SERENA: From the Video Music Awards to another special presentation: Fleetwood Mac has reunited for an MTV concert, called "The Dance," with the same band lineup that produced its mega-platinum 1977 album, "Rumours." Its intimate song writing -- fueled by a series of troubled romances within the band -- and pristine playing made "Rumours" one of the most popular records of all time. But it took a lot of delicate steps to get these five people to make music together once more.
MTV: How many of these problems stem from your cocaine use back then?
STEVIE NICKS, Fleetwood Mac: Well, it wasn't just my cocaine use. It was everybody's cocaine use.
MICK FLEETWOOD, Fleetwood Mac: On a personal level, I'm blessed to be sitting here anyhow, when I think of the horror story that ensued with my lifestyle.
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM, Fleetwood Mac: There were a lot of hurtful things that happened from everyone. And it was always about trying not to feel those things. Over
a period of time, you push it back and push it back and it has to come out at some point.
NICKS: Everything is on a new kind of a beginning, where we have said our I'm sorry's and everything is good now.
MTV: Band members swear this reunion happened for the music, not for the money. The reunion was spurred on by a Buckingham-Nicks collaboration on the "Twister" soundtrack, and by Mick Fleetwood's drumming on Buckingham's solo record. Clearly, this was a far happier event than their get together for the 1992 Clinton Inaugural.
NICKS: We did that because the President of the United States asked us to do that. That's probably the only man in the whole world that could've gotten us to do that. I did call Lindsey and say we have to do this, in the scheme of our lives. This is important.
MTV: How relaxed were you when you were up on stage? You looked very calm.
JOHN MCVIE, Fleetwood Mac: Oh, you should have seen it from my side!
FLEETWOOD:
I was actually extremely nervous.
CHRISTINE MCVIE, Fleetwood Mac: Well, I've got to tell you, I was a mass of nerves.
NICKS: Very nervous.
MTV: Their music has motivated a new generation of musicians as well.
MTV: What has it meant to you to have some of your songs covered by people like Hole and the Smashing Pumpkins ["Landslide" cover, 1.3 MB QuickTime]?
NICKS: I look at it as an incredible honor, because they -- Billy and Courtney, personally -- have introduced me back to another generation of music that I'm not very involved in.
BUCKINGHAM: It's interesting that time goes by, and someone of the caliber of Billy Corgan, who has a lot going on, would suddenly be declaring Fleetwood Mac is not the enemy, anymore.
SERENA: Fleetwood Mac's "The Dance" will premiere here on MTV Tuesday night at 10 P.M.