Is ‘Daisy Jones & the Six’ Based on a True Story? The Answer Is Complicated
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The biggest name in music right now is Daisy Jones, despite the fact that she’s entirely fictional. The lead of Amazon Prime’s latest series, Daisy Jones & The Six, Daisy has the style and sound of rock icons past, with a very real Spotify discography to match. The series, adapted from the Taylor Jenkins Reid novel of the same name, stars Riley Keough as the eponymous star, alongside Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone, Suki Waterhouse and more. The story follows the meteoric rise and legacy of the band. But where does the inspiration for the band come from? Here's what we know.
The author of the novel says that the band was not directly based on any specific musical group, pulling inspiration from across the 1970s music scene, but readers of the novel agree, Daisy Jones & The Six is basically Fleetwood Mac.
The mood board of this story is encapsulated in a single video. In May 1997, Fleetwood Mac performed their song “Silver Springs” live at Warner Bros. Studio, and the resulting video, which currently sits at 12 million views, finds an almost routine resurgence online every few months. Of the iconic musical moment, the Daisy Jones’ author Taylor Jenkins Reid said, “Stevie sung 'Silver Springs,' like a woman scorned, holding that microphone like a weapon, drilling holes into Lindsey’s head with her eyes as she sang that her voice would haunt him.” That "Silver Springs" energy spins in the Daisy Jones & The Six universe with original songs like "Regret Me" and "Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)."
Fleetwood Mac’s legacy is two-fold—one part incredible discography, and one part irresistible romantic infighting. The band’s frontmen, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, shared a musical connection that carried them through periods of love and war, a fraught relationship that inspired Daisy Jones’ Daisy and Billy Dunne. The Fleetwood affairs, musical and otherwise, did not begin and end with Nicks and Buckingham. Nicks also found herself infatuated with Mick Fleetwood in the early days of the band, and other band members Christine and John McVie fell in love and were married for seven years. If you read the book, that's probably the closest inspiration for Karen and Graham.
The fictional legacy of Daisy Jones & The Six revolves around a single record titled Aurora, the making of which is documented in the novel and the new series. A similar reputation follows Fleetwood Mac’s most famous album Rumours, which band member Mick Fleetwood once said “almost killed [them].”
The magic and emotional confusion of Fleetwood Mac is sewn into the seams of Daisy Jones & The Six, and though no one is calling this story a biography, the real and fictional bands share a lot. Their stories, fictional or not, force us to ask the important questions. Can you write a GOAT-ed love song and not fall in love? Can you share a once in a lifetime artistic connection with someone and still go home to someone else? Let’s ask The Six.
Daisy Jones & The Six is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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