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: could he? He'd already done that, He'd already expressed that emotion.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Peter turned his focus from rock and roll Christianity. The
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: fact that he was raised Jewish didn't matter. He gave
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: himself over to his new Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: He continued to play, but askewed the rock and roll
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: trappings he was so taken by just months earlier. Mainly
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: that meant no more groupies, and not just for himself. Quickly,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: as leader of Fleet with Mac, he turned his judgy
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: eyes to his bandmates, deeming them disgraceful for taking up
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: with women after their shows. Peter could be found in
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: his hotel room after gigs, crying in front of the
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: eleven o'clock news that the various injustices being broadcast. He
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: then demanded his bandmates join him and turning over all
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the band's earnings to various charities. They gave, of course,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: but all of their money. This was too much to
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: ask of young musicians who were finally realizing their rock
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and roll dream, and at that moment in nineteen seventy,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: out selling both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in Europe,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Peter descended further into madness. He began wearing a big
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: wooden crucifix and a papal like rope, grewed his beard
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: and hair long, not unlike artistic depictions of the Son
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: of Man, and would only speak to the music press
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: about one subject, Jesus Christ Fleetwood Mac's success. At this point,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the accolades, record sales, ticket sales, the press had all
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: became a source of suffering for Peter Green because all
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: of it was cheap, fickle child's play, compared to what
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: he now saw as his life's true calling to do
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: good in the name of Christ. Peter announced to his
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: bandmates that he was leaving the band. There would be
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: one more European tour to fulfill previous obligations, but in
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Munich one night after a gig, Peter Green disappeared took
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: off with some hippies, real far archetypes, not your standard
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Summer of Love nineteen sixty Zeitgeist type of youth. These
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: hippies were more off the grid, underground, untethered from society
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: in any real way, dark and running almost entirely on LSD,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: dosed for days straight at their commune. When Fleetwood Max's
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: road manager finally found him, Peter could speak, but barely.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: He recovered in time to play one final gig, but
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: committed to living with his new German friends on their commune. Afterward,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Peter's bandmates attempted to coax him to finish the tour,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: but in response, he melted down, wholly focused on the money,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: how there was too much of it, and how he
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: didn't deserve it, how he couldn't possibly go on playing
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: in the band and generating such unheard of sums of cash,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and all the darkness it brought into the world. Peter
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Green was unhinged, the LSD had tripped, some wired and
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: his already fragile psyche. Somehow the band convinced him to
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: finish the tour, but the Munich hippies by this point
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: were all over, following him on the road and back
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: to London afterward. Shortly thereafter, Peter Green played his last
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: gig with Fleetwood Mac at the Lyceme Theater, ironically, with
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the grateful dead. Afterward, he held his focus on lsd
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: J says Christ to what he called on clean money,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: and throughout the seventies he wanted no part of it,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: which is why in nineteen seventy seven, Peter Green, long
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: since being a member of Fleetwood Mac, was threatening to
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: shove a shotgun in his accountant's face and blow them away,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: demanding that he take the money back that he stopped
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the royalty checks from coming in. He was arrested, jailed,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: diagnosed with schizophrenia, and eventually released into his family's custody.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green's old band, had carried on without
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: him and found even more fame, but not through Peter
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Green's blues, and not through visions of Jesus Christ. Instead
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: through commercialized pop and crystal visions and the unclean money
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: rained down on Fleetwood Mac. We'll be right back after
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: this word word word, Peter Green was gone, and so
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: that was Fleetwood Max's other guitarist, Jeremy Spencer, once again
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: the culprit Jesus Christ. Los Angeles was reeling in the
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: aftermath of the nineteen seventy one San Fernando earthquake six
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: point six on the Richter scale, more than sixty people dead,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: half a billion dollars in damage, tens of thousands evacuated,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the near total failure of the water supplied, the partial
