Fleetwood Mac Receiving 2018 MusiCares Person of the Year Award
With rumors — or, should we say, rumours — of a tour next year, Fleetwood Mac has been announced as the recipient of the 2018 MusiCares Person of the Year award, which will be presented during Grammy Week on January 26 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
The group is being honored “in recognition of their significant creative accomplishments and their longtime support of a number of charitable causes, including MusiCares, the premier safety net of critical resources for the music industry;” It marks the first time a band has received the honor, and Recording Academy President and MusiCares CEO Neil Portnow says in statement that, “This excitement is only matched by the genuine thrill and privilege of paying tribute to Fleetwood Mac, a legendary and influential group of artists whose music has provided the soundtrack for music lovers around the world.”
In his own statement, group co-founder Mick Fleetwood adds, “It’s a tremendous honor to be the first band to receive the MusiCares Person of the Year award. Independently and together, we all set off on a journey to spend our lives as artists, songwriters, and musicians. None of us did it alone and there were plenty of helping hands along the way, so we applaud and celebrate MusiCares’ guiding principles of giving musicians a helping hand and a place to turn in times of need. We are very appreciative of this recognition.”
Performers and other participants in the gala will be announced in the near future.
Fleetwood Mac recently played at the Classic West festival in Los Angeles and will close Classic East on July 30 in New York City but has been largely dormant, with Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie touring to support their duo album and Stevie Nicks playing her own dates. But Buckingham says we’ll likely see more of the group next year:
“I think the earliest anyone expected to be back on the road with Fleetwood Mac might’ve been spring of 2018…Stevie, my understanding is that she’s all ready. I think she’s gonna go to Australia for a couple of weeks but my understanding is that she was ready and now, y’know, because I’ve got this solo album, I’m the one who’s holding it up. But, you know, that’s typical for us. There’s a lot of moving parts so, you know, you gotta wait for everyone to be ready.”
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
