The new Prime Video series Daisy Jones & The Six follows the rollercoaster ride of a fictional rock band in the 1970s as they hit the big time, all while falling in and out of love (and bed) with each other. And there are several points during the miniseries where you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’re not watching a prestige drama, but a rock documentary in the vein of VH1’s Behind the Music.
That’s intentional; the show’s mockumentary format apes several tropes of the doc genre in order to aim for peak verisimilitude. Not only that, but some of the interpersonal dramas that play out between several of the band members, most notably lead singers Daisy (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin), might strike such a familiar note that you could swear that you’ve heard this story before, or read about it in Rolling Stone years ago.
Is Daisy Jones & The Six based on a true story?
The answer is no. But also yes.
The series is based on the hugely popular novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which much like the show, unfolds in a postmodern “this is all true” style: it is told as an oral history of the fictional band Daisy Jones & The Six, consisting of in-depth interviews with several of the band members years later.
So in the most literal and obvious sense, Daisy Jones & The Six is all fake. But back when the novel first came out, readers immediately began to notice similarities between the band in the book and real rock history. And Taylor Jenkins Reid has publicly stated that her fictional musician lovers were largely inspired by the real band Fleetwood Mac, who made as many headlines for the tumultuous relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham as they did chart-topping hits.
“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,'” Reid said in 2019. “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.”
But Fleetwood Mac weren’t the only point of reference when it came to the cast embodying rock legends in the TV series.
“Everyone knows that the book was loosely based on Fleetwood Mac, and so Lindsey Buckingham was the obvious reference point,” Sam Claflin, who plays Billy, told Men’s Health. “I was actually told to focus more on Bruce Springsteen. He’s from a similar upbringing, and way of life. But the energy that that man had on a stage… there’s no other like him. Especially in his earlier years. I really wanted to capture that element.
There was also Jim Morrison. Again, during the really low points of Billy’s career, especially when he’s focused around the addiction episode, I wanted a bit more out of body and freer feel to him. So, I watched the film The Doors, and did my best impersonation of Val Kilmer. There were a few others that were thrown in there. There was even a scene where I tried to channel Iggy Pop. It was a mishmash of all those things.”
“I think in the book, he talked about one of his references being Bob Dylan. I was listening to a lot of that music, and as I said, when I initially got the part and before the COVID break, I was working with a movement coach who would make me listen to these songs and just physicalize them. I think that really helped me find the physical life of each different song, because so many of the songs are so different in tempo and in feel. I just tried to mishmash that all together.”
Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.
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