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: collapse of major freeway exchanges, and none of it could
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: keep the predatory Jesus freaks off of Hollywood Boulevard. There
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: they roamed down the famous Walk of Fame, barefoot over
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the sidewalk stars of Hollywood's Golden Row, Judy Garland, Burt
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Lancaster himself, Bogey and bacall among them, all of whom
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: would not suffer the trashy Hippi funk stylings of jc's
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: post Summer of Love disciples, garbed in literal rags sandals
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: if they were lucky either way, their filthy, disgusting feet
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: exposed for all to see, with dirt on their skin,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: long mangy, entangled hippie hair headbands, homemade beads, say brothers
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: spilling from their lips on repeat, yellow yuckmouthed teeth, creepy
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: perma smiles, while googly eyes, all of it gross. The
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: hookers made fun of them. The cross dress who sympathized
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: the pimps, paid them no mind. The John scoped for
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: young strange the cops harassed them non stop. Turus averted
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: their eyes, and Mick Fleetwood and John McVie asked questions
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: like have you seen this man? They were inquiring about
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: their guitarist, Jeremy Spencer, and working through vicious hangovers, blinding
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: mid afternoon California's sun, unseasonable winter heat, the drag of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the day's beginning. A couple nights earlier in San Francisco,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: their guitarist Jeremy Spencer ate some mescaline trip balls, played
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: out of his mind, touched down in La post earthquake,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: took GoF out of his hotel like an aftershock, down
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: toward Hollywood Boulevard, and hadn't been seen or heard from
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: in twenty four hours. Their gig was canceled and everyone
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: feared the worst kidnapping, murder. Haesius, Mick and John handed
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: out flyers, posted Jeremy's photo on telephone polls. The local
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: news picked up the story have you seen this man?
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Local Christian churches on the up and up knew what
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: had gone down. More Hazius Death called Tom Fuckery. They
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: got in touch with the band's management and hit them
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: to some of the Lord's lesson savory radicals, cults. Their
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: locations were noted San Fernando Valley, the heart of the earthquake.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Mac drove into the angry, upset belly of Los
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Angeles on high alert, scoping for their latest lost soul.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: They drove through the destruction, toppled buildings, destroyed homes, dilapidated bridges.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Pedestrians peered at them from the roadside. Was shocked through
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: hollow eyes. Everything it seemed was happening in slow motion.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: It was post apocalypse. The city of Angels was end times.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: God wasn't green, God was dead, and their guitarists was gone,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: maybe gone another one. How the fuck had this happened?
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Mickfleetwood wondered. Another Fleetwood Mac guitar player got religion and
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: got himself lost. The so called children of God had
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: found Jeremy Spencer, and Jeremy Spencer wasn't coming back. Jeremy
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Spencer wasn't even Jeremy Spencer anymore. He was Jonathan and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: by the time his bandmates found him, he was unrecognizable,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: having shaved off all of his hair, denounced his worldly possessions,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: turned his back not only on his band, but on
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: his family, his wife and young child, explaining that Jesus
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: would now take care of them. Fleetwood Mac replaced Jeremy
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Spencer with another guitarist who eventually took up with Mickfleetwood's wife,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: an act that eventually cost him his job, and, along
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: with band managerial chaos that progressed steadily through the next
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: few years, seemed to spell the end for Fleetwood Mac.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: But Mick Fleetwood was determined to give it one more go.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: There was a new batch of songs to demo. He
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: visited Sound City Studio and his and his bandmate's new
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: home of Los Angeles to book studio time and was
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: struck by what he heard coming out of the studio
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: speakers mixes from a folk duo from upstate. The guitar
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: playing was sublime. Who was this? Mick Fleetwood needed to know.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: He grabbed the guitar player's number from the Sound City
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: producer and quickly rang him up. Lindsay Buckingham, This is
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Mick Fleetwood. Hey there, how you doing. I'm well listen,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: we're looking for a guitar player and I'd like to
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: know if you'd like to come play with us. That
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: sounds great, we'd love to We not I we Lindsey
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Buckingham finished his sentence with because my girlfriend comes with me.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Lindsay Buckingham's girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, couldn't wait to get off work.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: She was exhausted. It was the hour she kept her shift,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: kept her tied up until five PM, and by the
