Amazon’s 2023 miniseriesDaisy Jones & the Sixtransported viewers back to the 1970s with its incredibly authentic documentary style and catchy rock tunes - and the show was so believable that many viewers wondered if Daisy Jones & the Six were a real band. Based on the novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid,Daisy Jones & the Sixfocused on Riley Keough’s Daisy Jones and her bandmates as they came to dominate the music scene in LA, gained global stardom and, ultimately, fell apart due to personality clashes and creative differences during their national tour.
Everything aboutDaisy Jones & the Sixfelt real. Even though viewers knew the show was shot in the 2020s and starred contemporary actors like Keough andcast mates Suki Waterhouse, Camila Morrone, Timothy Olyphant, and others, the story and band felt incredibly realistic. While it seemed that Daisy Jones & the Six could have been a real band from the 1970s, both they and their songs were fictional. However, there was a real band that inspiredDaisy Jones & the Six,and their story has many similarities to the titular group in the Amazon Prime Video miniseries.
Daisy Jones & The Six Cast & Character Guide
The ’70s era Prime Video original explores the dynamics of the titular rock band featuring some talented and musically-gifted cast members.
Daisy Jones & The Six Are Based On Fleetwood Mac
The Titular Band Has Direct Real Life Inspirations
Daisy Jones & the Six weren’t a real band, despite how authentic their story seemed in the show. However,there is a key reason their story felt so believable and that their music sounded somehow familiar to many viewers -Daisy Jones & the Sixis heavily based on the rise and fall of Fleetwood Mac.Daisy Jones & the Sixauthor Taylor Jenkins Reid, who wrote the novel the Amazon Prime Video miniseries is based on, has always been open about her inspiration being watching Fleetwood Mac performances.
Like the titular group inDaisy Jones & the Six,Fleetwood Mac had an incredible journey as a band that featured many highs and lows - though this didn’t stop them becoming known as one of the most influential rock groups of all time. While the lineup of Fleetwood Mac changed many times over the years, it was their lineup in the 1970s that many listeners know them for (and that most closely resembles the titular band inDaisy Jones & the Six).This lineup features Stevie Nicks on vocals, Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and vocals, Christine McVie on keyboards and vocals, John McVie on bass, and Mick Fleetwood on the drums.
While not the original lineup, the 1970s-era Fleetwood Mac were responsible for the band’s most successful albums, including the hugely influential “Rumors” released in 1977, which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978 and remains one of the most highly selling albums in history. Fleetwood Mac has gone through many lineup changes in the years since, and took an extended hiatus.While they still continued into the 2010s, it was the band during the “Rumours” era thatDaisy Jones & the Sixis based on.
What Daisy Jones & The Six Has In Common With Fleetwood Mac
The Inspiration Is Obvious When Given Closer Inspection
Daisy Jones & the Sixisn’t a direct adaptation of the story of Fleetwood Mac.The miniseries isn’t a biopic - the band is completely fictional, and there are many, many differences between the two. Fleetwood Mac also wasn’t the only inspiration for the band inDaisy Jones & the Six,as Taylor Jenkins Reid has also been open about other 1970s groups and musicians (such as Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell) also influencing her creative choices when crafting the story and the fictional band it focuses on.
However, the main inspiration was Fleetwood Mac directly, and this goes not just for the sound and aesthetic of the bad inDaisy Jones & the Six,but also the many interpersonal dramas and relationship fallouts that occurred in the plot of both the book and miniseries.This is perhaps most evident when comparing Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” album and the fictional record released by Daisy Jones & the Six in the miniseries, titled “Aurora”.
Both “Rumours” and “Aurora” heavily feature songs inspired by affairs and breakups.The most notable examples of theseare Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”(written by Stevie Nicks about the end of her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham), and “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)” fromDaisy Jones & the Six,a song written by the band but that is primarily based on Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin’s) experiences with infidelity and addiction.
The members of the band inDaisy Jones & the Sixalso parallel members of Fleetwood Mac during the “Rumours” era. Daisy Jones and her incredibly unique vocal style are heavily inspired by Stevie Nicks, for example. Billy Dunne, on the other hand, is clearly based on Fleetwood Mac guitarist and songwriter Lindsey Buckingham. The creative struggles and personality clashes of the fictional band also mirror the real one too, especially when it comes to Daisy Jones joining the band late and becoming the main focus, which mirrors the addition of Stevie Nicks to the lineup of Fleetwood Mac.
The Differences Between Fleetwood Mac And Daisy Jones And The Six
The Miniseries Isn’t A Biopic
While Fleetwood Mac inspiring the titular band inDaisy Jones and the Sixis clear given the high level of similarities between the two, there are also many differences.For example, the timelines between the fictional group and the real-life rock icons don’t align. Daisy Jones and the Six broke up in 1977 after the tour for “Aurora”. The show and book imply that they never reconciled and that the split marked the end of a musical era.
On the other hand, Fleetwood Mac continued touring until 2019. Over the decades,Fleetwood Mac had many lineup changes but, with the exception of a hiatus between 1997 and 2003, continued making and performing music together long after the release of “Rumours”and the end of what many fans consider to be their “classic” roster.
What’s more, the rise of Daisy Jones and the Six was far more meteoric.The titular band in the miniseries achieved stardom relatively soon after they initially formed. The same wasn’t true for Fleetwood Mac, whose original lineup (which was different from the band members on “Rumours”) started in 1967. What’s more, Fleetwood Mac first formed in London before moving to the U.S. and gaining fame in LA.
The Fictional Band Released A Real Album
The Story May Not Be Real, But The Music Is
While the band inDaisy Jones & the Sixisn’t real, there was an album of original music released for the show.“Aurora” was released via Atlantic Records in 2023, with many of the bands' singles from the miniseries such as “Regret Me” and “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)” included on the album. While the story of the band may have been fictional, the music they play in the show was completely authentic - a feat all the more impressive given how well it imitated the unique sound and feel of 1970s groups like Fleetwood Mac.
What’s more, both Riley Keough and Sam Claflin perform vocals on the album. The actors inDaisy Jones & the Sixare really singing in the band’s songs. This arguably led many viewers to question of the story of the miniseries was real, as it significantly added to the believability of the documentary-style show.“Aurora” does seem indistinguishable from many other albums and records of actual groups of the 1970s, and it’s no surprise thatDaisy Jones & the Sixreceived a Grammy nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media because of it.
Daisy Jones & The Six
Cast
Based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six is an Amazon Prime miniseries about a fictional band set in the 1970s. The original story followed Daisy Jones & The Six as they grew in this fictional timeline in Los Angeles while providing commentary on the 70s music scene. The series is loosely based on performances and events surrounding the band Fleetwood Mac.
