Fleetwood Mac Snorted ‘7 Miles’ of Cocaine, According to Mick Fleetwood
Fleetwood Mac was once as famous for their band members’ drug use as they are for their music. Drummer and founding member Mick Fleetwood once calculated that the rock supergroup collectively snorted “seven miles” of cocaine. Here’s what Fleetwood and other members of the band have said about their drug use and if they have any regrets.
Fleetwood Mac members have been open about their drug use
The members of Fleetwood Mac have spoken many times of their drug use, particularly when the band was at its peak of success.
“When we were in Sausalito making Rumours, the boys would be doing these huge rails of coke while Stevie and I would be in our own place with our little bottles of coke, with tiny coke-spoons that we’d wear on delicate chains around our necks,” keyboardist Christine McVie told the Daily Mail. “…Mick had this rotating platform covered with beer-bottle caps full of coke so he could snort away as he was playing.”
Stevie Nicks added that Fleetwood Mac’s drug use became so normalized, they thought it fueled their musical abilities. “We thought that’s what entertainers did in order to maintain that level of activity and creativity,” the “Dreams” singer explained.
In 1986, Nicks went to rehab for her addiction to cocaine. She told ABC News that she used to spend millions of dollars on the drug. “Millions. Millions,” Nicks admitted. “And yes, don’t I wish that we had that money and I could give it to cancer research today. Yes, I do.”
The “Gypsy” singer has also said she wished she had never tried cocaine. “I would be happy if nobody had ever shown me that drug,” Nicks said. “And that’s what I always want to be careful to tell people is that, just like everything else, for two, three years it was really fun. But it turns into a monster. So it’s not worth it to do it for those two or three years of fun because it will eventually kill you.”
Mick Fleetwood calculated that Fleetwood Mac collectively snorted ‘7 miles’ of cocaine
Fleetwood Mac did so much cocaine that a former sound engineer for the band once joked that if they combined all the powder they snorted and cut it into a single line, it would stretch seven miles long.
Drummer Mick Fleetwood confirmed the calculation in an interview with The Sun. “I guess we figured we did X amount a day, and then some goofball got out a calculator and came up with that seven miles figure and said, ‘Isn’t that funny?’ And it sort of is,” Fleetwood said. “But not in the context of where I want to end up.”
Unlike Nicks, who checked herself into rehab to kick her cocaine habit, Fleetwood implied that it was effortless for him to stop using the drug. “There was never a conscious decision on my part to stop that lifestyle,” he said. “I think it naturally just drifted away.”
The drummer said he didn’t want to glorify the band’s drug use
Although he confirmed the “seven miles” of cocaine theory, Mick Fleetwood understood the severity of his drug use. He knew it could have ended in tragedy for himself or his bandmates.
“It came to an end, thankfully. Because, God forbid, it could easily have ended the really bad way – for sure, that could have happened,” said the drummer. “In some ways I’m happy I got through it and didn’t bite the big bullet. But I just had a profound awareness and a realization that enough is enough.”
He made it clear that he didn’t want to romanticize drug use. “I’m conscious that I want to speak appropriately about this. Because the romance of those war stories can adulate something which is not a good idea.”
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
