What band is Daisy Jones and The Six based on? Meet the infamous 70s band who inspired the plot for Amazon’s latest hit series

After much anticipation, Amazon Prime's latest miniseries, Daisy Jones & The Six, is finally here. While the series is presented in a documentary format, the story of Daisy Jones & The Six is fictional - the band never existed apart from in the mind of the story's creator. 

The first three episodes of the 10-part miniseries were released on 3 March, with the rest of the seven episodes of Daisy Jones & The Six set to come out sporadically throughout March, delighting audiences across the globe with it's intriguing storyline and star-studded cast. 

Daisy Jones & The Six follows the rise of a band in the 1970s, following their personal and professional lives as they strive for fame in the beating city of LA. As shown in the show's trailer, the group's journey is cut short after its two lead singers, Daisy Jones and Billy Dunn, begin a more than messy relationship. 

For some, the story may sound eerily familiar. And there's good reason for that. Daisy Jones & The Six may be a fictional band, but their story is rooted in real life. Here we explain the real life inspiration behind Daisy Jones & The Six and reveal the 70s band who inspired the plot for Amazon’s latest hit series. 

What band is Daisy Jones and The Six based on?

The plot of Daisy Jones & The Six is partially based on the real life story of the 70s band Fleetwood Mac. Fans of the infamous group immediately recognised the similarities, with the trailer for the mini series being enough to cement belief that, while Daisy Jones & The Six are a fictional group, their story closely followed that of the real life Fleetwood Mac. 

The characters of Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne are loosely based on Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, with the story of their real tortured romance being fictionalised in Daisy Jones & The Six. 

Prior to Fleetwood Mac's legendary fame, Buckingham and Nicks were two solo artists who’d began dating and, by the time their group hit the peak of their fame, the relationship had become rocky. They struggled through the relationship while producing chart-topping hits, fearful to break off the toxic love affair incase it's breakdown affected the success of the group. 

This story is mirrored in Daisy Jones & The Six, with Daisy and Billy constantly wondering whether they should stick out the hardship for the benefit of the group, or if they should break up and prioritise personal well-being. Like Nicks and Buckingham did, Daisy and Billy create magic together and much of their story, which features cheating scandals, drunken affairs, full-blown fights, feels as though it was pulled straight out of a Fleetwood Mac biography.

Is Daisy Jones and The Six based on a book?

The Amazon Prime series Daisy Jones and The Six is based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s book of the same. The book is available for purchase at Waterstones and is currently on sale for £7.99. Just as the series is, Reid’s book is heavily based on the real life story of Fleetwood Mac.

Writing about the inspiration behind his story for Hello Sunshine's bookclub, Reid explained, “Two years ago, when I decided I wanted to write a book about rock ‘n’ roll, I kept coming back to that moment when Lindsey watched Stevie sing ‘Landslide’. How it looked so much like two people in love.

“And yet, we’ll never truly know what lived between them. I wanted to write a story about that, about how the lines between real life and performance can get blurred, about how singing about old wounds might keep them fresh.

“Even after copious amounts of research about Fleetwood Mac and a host of other duos and bands, I’m still taken with that moment between them. I can’t help but marvel at the idea that, despite everything they’d been through, Stevie and Lindsey still loved each other then. Or how, despite what it looked like to us all, they no longer did.”

Is Daisy Jones & The Six related to Malibu Rising?

Malibu Rising was written by Taylor Jenkins Reid after he wrote and released Daisy Jones & The Six, with many of the characters from Daisy Jones & The Six appearing in his following work. The two stories take place in the same setting, LA, though Malibu Rising is set four years after Daisy Jones & The Six.

Speaking to Reeses Book Club, Reid shared, "I had fun with the easter eggs in my past few books. Some characters in Daisy Jones and the Six show up in Malibu Rising, too — including mentions of drummer Warren Rhodes, the band The Breeze, and more. In fact, the patriarch of the Riva family, Mick Riva, actually appears in Daisy Jones & the Six. "