JENNY BOYD
The youngest of three children, Helen Mary Boyd was born in Surrey, England, in 1947. Her older sister,
Pattie, had a favourite doll named Jenny, hence Helen's nickname. The first six years of Jenny's life were spent in Kenya, East Africa. Pattie and Jenny are not daughters of the same father. Jenny and Pattie's mother divorced Mr Gaynor before Pattie was born, so she lived with Pattie in east Africa. Her mother, then, married a second time with the farmer Colin Ian Langdon Boyd, changing Pattie's surname and giving birth to another two daughters, Paula and Jenny. In the mid-fifties, her family moved to London and Pattie and Jenny both started very successful modelling careers. Jenny appeared alongside pattie in the 1964 Beatles film, "A hard day's night". Jenny met the future drummer of Fleetwood mac working as a freelance model in London in 1965. Mick Fleetwood recalled the beginning of their relationship in his book "My life and adventures in Fleetwood Mac":"I met Jenny when I was still in the Cheynes... I'd see Jenny coming home from school, a stunning fifteen-year-old in white stockings. I lost my heart to her immedaitely. I had a massive crush on her, but was so shy I couldn't say anything to her. I knew then at age sixteen that this was the girl I was destined to marry".
However, the relationship between Mick and Jenny was on and off again for fifteen years. They broke up first in the summer of 1966 while Jenny was still working as a freelance model.
"Well, I met someone in Rome and became involved. I told Mick when I got home and he got really upset. It was a very big breakup".
Donovan wrote the song "Jennifer Juniper" especially about her.
In 1966, Jenny also began experimentation with marijuana and acid and described a revelation which she claims arose from the experience:
"One momentous day I experienced and astonishing realization, which I can now identify as a spiritual awakening. The traditional Christian beliefs I had been taught as a child crumbled as I suddenly recognized that there was no God above or hell below. God was everywhere, inside each one of us. I saw everything as a circle: life, death, and rebirth or reincarnation".
In 1967, Jenny moved to San Francisco to be in haight Ashbury, before returning to England the following year. Jenny went with the Beatles to India to study transcendental meditation with
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who helped her to realise "that answers coukd come only from within and that there were other ways of connecting to one's inner life".Upon returning to England, Jenny's relationship with Mick resumed. Jenny was very impressed with Peter Green, whom she stated "had an intensity that seemed to radiate from his body when he played".
In 1969, however, Jenny observed Pete's withdrawal from the rest of the band:
"There was his idea about Fleetwood Mac being like a band of gypsies enjoying themselves by roaming the world and giving their money away to ease suffering. That idea he regarded as an inspiration that came to him and he believed in it just as he did the music for "Albatross". But sadly, what I then saw in Peter was that same energy and flow of creativity turn inwards, and turn into something much darker when the rest of the band, Mick especially, didn't agree with him. Peter and Mick up until that point, were very close --they loved each other- and I don't think either really ever got over what happened".
Jenny and Mick were married at Kiln House after Christine McVie had joined the band.
They had two children, Amy Rose and Lucy. Jenny also remembers the decline of Danny Kirwan:
"At first, Danny was like a son; he used to come and have supper with Mick and me at our flat at Benifold. He was like a little Peter Pan. Once Peter had left and they were all rehearsing at Kiln House, it was pretty stressful because they didn't know if they could make it as Fleetwood Mac on their own. Danny suddenly started having these total outbursts and tantrums that had no grounding to them at all --a side of him would just kick in and be totally inappropiate to the situation. I think drugs and alcohol got Danny totally nuts in the end. He was just too sensitive a soul".
They moved to Los Angeles in 1974 shortly before the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. In L.A. Jenny further explored her spiritual side. As Fleetwood mac became more popular, Jenny fell back on drinking and cocaine to help cope with the increasing social events and pressures. The constant touring of the band led to the failure of her marriage to Mick Fleetwood and her moving back to England for a few months to stay with her sister, pattie, who was then living with Eric Clapton. Jenny later moved back to Los Angeles, moved in with Mick and they remarried in 1976. Fleetwood mac became even more popular with the release of "Rumours", leading to more stress between Mick and Jenny and an increase in drug and alcohol use. The couple divorced again six months after Jenny sobered up with the help of an Oriental acupuncturist.
Boyd moved back to England with her daughters in 1978, where she met Ian Wallace, a drummer who had played with King Crimson and Snape in 1972. They married in 1984. Jenny earned her bachelor's degree in counseling psychology, and her Ph.D. in psychology in 1989. In her 1992 book, "Musicians in tune", Jenny Boyd stated that she divided her time between Malibu, Califronia and Surrey, England with her husband, Ian, and was a consultant to Sierra Tucson, a Califronian treatment center. Jenny and Mick's older daughter, amy had a son, Wolf Cassius, in 1994 and she resides in England with the baby's father, Atticus. Lucy Fleetwood is a hostess in Los Angeles.