Fleetwood Mac Recalls ‘Rumours’ Coke Use

Fleetwood Mac took time out to talk frankly about their cocaine use during the 1976-1977 Rumours sessions. The band, who's heading out on the road in April, will release two expanded versions of Rumours on January 29th, featuring a remastered version of the multi-platinum collection, along with two discs of outtakes, and a new "making of" documentary. In the new Mojo cover story on the album, drummer Mick Fleetwood -- who has gone on record as stating that the band would've thanked their coke dealer in the album's liner notes, had he not been murdered -- admitted, "When it comes to these war stories about our substance abuse, I am the prime candidate. I was very open about my cocaine use. These days I try to de-romanticize all that. But it's true. It happened. I always imagine us making Rumours was a bit like Paris in the 1920's."

Lindsey Buckingham added, "My attitude was 'when in Rome. . .' But I was never the guy buying the stuff. On Rumours, I don't think I went more than 36 hours straight without sleep. Though I can't speak for the rest of the band and certainly not Mick."

Co-producer Ken Caillat recalled: "Rumours was the beginning of their cocaine use. At that time, they were amateurs. The bag sat there for anyone to help themselves. But of course, that meant there were times when we worked 'til 4 a.m. and then had to take the next day off."

Stevie Nicks said that the emotional trauma of every one in the band suffering through a romantic breakup during the sessions pushed the group towards coke: "You felt so bad about what was happening that that you did a line to cheer yourself up."

As cocaine took over the industry, Stevie Nicks says that they all originally believed it was entirely non-addictive: "Y'know, I thought as I was going through the '70s and cocaine was introduced into everybody's life, and told that it was recreational, and that it was not dangerous. But, y'know, that's what we were told, really. On the other side of that, we were also told, 'Don't ever do heroin, because if you do it once, you'll have to do it every day, because you'll never feel that good again, and you'll be chasing that, that high for the rest of your life.' So, it was like, I was told not to do heroin and told why and didn't. But cocaine, we were all told was cool -- that's why we did it. Of course, then we all got extremely addicted to it."

Fleetwood Mac kicks off its 34-date North American tour on April 4th at Columbus, Ohio's Nationwide Arena.