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.
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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.”
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“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 waterfront is still very much a disaster zone.
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The decision about what to do with the land is still up in the air; the priority is housing for the displaced residents. But Fleetwood says he’s determined to rebuild, just maybe not in the same place.
Asked what he pictures in a new place, he said, “For me, it has to encompass being able to handle playing music. There has to be music. We had it every day. That’s a selfish request!”
But before anything is rebuilt, there’s still a massive cleanup that needs to be completed here.
“We will see,” he said. “You have a blank [canvas] to paint on, and there’s a lot of painting to do.
“You have to be careful, even in this conversation, of going like, ‘How sad that was,’ when really it’s about, ‘Yes, but now we need this.’ In the end you go like, it happened. And what’s really important is absorbing maybe how all these things happened, and can they be circumnavigated to be more safe in the future, and be more aware? Of course that’s part of it. But the real, real essence is the future.”
Fleetwood’s ukelele is one of the few things that survived the fire, and he’s hoping his dream survives as well.
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For details about helping those impacted by the August 2023 fires, and for the latest on recovery and rebuilding efforts, including housing, environmental protection and cultural restoration, visit the official county website Maui Recovers.
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Steven Tyler.
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