Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography

by Mick Fleetwood, Anthony Bozza

Overview

"After forty-six years of being on the road, this is the right time to look back in a way I've never done before: now and then. This is the story of my life in rock and roll -- and how the band that has meant everything to me came to define me. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you."

Mick Fleetwood has been a member of the ever-evolving Fleetwood Mac, one of the world's most successful and adored bands, for over four decades. Here he tells the full and candid story of his life as one of music's greatest drummers and bandleaders, the cofounder of the deeply loved supergroup that bears his name and that of his bandmate and lifelong friend John McVie. In this intimate portrait of a life lived in music, Fleetwood vividly recalls his upbringing tapping along to every song playing on the radio, his experiences as a musician in '60s London, and the earliest permutation of the band featuring Peter Green.

Play On sheds new light on Fleetwood Mac's raucous history, describing the highs and lows of being in the band that Fleetwood was determined to keep together. Here he reflects on the creation of landmark albums such as Rumours and Tusk, the great loves of his life, and the many incredible and outrageous moments of recording, touring, and living with Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood describes these moments with honesty and immediacy, taking us to the very heart of this multilayered journey that has always been anchored in music.

Through it all, from intense love to plaintive heartaches, from collaborations to confrontations, it's been the drive to play on that has prevailed. Now, then, and always, it's Fleetwood Mac.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316403412
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	10/27/2015
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	174,035
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Anthony Bozza is a former writer for Rolling Stone and the author of several New York Times and London Sunday Times bestsellers, including his first book, Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction: If Music Be the Food of Love... 1

1 The Old Mill 9

2 High Times on Carnaby Street 31

3 Jenny 57

4 The Bluesbreakers 81

5 And Away We Go 105

6 Flight of The Green God 131

7 A House Becomes a Home 151

8 A Series of Beginnings 177

9 Falling into Place 199

10 The 'White' Album 225

11 Things Fall Apart 243

12 Rumours 265

13 I Know I'm Not Wrong 291

14 Just Tell Me that you Want Me 309

15 A Stranger in a Strange Land 329

16 A Isn't It Midnight? 349

17 There and Back Again 365

18 My Partner, My Friend 381

19 It's Good to be Back 415

Conclusion: I Sold My Soul to the Company Store 429

Acknowledgments 433

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR PLAY ON:

"In his new memoir, Fleetwood documents his wild life, including how the creation of 1977's Rumours, one of the best-selling albums of all time, almost drove the band insane."--Larry Getlen, New York Post

"In PLAY ON, Mick Fleetwood recalls the heady successes and the challenges of leading Fleetwood Mac as it evolved from its blues roots into a supergroup in the 1980s."--Publishers Weekly

"PLAY ON speaks openly about Fleetwood's various marriages, personal failure and reconciliation."--Paul Mejia, Newsweek

From the Publisher

09/28/2015
Fleetwood 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.)

Publishers Weekly