Warning! SPOILERS for Daisy Jones & The Six ahead.
Amazon's Daisy Jones & The Six is not an adaptation of Fleetwood Mac's rock band sagas, but it does draw some inspiration from the band's real-life narrative. Set in the 1970s, Daisy Jones & The Six walks viewers through a rock band's meteoric rise to fame and its sudden fall from grace, resulting from the complex dynamics between the band members. While portraying the journey of its titular band, Daisy Jones & The Six merges real-world rock mythology from the 70s into its overarching storyline, which adds more heft to its drama, making it look more grounded in reality than it actually is.
Amplifying its realism, the original amazon TV show adopts a quasi-documentary visual storytelling style. In addition, it features many electrifying musical performances that are enough to immerse audiences into its roller coaster of heartbreaks, tragedies, drugs, and classic rock 'n' roll. These 70s references and subtle plot details make it evident that Daisy Jones & The Six spins a fictional yarn on the real-life tales surrounding Fleetwood Mac's band members and their relationships. However, other unique plot elements in the Amazon series suggest that Daisy Jones & The Six's fictional rock journey is not entirely the same as Fleetwood Mac's real-world accounts.
Daisy Jones & The Six's Fleetwood Mac Inspirations Explained
Considering how Daisy Jones & The Six is a book adaptation, who better would explain its Fleetwood Mac influences than the original author, Taylor Jenkins Reid? In an article (via Hello Sunshine), the author revealed that she first came across Fleetwood Mac when she saw the band's Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks performing "Landslide" on television. The on-stage chemistry between the two seemed too obvious, which made her believe "they’re in love with each other.” Even though she later learned that her insight about Lindsey and Stevie's relationship was not exactly on the money, she could not help but think about them years later while writing her book.
Therefore, as she revealed in an interview (via Penguin Books UK), she "started with the germ of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac” and did her research for the Daisy Jones & The Six book by going through the band's interviews and listening to their iconic album, "Rumors." In another interview (via The Guardian), Reid also disclosed that the fictional band's song “Regret Me” draws its inspiration from Nick's “Silver Springs," which has the "concept of a woman’s right to be angry." To affirm its influences, even the series features performances filmed at Sound City (via Vanity Fair), where Stevie and Lindsey made their first Fleetwood Mac album.
How Is Daisy Jones & The Six Different From Fleetwood Mac
The differences between Daisy Jones & The Six and Fleetwood Mac come from the other 70s musical influences that inspired Taylor Jenkins Reid's fictional account of Billy and Camilla's romance. From Bruce Springsteen to The Eagles, from Joni Mitchell to Stills and Nash, Reid credited many artists as the source of her creative inspiration. Even her early fascination with Grammy award-winning band Civil Wars and the sudden fallout of its members was among the real-life narratives that funneled into her book.
When it comes to Daisy Jones & The Six's aesthetic aspects, the show's costume designer Denise Wingate likened (via Elle) Karen’s (Suki Waterhouse) style "to early Patti Smith before touches of Suzi Quatro, Marc Bolan from T. Rex, and Joan Jett." Similarly, for Simone (Nabiyah Be), she adopted the styles of Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, and Chaka Khan. But all in all, as Taylor Jenkins Reid puts it (via The Guardian), Daisy Jones & The Six only has a Fleetwood Mac vibe. It is not the story of the band.