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: time she fought through rush hour traffic and got home
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: it was six. Then she'd have to clean up for Lindsay,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: who worked from home all day perfecting songs for their
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: duo Buckingham Nicks. Stevie would empty the ashtrays, open their
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: tiny LA apartments windows, light candles, and clear out the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: dank smell of dope. Lindsay, along with whichever other LA
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: working musicians cycled through that apartment Wadiwa Tawl and Warren
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Zevon among them, smoked all day long while working. Stevie
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: would handle the mess. Then she'd clean herself up, force
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: herself to remember to eat something, and by nine PM
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: she'd be at Lindsay's side, writing and working on music
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: with them until three am, when she'd knock off, start
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to wind down, crash by five, sleep until nine, be
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: out the door by ten, and back to start her
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: shift at eleven. Welcome to Clementines. My name is Stevie.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Can I take your order? Clementines was a roaring, twenty
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: scened West Hollywood restaurant, Taurus pencil necks, three martini lunch,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: businessmen avoiding their bosses, geeks off the street, total cheese,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: hardly roaring, more of an unimpressive burger slinging wax museum
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: with waitresses, dames done up and flapper outfits. Stevie Nicks
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: was one of them. Go on fries is that she
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Santo and johnnied her way through her shifts. She couldn't
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: remember the last time she had a real full night
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: of sleep, and tonight would be no different. She wasn't
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: working on music with Lindsay tonight after work, though. Instead
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the two of them were meeting up with three remaining
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: members of the English blues band Fleetwood Mac to discuss
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: joining forces with Buckingham Nicks. Little did Stevie know this
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: merger would prevent her from getting a proper night of
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: sleep for the next decade plus, but it would be
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: worth it. Magically, the two disparate styles of the folk
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: duo Buckingham Nix and hard blues of Fleetwood Mac fused
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: into something wholly unique and wildly compelling. Lindsay quickly sees
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: control musically, asserting his vision, chops and songwriting prowess. It
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: was hard for him not to inspired by the power
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and precision of the Fleetwood mac rhythm section he now
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: had playing behind him. Teaming the studied guitar, singing and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: arrangement talents of Lindsay Buckingham with Mick Fleetwood's steadily unique
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: groove in John mcvie's monster bass playing was like giving
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Mario Andretti the keys to a tricked out Peterbilt Semi.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Something powerfully effective emerged, and this new sound was completely original.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Stevie singular vibrato, a voice never and I repeat never
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: heard in pop music before, floated perfectly atop this new sound.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Into Stevie's credit. She was relatively egoless in her new
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: role in a band with another female vocalist, Christine mcvee,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: who herself was also without ego, and in many ways
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: the musical glue that held these wildly different parts together.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Christine McVie formerly Christine Perfect, was a veteran in a
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: total pro She was an educated musician who understood harmony
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: as well as she understood lowdown blues. Her playing was tasteful,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: rooted in Americana, but fully conscious of the pop sensibility
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: that was alchemating within this minu and she sang like
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a bird. Stevie Nick's voice may have been the siren
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: call that pulled you into bed under the lace canopy,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: but Christine mcvie's voice was the one that kept you
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: there all weekend. The new Fleetwood Mac got down to work.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: They squirreled themselves away at Sound City with a new
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: batch of songs demoed out at Christine and John's apartment,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and with a whole bunch of cocaine. America's first tidal
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: wave of coke hit in Los Angeles in the mid seventies,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: and City Studios was practically fueled by the drug. Nearly
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: everyone who worked there or entered used, or was at
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: least offered cocaine. The creatively obsessed members of Fleetwood Mac
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: fell in love with the drug, at first as a
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: tool to use to help them stay up all night working,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: then as a tool to help them fight through their
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: hangovers the next day. And the cycle was full tilt,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and in the beginning it yielded miraculous creative results. The
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: new Fleetwood Max first self titled album, released in nineteen
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: seventy five, not to be confused with the old Fleetwood
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Max first self titled album released with Peter Green at
