The Stunning Amount Of Money Mick Fleetwood Blew On Drugs

Taking a wide view, every facet of existence is a direct result of the moment in which it takes place. Like Heraclitus straining to see the same river twice, the keen observer will note the sheer impossibility inherent in attempting to eyeball any reaction of personalities or events repeating itself in precisely the same manner on two separate occasions. Some theorists would go so far as to say that with each beyond-lightning-fast turn of every individual molecule in a seemingly infinite universe, the stage is set for a unique string of occurrences, flashing into the universe like fireflies of causality, only to disappear forever into the ether of forever.

All of which is to say that there was a limited window of time in the late 1970s when it was possible to afford thousands of dollars worth of cocaine in any given month just by being the drummer from Fleetwood Mac.

To hear Mick Fleetwood describe it in his autobiography, Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, the recording process for Rumours was a mess of bacchanalia, interpersonal difficulties, and cocaine. Once the unprecedented success of that record was stacked on top of the fame already achieved by the group, its members found themselves primed for that oldest and most noble of musical traditions: seeing how long they could keep eating drugs with their noses.

Fleetwood himself states in his book that he had a thousands-a-month coke habit, and it was reported in 1984 that the drummer had dropped a cool $8 million on very chic sinus degradation. He wound up filing for bankruptcy, a tough predicament to get yourself into when you've just put out the 11th highest-selling record in UK history and you're owed a third of all proceeds, which was how Rolling Stone described the drummer's contractual take for money brought in from the band that he founded and managed.

Of course, drugs weren't the only sinkhole that Fleetwood threw his money into. He also lost cash in the seven-figure range on ill-advised oil drilling ventures and real estate investments, and owed around $43,000 to a limousine rental company at the time he filed.