Fleetwood Mac has recently joined forces with many other artists in a musical spectacular to raise money for good causes. The benefit took place at Radio City Music Hall and the artists managed to raise $7 million. The MusiCares fundraiser is held each year just before the Grammy Awards. It aims to raise money to help musicians who are down on their luck. Both the fundraiser and the awards ceremony were held in New York for the first time in over 15 years.
The rock group closed the benefit with a mini-set consisting of five songs. This included ‘Go Your Own Way’ and ‘Tusk’. Prior to Fleetwood Mac’s performance, the band had the honor of listening to other artists performing their songs. These included One Republic, HAIM, Miley Cyrus, and Lorde.
The artists were performing in front of a star-studded audience, filled with celebrities and high-profile figures. Amongst the audience members were former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hilary. Bill Clinton had used Fleetwood Mac’s song ‘Don’t Stop’ as the theme for his 1992 political campaign. Clinton commented that ‘Don’t Stop’ had been played for him on more occasions than ‘Hail the Chief’. He also said that he wouldn’t have missed seeing them perform for the world.
Strangely, Fleetwood Mac and Bill Clinton have something in common. They have both won two Grammy Awards. While Fleetwood Mac’s were for their music, Clinton’s were for spoken-word recordings.
Tom Petty was the honoree of the 2017 MusiCares event and he sadly died last fall. Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac could barely contain her tears as she spoke of her memories of him. She said that she had known he was ill last year. He had performed in a concert tour just a week before his death and Nicks felt that he should have canceled the tour. Nicks went on to say that she would never get over his death. In his honor, Petty’s daughter Adria was the personal guest of Fleetwood Mac at the benefit.
Stevie Nicks also revealed that she is just a few months away from turning 70 and could hardly believe that Fleetwood Mac has fans spanning many generations. She commented that some of their fans are now in their 90s and that even though they can no longer make it to their concerts, they remain devoted fans.
Nicks was the most vocal member of the band at the event with the other members of the group preferring to have fun in the background while she participated in interviews. It was during one of these interviews that Nicks said that the group took great pleasure in listening to the different ways younger artists had interpreted their work. It was particularly special for them because the songs of Fleetwood Mac have not been covered on many occasions.
Miley Cyrus sang her interpretation of ‘Landslide’, while HAIM chose to cover ‘Gypsy’. Lorde stopped the show with a performance of ‘Silver Spring’ and Jared Leto was backed by a choir for his performance of ‘Never Going Back Again’.
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