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: the Helm back in nineteen sixty eight, was a powerful
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: reminder of the promise of American pop music. Not since
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: The Eagle's eponymous debut in nineteen seventy two had an
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: American band so effortlessly melded American roots influences into top
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: forty pop alchemy that proved irresistible to radio programmers and
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: thus indelible to young music fans. Fleetwood Mac broke the
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: band through of the States. It went to number one
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: and sold more than seven million copies with three different
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: hit singles, Christine mcvie's over My Head and Say You
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Love Me and Stevie Nix's Rhiannon, not to mention classic
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: album plays like Landslide and the Saday opener Monday Morning.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: With success in America came a tour of Europe. The
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: band stayed with Eric Clapton. In England, Eric lived with
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Patty Boyd Harris and George Harrison's ex and Mick Fleetwood's
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: sister of Awe. Patty was the sister to Mix's wife
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Jenny Clapton's massive home was unheeded, and despite the copious
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: amounts of cocaine they ingested, they all nearly froze. That
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: chill stayed with them throughout their tour, That feeling of
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: never being warm enough unless you were on stage. Cold
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: and hungover were two constants, cold in the hotel, hungover
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: in the morning, dragging through sound jack, freezing on the plane,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: exhausted at customs France, Sweden, Germany. Didn't matter where they were,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: they were frigid, hanging, and had no shape to deal
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: especially what was to happen next. Amsterdam Airport, Holland, Netherlands.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Whatever time of the day it was, it felt like morning.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Whatever the temperature, it wasn't warm enough, and the show
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the night before cooked, and so too did the requisite afterparty.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Waiting to pass through customs, the airport was eerily quiet.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Fleetwood Max entourage said little just waited in line, passports
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: in hand, to quietly move through this annoying ritual that
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: always seemed to take too long, no matter how quickly
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: it passed. Band members, crew, management, hangers on, long haired
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: men in heavy coats with unbuttoned shirts, chests exposed, two
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: tight pants, smelling of cigarettes, dank weed and expensive cologne.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Women in floppy hats, coats, button tight fur collars, expensive handbags,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: and the allure of rich perfume, all of them wearing sunglasses. Inside,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: they looked great, exactly like a traveling rock and roll
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: band in the sun. He should look glamorous, vampirec hungover,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and the women especially hot. Not just Stevie and Chris,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: their hair and make up girls and the crew as well.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: The pervy customs agents weren't going to let them pass
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: without a search. They had cause, after all, look at them.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: They screamed, drugged out mess. The women, just the women,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: were unceremoniously pulled out of line and into a private
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: back room. Each was told to lose their jackets, then
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: their blouses, but grudgingly, Stevie Nicks and Christine mcvee, each
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: of whom looked as though they could pommel the manipulative
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: customs agents at any moment, obliged along with the female
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: members of their crew. Then they were told to strip
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: off their pants down to their panties. The pervy agents
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: could barely suppress their giggles. The girls, despite their brave front,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: were more than likely scared standing near naked in that
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: freezing room, as were the men in the entourage waiting
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: for them outside of the room with no idea what
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: was going on. No drugs were found. The whole affair
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: amounted to a pathetic, manipulative, and cheap scene, A humiliating
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: strip search of just the women in the band's entourage
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: by the male customs agents. Customs inform Fleetwood Max Management
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: that they were operating on a tip of the band's
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: rumored cocaine use rumors, not actual evidence. Rumors supposedly compelled
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the customs agents to search the women in the band's entourage,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and rumors would also compel Fleetwood Mac to a level
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of success that would ensure the band would never have
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: to fly commercial again, a level of rock stardom that
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: was beyond the band's wildest dreams of excess and deepest
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: fears of disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan in this episode of
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: disgrace Land is to be continued. Disgraceland was created by
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.
• 32:24
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• 32:26
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• 32:30
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• 32:50
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• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Rock and Roller. He's a bad, bad man.