Mick Fleetwood joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss the 45th anniversary of Fleetwood Mac's iconic album ‘Rumours’. He tells Apple Music about the band dynamics that shaped the album, reflects on Stevie and Lindsey joining the group and the ongoing complications of their relationship, how the group’s music provided safe harbor from persistent band drama, the benefits of being in a co-ed band, how he sees his role in the group decades later, being an Eminem fan and much more.

Mick Fleetwood Reflects on ‘Rumours’ 45 Years Later…

I didn't really know what was going on until a little while later. And the fact that we're having this conversation 40 odd years later about the same body of work that was created by that line of up with Fleetwood Mac is one I don't think about it until you start talking about it...

I think probably to a large extent to the other band members, a permanent backdrop that has become part of no doubt the fabric of who we are certainly as players and artists, but also the effectual with what it did to us as people through that, the challenges of it, the sociological messes and joys that it brought, all of that are in these collection of songs known as the Rumours album. I think it was a little bit of, for me and John especially, in a way we had our, for us, it was a large tidal wave back in England with the beginnings of Fleetwood Mac in 1967, '68 with Peter Green, where we were the pop boys of certainly down in Australia and the Commonwealth, not over here really at all, apart from some boutique interest in the band, which was demonstrated later by certainly Carlos and people, and the Grateful Dead have definitely heard about the music that we made and apparently loved it.

So when the wave sort of hit, I think me and John, speaking certainly for myself, we'd had some reference to having something, and in truth the wave dissipated before Stevie and Lindsey, although we continued through the Bob Welch year and so forth, and many wonderfully talented people, you could see on a graph that for us, it was just, we were keeping going, we never thought one way or the other. But the truth is we were on a quiet period in terms of success. But me and John had had that shock as really young chaps in England, where we were… Top of the pops and stupid praises, like they're selling more than the Beatles and all this stuff. And therefore took it in our stride a little bit more, I think, I hope. And it certainly helped me until I got super crazy, and substance abuse later on and all that stuff. But in the early days of the band that we're talking about that made that album Rumours, I really felt that that too had helped me say, hang on, hang on. This is all fantastic, but we're doing what we're doing. And it helped certainly from the Peter Green days, we always, especially led by Peter, held onto our integrity as players and really didn't get super caught up in being so-called pop stars, or rock stars, or whatever it is.

Mick Fleetwood Tells Apple Music About Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham Joining The Group…

One has to quietly remember that John and Chris came at that point as a married couple that were musically connected, which was a reflection certainly God knows of Stevie and Lindsey came so connected at the hip musically as partners. And as partners, me, and Chris and John had gone through the whole, we lived together in houses for years, like Benny Folds back, the proverbial go to the country and survive as a band house that did just that. So in many ways we were preset for that to be continuing. And I think that's part of the lovely story that you are hinting at or going to, is that it really was a connected right at the beginning there of really, really connected bunch of people in full relationships, musically and personally. So we were set up, especially I would imagine when I think of Christine and having Stevie come into the band, I think that was a huge success in terms of ... And I'm gathering through all time that it was also a huge move for Stevie where she felt her identity in tandem with Lindsey no doubt as it went on for a long, long time, especially creatively. But as a lady, I think it allowed her a sense of more expression, more feeling her druthers within the framework of being creative. So it was the perfect home and it was a utopian get together that went on as we all know to be quite challenged in different ways.

Mick Fleetwood Tells Apple Music How Fleetwood Mac Provided Safe Harbor From Band Drama...

Everyone was so dedicated to what we were doing, I completely got off that train that this was disappearing and genuinely would tell anyone around me that were full of doubt, I said, "This is not going to disintegrate." We're all really, really unbelievable personal cost, knowing the misery that especially the four people in the couple set-up. Ironically, Jenny and I have broken up at the same time, so five of us were in a state of flux… A lot of pain. And this creature known as Fleetwood Mac and what we were doing became the safe harbor in a way, I believe. …was it a complete healing? No, but it has those elements to it, certainly in the complete chaos… And then a whole other scenario happened, which was the beginning of the journey, the wave of what this body of work created, which would've been, and I sort of can maybe speak a little bit for Lindsey's and it was so well put, he said, "And then we didn't ever really, really deeply heal what had really happened to everyone.”

