Publishers Weekly
09/28/2015Fleetwood goes his own way in this sometimes arresting, sometimes pedestrian memoir. Fleetwood Mac is the platinum-selling band best known for their 1975 breakthrough self-titled album and 1977's blockbuster Rumours. With affectionate candor, Fleetwood, with the assistance of music writer Bozza, reveals all the ups and downs of the alluring songwriting, musical genius, and tempestuous and toxic relationships that made that incarnation of the band—with members Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Fleetwood himself—front page news. Fleetwood quickly summarizes his childhood and youth, admitting that he was a terrible student and that he suffered from dyslexia. Close with his parents, he mourns his gentleman dreamer father, who died far too young. Fleetwood leaves home as a teen to pursue his musical dreams, acknowledging that as drummer he has "no idea what I'm playing, each and every time I play our songs, though I have what Lindsey calls the feel." Fleetwood poignantly chronicles his relationship with guitarist Peter Green, who gave the early Fleetwood Mac its distinctive blues character on albums such as Fleetwood Mac (later renamed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac) and Then Play On, and Green's slow descent into the throes of paranoia and madness. Never pulling the veil over his personal life, he narrates the breakup of his three marriages and his love for his new partner, Chelsea Hill. He admits that for better and for worse he's sold his soul to music and the music business, "somehow knowing in my heart that it would turn out alright." (Nov.)