Fleetwood Mac helps raise $7 million for charity

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Fleetwood Mac helps raise $7 million for charity

NEW YORK (AP) — Rock 'n' roll's dysfunctional family, Fleetwood Mac, joined with artists paying tribute to their work to raise $7 million for down-on-their luck musicians at a benefit in Radio City Music Hall on Friday.

The annual MusiCares fundraiser, held each year just before the Grammys, like the awards show was in New York for the first time in 15 years. Fleetwood Mac, made whole again recently when Christine McVie rejoined after a 15-year hiatus, have mellowed and grown more appreciative of their career since their drug-taking, partner-swapping heyday.

"Not very far below the level of dysfunction is what really exists and what we're feeling now more than ever in our career, which is love," said member Lindsey Buckingham.

The band capped the benefit with a five-song mini-set, including the sprawling, experimental "Tusk" and Buckingham's classic kiss-off, "Go Your Own Way." Before that, they listened to artists like Lorde, HAIM, OneRepublic and Miley Cyrus perform their songs.

Former President Bill Clinton was on hand, joined by wife Hillary in the audience, to honor the band whose song "Don't Stop" was the theme for Clinton's 1992 campaign. He said the song was played for him more than "Hail to the Chief."

"I owe them more than any of you do, and I wouldn't miss this for the world," he said.

Clinton and Fleetwood Mac have something else in common: They've both won two Grammys in their careers; Clinton's was for spoken-word recordings.

NY Daily News/AP

Stevie Nicks reveals Fleetwood Mac's 'paid the same' policy
By: Chloe Melas

(CNN) — Rock icon Stevie Nicks believes the fight against sexual misconduct and gender inequality in the entertainment industry is going to require persistence.

"Everybody needs to not let this be a kind of big wave and just go away and say, 'Oh well, you know, it's over and nobody cares anymore,'" Nicks told CNN at the Recording Academy's MusiCares event on Friday. "Everybody has to keep really fighting because otherwise women, we will be swept under the carpet yet again and it will just start over."

Nicks and the other members of Fleetwood Mac were honored at the annual pre-Grammy Awards charity event.

The singer, who joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, said she and fellow bandmate, Christine McVie, did not experience much sexual harassment over the course of their meteoric careers.

"I think I've been very lucky," she said. "And maybe it's because when I joined Fleetwood Mac, Christine and I made a pact. We said we will never ever be treated like a second class citizen amongst our peers as we get more famous and more famous -- and if we're in a room with famous rock n' roll stars that are men and they treat us that way, we will scream at them and then we'll walk out."

"We've been a force of nature our entire career, so nobody has dared to step over that line to Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks," she continued. "I'm such a raging monster when I'm angry that it would have never worked, so I'm really glad I never had to run into that."

As for the ongoing conversations about pay disparities between men and women in entertainment and across industries, Nicks said she's in full support of those calling for pay equity.

"Fleetwood Mac has two women and we all get paid the same," She said. "And if we didn't, Christine and I would be walking out the door."

CNN