Mick Fleetwood plays to the future in Maui

The island of Maui is a mere dot in the enormity of the vast Pacific Ocean, but it’s not hard to see why millions visit every year, and why there are some who never want to leave. Fleetwood Mac founder Mick Fleetwood fell in love with Maui decades ago, and put down deep roots. “Long story, a long love affair,” he said.

“But it really is your heart and your home?” I asked.

“Uh-huh. People often think, ‘Oh yeah, how often are you on Maui?'” Fleetwood said. “This is my home. No other place.”

As a young man he’d dreamed of a place, a club, where he could get his friends together, and 12 years ago he made it happen in the west Maui city of Lahaina:  Fleetwood’s on Front Street. The menu was eclectic – they served everything from Biddie’s Chicken (just like Fleetwood’s mom, Biddie, made it) to cookie dough desserts dreamed up by his children. It was also a place where Mick and friends could play. “We created, I created, a band of people under a roof,” he said. “Instead of a traveling circus, it was a resident circus at Fleetwood’s on Front Street.”

And then, in August of 2023, the music stopped.

A wind-driven fire tore through western Maui, killing more than a hundred people, and consuming more than 2,000 buildings. Fleetwood was in Los Angeles when the fire started, and he hurried back to a scene of utter devastation. 

And his beloved restaurant? A charred sign was about all that was left.  

I said, “I understand your not wanting to be, ‘Me, me, me,’ especially in light of the lives that were lost, the homes that were lost; you don’t want to make too big of a deal out of a restaurant.”

“No.”

“But at the same time, this was your family. This was your home. That must’ve been a huge loss.”

“It was a huge loss,” Fleetwood said. “And in the reminding of it, that wave comes back. Today knowing we’re doing this, I go, like, Okay, this is gonna be … a day.“

We took a walk with Fleetwood down the street where his place once stood: the last time he was here, the place was still smoldering. “Literally, parts of it were still hot,” he said.

More than a year later, the Lahaina…