How Mick Fleetwood wrestled with his lack of songwriting in Fleetwood Mac

While Mick Fleetwood doesn't have a great many songwriting credits in Fleetwood Mac's catalog, he says he now understands that his most crucial contribution to the band was keeping it together.

There were certainly plenty of moments when the band could have ended — plenty of players have come and gone over the years — but Fleetwood and his bassist and fellow co-founder John McVie persisted through it all, keeping Fleetwood Mac alive.

Still, Fleetwood admitted in a recent interview, there were times when he looked at the groups songwriters and wondered what he was bringing to the table.

"I didn't really know what it was I was really contributing," the drummer said. "I do know now."

Who brought those talented songwriters together? Who kept them together? Who helped bring those visions to life? The drummer says Fleetwood Mac might have kept going for so long because he was insecure as to what would happen to him if the band stopped.

Now, with the band's future uncertain, Fleetwood says he regards the Fleetwood Mac catalog as his "song."

"...[H]earing our body of work from time to time, that actually now comfortably does cross my mind," he explained. "I go, 'Well, no, I didn't do that — but this is my song. This is my song.' ... These lovely incarnations of Fleetwood Mac ... being around incredibly talented people that we were able to invite into the band, and mercifully, with really fantastic unbelievably storytelling results. That to me is like my song now."

Indeed, when you think about the messy, complication relationships within Fleetwood Mac — the fact that the band's most beloved album, Rumours, is about literal breakups between bandmembers — it's a wonder the band managed to continue.

The very idea of the band, to Fleetwood, was a "safe harbor."

"[To] anyone around me that were full of doubt, I said, 'This is not going to disintegrate," he added. "And then a whole other scenario happened, which was the beginning of the journey, the wave of what this body of work created."

It remains unclear if Fleetwood Mac will resume in the post-pandemic world. Stevie Nicks canceled all of her solo concerts last year "in hopes of a brighter 2022," but Christine McVie has expressed doubts that she or John could be coaxed out into another tour.

Fleetwood has been open about his desire to reunite with Lindsey Buckingham, who was fired from the band in 2018, but he added that such a reunion is unlikely to include Nicks.