Summary
- Mick Fleetwood, a founding member of Fleetwood Mac, has remained with the band for over 50 years.
- Despite the band's success, Fleetwood is estimated to be worth only $30 million.
- Fleetwood has filed for bankruptcy multiple times.
It's no secret that Fleetwood Mac has endured some pretty turbulent times over the years. The band has undergone drastic lineup changes since its inception, with members either quitting, passing away, or getting fired under controversial circumstances.
However, there's at least one pioneering member who's managed to weather the constant shake-ups: Mick Fleetwood. Starting out alongside Peter Green, John McVie, and Jeremy Spencer in the 60s, Fleetwood has remained with the band for over half a century, never shifting focus even when its music was no longer dominating the charts.
Curiously, despite the band's success, Fleetwood is estimated to be worth only about $30 million; a diminutive figure when pegged against Lindsey Buckingham’s $150 million and Stevie Nicks’ $120 million. So, what exactly happened to the now 76-year-old's fortune?
What Is Mick Fleetwood’s Net Worth?
Founded in 1967, Fleetwood Mac is arguably one of the biggest and most enduring rock bands of all time. The band is best known for its immensely popular album, 'Rumours,' which featured timeless hits like 'Go Your Own Way,' 'You Make Loving Fun,' and 'Don't Stop.'
Upon its debut, the album held onto the number one spot on the American albums chart for an astounding 31 weeks and went on to sell over 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums in history.
While the band's profitability has declined over the years, there was a time when its members were practically rolling in dough— a fact that Mick Fleetwood proudly confirmed in a 2014 interview with Telegraph UK.
“I have been blessed with cartloads of money,” he said. “The past is a huge chunk of my life. I get [told] all the time, ‘You don’t have to be doing what you’re doing.’ Proportionately if you went down the pecking order of the band, I’d be last on the list, [but] people ask, ‘Would you fancy putting another 20 million in your bank?’ And you go, ‘Oh yes, that’s pretty good.’”
Curiously, despite the band’s success, Mick Fleetwood is worth only about $30 million — a diminutive figure considering that later arrivals like Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks have amassed fortunes well over $100 million.
Mick Fleetwood Has Filed For Bankruptcy An Astonishing Number Of Times
Despite being a founding member and financial manager of one of the most successful bands of all time, Mick Fleetwood has found himself needing to file for bankruptcy multiple times in his decades-long career.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s first ever financial meltdown occurred back in 1984. With the band on hiatus, Fleetwood found himself unable to pay his debts, which according to RollingStone had accumulated to a staggering $3,697,163.
Backed into a corner, the now 76-year-old filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, agreeing to have all his assets, including his $2.2 million Malibu home, turned over to a court appointed trustee and sold to satisfy creditors.
Though widely publicized, the 1984 incident wouldn’t be the last time Fleetwood would file for bankruptcy. “In the end I’ve lost count,” the drummer admitted to Telegraph UK in 2014. “I’m like Donald Trump. I think he’s been bankrupt about seven times. You pay off what debts you can. You do what you are told by your accountant. I really didn’t have much to do with it. I carried on like nothing had happened.”
Why Did Mick Fleetwood Keep Going Broke?
So, how exactly did someone who admitted to making "cartloads of money" find himself stripped of almost all his assets multiple times? Well, according to Rolling Stone, Fleetwood developed an unquenchable thirst for real estate, purchasing top-of-the-line properties all over the world whenever he fancied.
His most whimsical purchase? A $3 million-thousand-acre farm in Australia he intended to relocate to, but only lived in for three weeks. "I bought a thousand-acre farm in Australia in the early 1980s. It was this whimsical decision to start a whole new life. The property had about eight houses on it and a fishing lake. I cashed out about 3 million bucks and bought it," he told RollingStone in 2017.
"I thought it was a great place for all my friends and family, but it was also a pipe dream that literally took me to the poorhouse. I went broke," he continued. "It was beautiful, and I don’t bemoan the fact that I did it. I also don’t bemoan that I’m not sitting there right now getting eaten by toxic spiders."
What's more, the now 76-year-old had a penchant for borrowing large sums of money whenever he needed to expand his portfolio. According to Rolling Stone, Fleetwood borrowed $500,000 from Security Pacific Bank to purchase the Australian property. Additionally, the drummer took out a $1.6 million mortgage from Columbia Savings and Loan to purchase his Malibu mansion at a time when interest rates had soared to a staggering 17 percent.
“Basically, I bought too much real estate,” he admitted to RollingStone in 1984. “Bank loans and payments go funny. There’s no tax weirdness or anything like that. You just go too far into debt. There’s not enough money coming in to keep the boat floating.”
Aside from ill-advised real-estate purchases, Fleetwood also spent chunks of his net worth feeding his massive appetite for cocaine. According to the New York Post, the famed drummer had spent an estimated $60 million on cocaine before he finally quit the drug cold turkey.
“It got out of hand way after the making of Rumours,” he told Classic Rock of his coacine habit in a 2021 interview. “I remember not working for two years. I can't even remember what I did. I was the party animal in the band, for sure. I would venture to say Stevie was a close second."
