53 Facts About Mick Fleetwood

Michael John Kells Fleetwood was born on 24 June 1947 and is a British musician, songwriter and actor.

Mick Fleetwood is best known as the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac.

Mick Fleetwood then invited Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to join.

Mick Fleetwood has enjoyed a solo career, published written works, and flirted briefly with acting.

Mick Fleetwood attended school there and became fluent in Norwegian.

Mick Fleetwood performed poorly on exams, which he attributed to his inability to memorise facts.

Mick Fleetwood nevertheless enjoyed acting during school, often in drag, and was a competent fencer.

Mick Fleetwood was quiet and wise, and he had a great sense of humour.

Mick Fleetwood loved to laugh, but he was a straight shooter.

Mick Fleetwood's family encouraged his artistic side, as his father composed poetry and was an amateur drummer himself.

However, by April 1965, when Mick Fleetwood joined the band, it was fading into obscurity.

Mick Fleetwood was dismissed from the Bluesbreakers for repeated insobriety during gigs.

The initial incarnation of Mick Fleetwood Mac performed its first gig in August 1967 at the seventh annual Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival, playing a Chicago-style blues.

The band's first album, Peter Green's Mick Fleetwood Mac, was released in 1968, and the band toured the United States for the first time, though Green was reluctant to do so for fear of gun crime.

Mick Fleetwood remained a consistent presence in the ever-changing line-up of the group following the departure of Green in May 1970, when Spencer and Kirwan assumed more central roles in the group's song-writing.

Mick Fleetwood left the hotel abruptly one afternoon and disappeared.

Mick Fleetwood was found several days later to have joined Family International, then known as Children of God, a religious group.

Once more, Mick Fleetwood attempted to mediate; however, Spencer would not return.

Kirwan's self-destructive personality and problems with alcohol culminated in a refusal to go on stage before one concert; Mick Fleetwood himself made the decision to fire the band member.

Mick Fleetwood again stepped in to mediate between the two members, talking Christine out of a decision to leave the group.

Mick Fleetwood took on more managerial responsibility and leadership over the group.

Mick Fleetwood was shopping with his children when a chance encounter with an old friend led him to visit Sound City and producer Keith Olsen.

On New Year's Eve, 1974, Mick Fleetwood contacted Olsen to advise him that their planned project was on hiatus after Welch's departure he then suggested that Nicks and Buckingham join Mick Fleetwood Mac.

Mick Fleetwood put forward an idea of promising to reimburse any losses suffered by promoters should they occur, in an attempt to raise the group's profile and earn more contracts and gigs.

Mick Fleetwood, meanwhile, began searching for a new recording location, and landed on the Record Plant of Sausalito, California.

Mick Fleetwood Mac convened at the Record Plant February 1976 with hired engineers Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut.

Mick Fleetwood often played his drum kit outside the studio's partition screen to better gauge Caillat's and Dashut's reactions to the music's groove.

Mick Fleetwood, recently diagnosed as having diabetes after suffering recurring bouts of hypoglycaemia during several live shows, was again instrumental in maintaining the band's cohesion.

Mick Fleetwood placated Buckingham over feelings of creative claustrophobia and discomfort playing alongside Nicks.

Mick Fleetwood has played drums on many of his bandmates' solo records, including Law and Order, where he played on the album's biggest hit, "Trouble".

Mick Fleetwood has a secondary career as a TV and film actor, usually in minor parts.

Mick Fleetwood co-hosted the 1989 BRIT Awards, which contained numerous gaffes and flubbed lines.

In 1998, Mick Fleetwood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Mick Fleetwood Mac.

Mick Fleetwood was a self-taught drummer from his early childhood, after moving from a lacklustre academic performance at school to a love of music encouraged by his family, who bought him his first drum kit.

Mick Fleetwood often sang filled pauses along to songs to help keep the beat.

Mick Fleetwood was, and is, a completely straightforward drummer, and it works with a lot of different styles.

Mick Fleetwood had his rack of tom drums arranged back to front.

Mick Fleetwood hit his drums very hard, except for his kick drum.

Mick Fleetwood would keep perfect beat with his kick, but he played it so softly that we could hear his mouth noises through his kick mic.

Mick Fleetwood has been married to three women and has four children.

Mick Fleetwood, after wrestling with the idea of leaving the band, was later critical of his own role in "neglecting" his family.

Boyd and Mick Fleetwood began living together once more in 1976, and temporarily remarried to help their children emigrate to the United States.

In November 1978, Mick Fleetwood moved into a Bel Air home with Sara Recor, a mutual friend of Mick Fleetwood and Nicks who was at the time married to another music producer.

Mick Fleetwood married Recor in 1988; the couple divorced in 1995.

Mick Fleetwood and Frankel had twin daughters who were born in 2002.

Mick Fleetwood became a US citizen on 22 November 2006 in Los Angeles.

At the age of 15, Mick Fleetwood's parents bought him a Rogers drum kit, which helped him land his first gig as a drummer.

Mick Fleetwood specifically sought Ludwig drums for their oversized bass drums and tom-toms.

Mick Fleetwood attributed his pivot to Tama to Ludwig's supposed deterioration in quality and Sonor's inability to produce a bass drum suitable for Fleetwood's large frame.

Mick Fleetwood had played Paiste cymbals from the late 60s to early 90s, favouring their expressiveness and higher frequencies over Zildjian cymbals.

Mick Fleetwood stopped using Paiste cymbals by 1994 and subsequently switched over to Zildjian.

Mick Fleetwood uses Remo drumheads, Easton Ahead 5B Light Rock drumsticks and Latin Percussion.

Mick Fleetwood has incorporated many percussion instruments into his drum rig, including a 40 inch Zildjian gong, two rows of wind chimes, and congas.