Fleetwood Mac's Rumours — February 1976

Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, recorded in February 1976, saw Lindsey Buckingham attack producer Ken Caillat during sessions at Record Planet in Sausalito.

The incident is one episode in Making Rumours: The Inside Story of how Fleetwood Mac Made a Masterpiece, written by Ken Caillat and Steve Stiefel and out now, on Monoray. Caillat — promoted from engineer to co-producer during the sessions — lays out the pressure-cooker environment behind what became a 40-million-selling album.

Work began at Record Planet after the band’s self-titled release had already hit number one in the US, but personal breakups, affairs and drug use followed the success and bled into the studio. During the tracking of "Go Your Own Way," Buckingham grew frustrated with his guitar solo attempts. He had asked Caillat and engineer Richard Dashut to erase a take; when Caillat confirmed he had done so and replayed another run, Buckingham stormed into the control room and physically grabbed Caillat.

Caillat records the moment in the book, quoting Buckingham as screaming, "You're an idiot!" and describing the engineer being choked. He also describes how band members sometimes scheduled their arguments so they wouldn't derail recording time, and how the production crew had to balance therapist-like calm with technical duties.

Why it matters

This is more than a lurid studio anecdote: it shows how volatile relationships and friction were integral to the album's emotional intensity. For fans, Caillat’s account highlights the producer’s role in shaping the sound amid chaos — from mic choices and takes to deciding which guitar lines stayed — and why Rumours still sounds so immediate. The book also restores credit to the engineers who helped turn fraught performances into a polished record.

Making Rumours documents the sessions, the fights, and the studio decisions that produced pop-rock staples. For anyone who loves the record, the book offers a close look at how conflict, craft and careful production combined at Record Planet to make a masterpiece.