fleetwood mac

Perhaps anticipating that musical artists might be more sensitive than most, music journalists sometimes gently goad them to provoke reactive quotes. But what happened in a 1977 Australian interview may have proven otherwise.

In a resurfaced clip making the rounds on social media, three members of the band Fleetwood Mac (Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie) are being interviewed in Australia. As they discuss how they all became part of the band, McVie explains:

"When Fleetwood Mac first formed, it was a blues band. A pub band that used to travel around the country and earn relatively little money ... But they became very successful with a single they had out called 'Albatross,' which made them popular on the continent — Europe and England. As far as I know, America didn't really know them."

The reporter then directs questions to Buckingham and Nicks: "Stevie and Lindsey, how did you manage to leap into such a successful band? How did it come about?"

After joking for a second about his wording, Buckingham answers:

"We had a band about two years previous to Fleetwood Mac called Buckingham Nicks. And at the time Mick (Fleetwood) was looking for a studio in which to record an album in, and he ended up at Sound City in Los Angeles just looking at the studio. And the engineer who had done our album played him some of the tapes just to show what the studio sounded like. And he really liked the tapes. He really liked the music. And I guess a week after that, Bob Welch left the group. And just on a hunch, they asked us to join. We didn't audition or anything."

But here's where things might have taken a turn. The interviewer then seems to solely focus on Buckingham: "It must have been one of the first bands to incorporate ladies and use them, as such. Any problems as far as credibility of ladies in rock 'n' roll when the band first hit the road with the girls?"

Buckingham appears to know better than to answer, and he and Nicks quickly look at McVie, who replies:

"Well, I had already been in the band for a good while, as a 'lady.' And as a musician, ya know. I'd been primarily a musician, rather than a 'backup singer' in any case. And then when Stevie joined the band, she was also a frontline singer and writer. I think in that way, I guess we were the innovators of that kind of thing because it was more or less, to my knowledge, prior to us girls would be in rock bands, but would be backup singers and…"

"Pretty faces," the interviewer interjects. At first glance, Nicks seems jarred by the comment but remains calm, responding:

"Well, I think it comes down to the fact that Fleetwood Mac could not go on without Chris and me if we were sick or something. Whereas most bands, with a girl in it, could go ahead and would go on and play. But they'd have trouble without us."

Nicks, for her part, has often been a champion of female singer-songwriting. In fact, after she performed with Taylor Swift at the 2010 Grammys, journalists and fans alike were critical of Swift's performance. Nicks believed so strongly in the then 20-year-old singer that she wrote about it in Time magazine.

Stevie Nicks gives kind words to Taylor Swift. www.youtube.com, Entertainment Tonight

According to Peter Burditt's article in American Songwriter, Nicks wrote:

"This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John. She sings, she writes, she performs, she plays great guitar. Taylor can do ballads that could be considered pop or rock and then switch back into country. When I turned 20 years old, I had just made the serious decision to never be a dental assistant. Taylor just turned 20, and she's won four Grammys. Taylor is writing for the universal woman and for the man who wants to know her. The female rock-'n'-roll-country-pop songwriter is back, and her name is Taylor Swift. And it's women like her who are going to save the music business."

The comments under the Australian interview clip are extremely supportive of Nicks and McVie.

"When I think of the band, Fleetwood Mac, I always think of Stevie Nicks and Christine McPhee (McVie) first. Christine and Stevie were equal members of the band. Everyone in that band wrote songs. All of the love affairs coming to an end made a fantastic album called Rumours."

"I love that Lindsey did not answer this question. He knew better! Love to them all!"

"Pretty faces! Has he never seen them perform? But they pave the way! Ladies don't realize what women went through. Women could not even own a credit card or have a bank account in 1974. So crazy!" (They're likely referring to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which passed that year.)

Finally, this Instagrammer sums up the discussion with a perfect comment: "The inventor of Rock 'N' Roll was a lady herself, Sister Rosetta Tharpe."