Fleetwood Mac Music Group

Fleetwood Mac, the American-British powerhouse behind one of the bestselling albums of all time, is rock's greatest example of the good gained from ignoring every bit of sage advice known to humans about love and relationships.

Fleetwood Mac's array of instruments, mike stands and amplifiers stretches across the vast Culver City soundstage like a miniature city, a gleaming monument to a distant era when rock was big and grand and this band turned its personal soap opera into arena-filling anthems. Lindsey Buckingham, the key architect of that sound, walks past the silent stage, where in a few hours the band will be rehearsing for its summer tour.

It was 20 years ago this week that Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album ended a remarkable 15-week run at No. 1 on the national sales chart--at the time, the longest hold on the top spot since Carole King's "Tapestry" reigned for 15 weeks in 1971. But amazingly, the Warner Bros. album climbed back to No. 1 a week later and spend another 16 weeks there. This 31-week run has been eclipsed only once since--by Michael Jackson's landmark "Thriller," which ruled the chart for 37 weeks in 1983.

"We've all grown up a lot and we're not all screwed up on drugs and drinking," Stevie Nicks says on the eve of the formal return next week of Fleetwood Mac's most successful lineup. "And we have lives outside this band. This is just a nice addition to our lives, where before it was everything."

If the sellout crowds and critical thumbs-ups are any indication, Fleetwood Mac has been a part of a great night out for a lot of people lately. Twenty years after the release of the veteran band's monstrously successful "Rumours" album, its reunited classic lineup--Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks--is on the road, garnering enough popular support and positive reviews to quiet any skeptics who doubted the group's ability to reinvigorate itself.

The look is pure Stevie. Long, fluid chiffon skirts, airy capes with cut velvet details that seem to move to the music, rich jewel-toned maxi-coats and buttery suede platform boots. And black--lots of it. Many things have changed since 1975 when a doe-eyed 26-year-old named Stevie Nicks joined a struggling British blues band called Fleetwood Mac. But Nicks' look has remained a crystal vision. She is still the gypsy queen of diva-dom.

Unlike last year, when two key artists, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, stayed home, all the living honorees showed up here for the 13th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction dinner. Yes, all seven of the sometimes feuding past and present members of the Eagles stood side by side at the podium Monday night and then joined--all smiles--for a pair of songs, including the landmark "Hotel California."

There have been many celebrated comebacks in the music business, but guitarist Peter Green's saga is so extraordinary it can only be classified as a resurrection. The co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, Green was the English band's primary songwriter and singer during the band's early phase as blues-rockers, from 1967 to 1970. In fact, the group's original official name was Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.

We live in the era of the comeback, but few have been more emotional than the return of Peter Green, co-founder of Fleetwood Mac. Once one of the most feted guitarists in British rock, Green became the ultimate acid casualty and spent time over a period of years in mental hospitals and clinics undergoing electroconvulsive therapy. He gave away much of his money.

Marital discord and divorce. Substance abuse problems and mental illness. Religious sects and hedonistic excess. Fleetwood Mac has been known throughout its 27-year run as much for its "Geraldo"-fodder history and ever-changing personnel as it has for being among the most popular, top-grossing groups in rock.