Almost since the beginning of time, Fleetwood Mac has been fighting among themselves.

Long before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks darkened the door Mick Fleetwood, the group has been in strife. It’s amazing, in retrospect, that John McVie has stuck it out all this time. Maybe that’s because we never hear from him.

Prior to the Buckingham Nicks addition in 1974-75, Fleetwood Mac went through a bunch of players who were considered integral to the group. Peter Green, Bob Welch, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan. Anyone remember them? They were actually the guys who joined, had hits, and then either departed or were chucked out. You wouldn’t have had “Sentimental Lady,” or “Hypnotized” or “Black Magic Woman” without them.

Then Buckingham and Nicks arrived. Suddenly everyone in the band was sleeping with everyone else, and yapping about it in the press. B&N brought their own little soap opera. That was 45 years ago, and it’s still going on. Before that, I’d like to add, Fleetwood Mac was about music.

Today in the LA Times, Buckingham is still squawking about the group firing him in 2018. And Nicks is firing back, of course. If touring ever resumes, the Mac will have go to back on the road for one last big tour. The fans don’t want to hear the squabbling. They want the band to perform with all players and keep their problems to themselves. But Fleetwood Mac can’t do it. Except for singing they should keep their mouths shut.

Mick Fleetwood presents himself as a bystander to all the brouhaha. But he was there before B&N, when all those other guys came and went. And when Fleetwood Mac imploded in New York at the Musicares Person of the Year show a couple of years ago, it was Mick we saw at the after party pacing back and forth and having screaming fights over his phone. He actually seems to be the common denominator.

And so it goes. On and on. And probably into the next afterlife for all of them. It’s a total snore at this point. As it was even in 1977. This is why we brought in the Clash, the Sex Pistols, and the Ramones, to flush these people out. I wish we could do it again.

Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” is outta control.

Drizzy’s new album is at 451,000 in streaming equivalent units sold. And it’s just Wednesday. There’s another day left for sales. He could hit 500,000.

“CLB” is a streaming giant. In sales though, not so much Paid downloads come to 18,000.

The individual tracks are monsters. “Champagne Poetry,” with the Beatles’ “Michelle,” is at 270,000 streaming equivalent copies. Paul McCartney is popping Champagne right now! “Girls Want Girls” is at 320,000. All the other tracks are streaming away!

And Kanye? “Donda” is more of a shonda, selling just 405K in two weeks. Second week is 90,000. The tracks like “Hurricane,” “Jail,” and “Off the Grid” are booming, however. Def Jam keeps issuing notices for “Donda” breaking streaming records. (‘Streaming records’ is a contradiction in terms, no?)

Will see Kanye and Drake at the Grammys? I don’t care if a stranger on the street has to nominate them, NARAS has to acknowledge these two releases BIG TIME. If Pierre Cossette were still alive, he’d have McCartney come and perform the “Michelle” part of “Champagne Poetry.”

A lot of  people in the music world lost a huge friend today. Jerry Blair has passed away at age 60 from COVID. Apparently he was not vaccinated, for his own reasons. I’m told he spent the last four weeks on a ventilator. I am in tears but I am also so angry with him.

Every fan of Mariah Carey should light a candle for Jerry. He was the one who put her records on the radio. And when he and Mariah were discharged from Columbia Records, they basically left together. It was Jerry who kept her on the radio, started a label called MonarC with her, and so on and on.

Jerry’s 11 years at Columbia were halcyon days. His acts included The Fugees, Destiny’s Child, Jessica Simpson and Aerosmith, who he put together with Diane Warren for “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” the single that re-started their career. He also orchestrated the promotion and marketing campaigns for legendary artists Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.

Jerry also lit the fuse for the Latin-pop explosion by launching Ricky Martin’s U.S. career with his signature hit, “Livin’ La Vida Loca..” This paved the way for Shakira, Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias, to cross over into the English market.

When Mariah was leaving Tommy Mottola and Sony, it was Jerry who backed her. Seeing the end of an era coming, he also made contact with Arista Records. Mottola and Donnie Ienner, catching wind of this, retaliated and fired Jerry, and removed him from the Sony building. How do I know this? I was there. After Jerry exited the building I hung out with him in his SoHo loft. He was in shock, but Arista was waiting, and beyond that Mariah. He launched her “Charmbracelet” album after “Glitter” crashed, started the MonarC Label, and never looked back.

Since then, Jerry has remained a force in the business, navigating radio and marketing like a whiz. The last time I spoke to him was after Mariah published her memoir and left him out of it. We laughed about it heartily. (Jerry had to sue Mariah at one point because she stiffed him. That was the end of MonarC).

The news that Jerry is dead at 60 really stings. Whatever his reasons were for not getting the vaccine, they were wrong. I can’t believe it because he was on the cutting edge of everything. He had the first Blackberry, which he operated frantically with two thumbs texting a mile a minute. He would crack me up. “Jerry, can you look up for a minute?” I bet everyone he knew said that to him. He was mesmerized by it.

We were at each other’s birthdays back when we celebrated birthdays, always laughing, toasting, and I will remember him enjoying life. This is a miserable ending, much too soon.  I will miss him a lot. A lot. Jerry is survived by his wife Karen and daughter Suzette, 9, son Josh, 26, and sister Michelle. Condolences to all of them.