Mick Fleetwood Tells Apple Music About Stevie and Lindsey’s Ongoing Complicated Relationship…

I'll just say it, especially for Stevie and Lindsey, I don't think certainly are not resolved fully, and I wish they were and I visualize those moments as the years trickle by somehow, but I truly, somewhat sadly think that that will go into the rainbow somewhere and never really change, but there you go.

Mick Fleetwood Tells Apple Music About The Benefits of Being in a Co-Ed Band...

…believe me, it was crazy and that's no news to anyone out there, public knowledge, but somehow, there was some decorum, there was some decorum about who and what we did as people, and it was always emotionally driven, which had it been quite literally a bunch of lads in a band, I think it would've been...Certainly, again, you'll probably hear it about 3,000 times, speaking for myself, I think having the ladies in the band, as it should, it reined us in on some damn level, and we, I think, benefited from that, certainly, as a band.

Mick Fleetwood Reflects On His Role in The Band…

…For me, it is that, when I listen to our music, not only this album, talking about for a long time, I didn't really know what it was I was really contributing, apart from ... I do know now. I do know, is that things that you've been so gracious to mention, but my piggy-in-the-middle, keeping some semblance out of panic or insecurity, to have this not stop, that seeing and hearing, hearing a body of work from time to time, that actually now comfortably does cross my mind. I go, "Well no, I didn't do that. But this is my song. This is my song." Is seeing all this, these lovely incarnations of Fleetwood Mac that I've been, and John, have been so incredibly blessed, genuinely being around incredibly talented people that we were able to invite into the band, and mercifully, with really fantastic, unbelievable storytelling results. That to me is like my song now. And I can express, I go like, "Yeah." It's not like taking credit for anything other than that. But I think, if that makes sense, it's a sense of worth for me that ... My father had a phrase, it sort of applies to things that aren't always hunky-dory, aren't always the greatest thing since slice bread, and yet we're already touching on things of huge import, which were huge versions of celebrating that brought happiness and esteem and confidence to all of us, is like, with all the blows that were taken, you sit back, and Dad would say, "But you know what? It was worth a damn." And the "worth a damn" is talking about this album, that so affected the people who made it.

Mick Fleetwood Tells Apple Music About Leaving “Silver Springs” Off The Album...

I think Stevie ... I'm pretty sure she got relegated, or would grab at one of the two, and she always requested, even down to the tours that we've done most recently would be, "Let Stevie have a go at the ... “ The list, usually with huge success. And we go like, "Yeah, that's cool." I'm thinking that she probably put this together.And of course, I think it was on this album, that one of the age-old, what's the ... Silver Springs, that didn't make it on the albums. Right? That wasn't much fun for me. I had to go and tell her.It was in the car park at the record plant in LA at that point. We used about three or four different studios, and we had to get out of the record plot. I wander around a bit, so excuse my lack of concentration. But I think when we left the record plot… Wallowing around in the abyss.mSo anyhow, I ended up in a car park having to tell young Stevie that ... A great song, and truly, truly, truly, truly, we were so intent on, at that point when you master an album, getting it to sound, and we simply couldn't, unless we sacrificed the level of the dynamic of the album, when you put the needle down, and we just felt something had to go, and then that was the song … But that song became legendary, but no doubt was really supposed to be part of this album. And it was a forever ... Like I was the Grim Reaper in the car park, that had to break the news, and Stevie's made me suffer inordinately ever since.

Mick Fleetwood Tells Apple Music He’s A Fan of Eminem...

I'm a huge fan of his. I think he right from the get go was fascinating, and just really super talented and not afraid of being misunderstood for sure, and all the rest of it.

Mick Fleetwood Tells Apple Music How Early Academic Misadventures Led To Fleetwood Mac…

I was always looking for, I didn't really know who and what I was because I was a total academic dunce, dyslexic and clinging onto anything. Sort of became an early storyteller where you can't go on a straight line. They say that most of the criminals or the arch talented politicians, a lot of them actually are dyslexic. So I learned to sort of find out and hold my own in a sort of ether of non knowing and be fairly quick on my feet as much as possible. But that part of me, I think in the shy, slightly clinging on, slightly wanting to need the need of being around other people, I learned that very early in terms of creating a team that I felt I could in a way express myself with and through, which is probably very close to the Fleetwood Mac story in terms of this funny little creature playing drums.