Fleetwood Mac Rumours: Cocaine, Breakups, & Secrets Revealed with Producer Ken Caillat 

Thanks Ken for doing this honest interview full of good scoop. I didn't even recognize the last name as Colbie's until you mentioned it. She's so pretty. You taught her guitar from scratch after she wrote the song? That's amazing. I was going to college in L.A. and found out about the album when I drove to a music store at the mall in the rain and asked the guy behind the counter about a song I had been hearing....something about 'thunder only happens when it's raining.' He knew it immediately and opened up a brand new record and put it on the turntable. It was their only #1 hit. I listened to it every day in the fall of 1979 and on into 1980, not realizing what I had stumbled on. I called a cousin and asked her if she had heard of Rumours and she had. I was a classical musician, totally clueless to who was out there. I know at one point Rumours was in the top 3 best sellers along with Thriller and Eagles greatest hits. I grew to love The Chain over time, and found a very rough demo of it on youtube that doesn't sound anything like the final product. (much worse). I always wondered if the producers fixed it for the band cause it was so much improved over the demo, like a completely different song. Look for it on youtube and you'll hear what I mean. Then on a plane back from L.A. I heard You Make Loving Fun over and over via the in flight headphones and fell in love with that one. Didn't even know who it was. It's hard to pick a favorite. I wasn't even qualified to pick one until I heard them all 50 times each and now I'm still not sure.

Rumours was also recorded at Criterion in Miami. I was just recording there a few weeks ago. I was hoping to hear more about THAT experience. The Eagles recorded Hotel California at Criterion as did The Bee Gees Saturday Night fever.

The interviewer, like many, keeps getting distracted from the actual purpose of talking about Rumours. Caillat, thankfully, keeps going back to the reason for the interview.

Great interview!!!

Great interview and great chemistry between these two gentlemen.

ALL of Fleetwood Mac albums are worth turning up your stereo for, and don't forget Lynryrd Sknyrd w/ Ronnie Van Zant .

Wonder if the band was angry with Ken for spilling their secrets ... I would have been ...

Back in the 70’s, you could’ve mistaken him for Jackson Browne.

9:17 I wonder which couple of songs on Tusk he's referring to. "I don't want to be broke", "I don't want to be cleaning lady"...doesn't ring a bell.

...and no mention of Danny Kirwin when mentioning the old band changes. What a shame.

"Lubowski came out?" What is he talking about at 26:20 with the Eagles?

The first thing people think about when they hear Fleetwood Max is cocaine?? WTF?? First thing we fans think of when we hear the name Fleetwood Mac is our favorite songs by them, great music, and the amazing talent these people possess.

Dissonance in Gold Dust Woman? What is he talking about at 27:06?

I grew up in a time where the album purchase was STILL a big part of the music experience, however, I was probably the last generation that did so. This means I have, certainly, bought PLENTY of digital music as well (mostly because it's really the only practical means to purchase music anymore). But, I can tell you that I have NEVER, not once, NOT paid for the music I downloaded...even when it would have been SO easy. I could never, in good conscience, think that this would be okay...and mostly because, like anything that is just WRONG, most people won't do it just once. It becomes habit and way too easy. I am not saying I'm a saint and have never done anything wrong in my life...but, as music fan...HUGE music fan, I, inherently, knew (and worried right from the start of the piracy problem) that if it was not brought under control that the REAL musicians, the truly talented of the past, present and future would fade away, become increasingly more difficult to find and finally we'd be offered nothing but crap because, in the end, you truly do get what you pay for. Why do you think the only bands that sell out stadiums today are bands that had rather large catalogs long before digital music...bands like Fleetwood Mac, U2, Grateful Dead, even Depeche Mode....they all made MOST of the money they would make on album sales alone prior to the digital age. So now, even if they do make a new album/cd and it doesn't sell well or basically gets "stolen" by internet pirates (thieves), it's not going to hurt established bands like these or, perhaps, they were always a band that made more money on their live shows anyway (like Grateful Dead, for example) Now we just get Katy Perry and Justin Bieber....but, you get what you pay for, as I said.

When I think of Fleetwood Mac I don't think of relationships going wrong or a 'soap opera', I think of a great rhythm section, Mick and John and their early years which was way before I was born, along with Danny Kirwan and all the truly great albums, which in my opinion were all up to and including Fleetwood Mac self titled of 1975. After that it was a kind of grab-bag with Tusk being the most musically innovative and challenging, yet one of the least catchy and good tracks in between filler on many of the others. Rumours though was pretty over-rated imho.. I may be alone in that though.

At 8:30 did he say they were children?

Cool Stories.

This interviewer just wants to keep failing to impress Ken by rambling about how today music production sucks, bla bla.. dude, you're speaking with a guy who worked on Rumours. Talk about the album production of THAT album, not this shitty cynicism we can get in any RU-vid comments section. You're not brilliant for your insight or pessimism, sorry.

"Super hard worker". Yeah, right. Groveller.

This is why I mainly listen to real musicians, : Fleetwood Mac , Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc.... if the singer can sing w/ only one instrument and their voice, you know they are sincere artists.... the ones who write their own songs have their full heart into their songs..... I love 70's music.... I won't ever buy or rarely listen to singers who sing into auto tune.. that is cheating.. It is like when i was in track, no steroids, no drugs, I ran and won due to practice and my heart.. and for my fans.. you don't cheat in a sport, it is the best man /or woman (my case) if you win, you earned it.. i won't patronage fake singers who are normally off key and use machines to change their voice.. If i want to hear a robot sing i will buy a toy that has a battery that sings it's little robotic song... you fake singers, sound fake,, you just want EASY Lazy made money.. freedom of speech USA copyrighted material..

It's amazing to listen to Ken Caillat's stories but such a shame that the interviewer is so far out of his league, so poorly researched, so far out of his element and basically no idea at all. I think that even Ken Caillat is surprised by his stupidity and ignorance. :)

I’m actually embarrassed for the guy interviewer. The second hand embarrassment is real. He’s painfully bad wow.

How was Im So Afraid 'very acoustic' on the 1975 self titled? what? it was a rock song..

Boring!

Keith Olsen brought Mick Fleetwood and Buckingham Nick's together. It was in Keith Olsen's studio, Goodnight LA in which rumors was produced by Keith Olsen and all you have to do is look at the record jacket. I mean Stevie Nicks use to clean Keith Keith's house as a side job until they got famous. I don't know who this man is claiming his affiliation with the album Rumours, yet I know for sure that he is not giving credit where credit is due. I find him insulting, deceptive, and to be misinforming the public. So go ahead and Google it, you'll find out the truth.

Michael Parker thinks it's all about him and won't shut up.

Oh well, three quarters of my life down the drain. Ken serves all the wellknown stories, and the interviewer is just distracting from the stories.

Mememe, i and i and me, lousy interviewer. BUT.....great stories and Kens book is super !

Colbie's daddy.

Dude, nobody listens to the same record hundreds or thousands of times. I mean, it's a classic but, get a life....

so is this interview worth watching? what an awful interviewer...

1/2 liar 1/2 sellout! karma buddy

Ken is such a bad interview, not much charisma. I think he just lucked out with Rumors, the record would have been good without him I'm guessing.