Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie Gets Light Sentence

Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie was fined $1000 after pleading guilty in Wailuku Circuit Court on March 9th to three counts of failing to register firearms. Cocaine-possession charges against McVie were dropped. His American wife, Julie Ann, pleaded guilty to promoting a dangerous drug (cocaine) and “hindering prosecution” – attempting to flush the cocaine down a toilet. She received an identical penalty. Under Hawaiian law, both McVies can have their records wiped clean if they stay out of trouble for the next year.

Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie Busted

After intercepting a package containing 4.5 grams of cocaine, (and removing 3.5 grams of it), police tracked the parcel to McVie’s big wooden house in the Napili resort area of Maui on December 23rd. There the cops also confiscated a shotgun, two rifles, a .45-caliber revolver and a semiautomatic pistol. A subsequent lie-detector test apparently convinced the court that McVie was unaware that the cocaine was in his house. As for the weapons, McVie said after the sentencing, “It was a stupid thing to do. If I had known what the law was, I would’ve complied.”

This story is from the April 16, 1981 issue of Rolling Stone.