With his solo album slated to drop on Sept. There was also a divorce filing from his wife of 21 years this June. The guitarist-singer suffered a heart attack in February 2019 that required triple-bypass surgery as well as the insertion of a breathing tube that temporarily damaged his vocal cords. In addition to the rift with the band, Buckingham personally has had a rough couple of years. And after many lengthy group discussions, Fleetwood Mac, a band whose legacy is rooted in evolution and change, found a new path forward with two hugely talented new members.”ĭave Grohl, Lindsey Buckingham & More Featured on Halsey's 'If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power'… I have championed independence my whole life, and I believe every human being should have the absolute freedom to set their boundaries of what they can and cannot work with. If the band went on without me, so be it. I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my well-being. “To be exceedingly clear, I did not have him fired, I did not ask for him to be fired, I did not demand he be fired. “I could publicly reflect on the many reasons why, and perhaps I will do that someday in a memoir, but suffice it to say we could start in 1968 and work up to 2018 with a litany of very precise reasons why I will not work with him,” she said. His version of events is factually inaccurate, and while I’ve never spoken publicly on the matter, preferring to not air dirty laundry, certainly it feels the time has come to shine a light on the truth.” She added that following an “exceedingly difficult time” with Buckingham at the MusiCares event, she decided that she was no longer willing to work with him. Nicks, of course, had a response to Buckingham’s claims, telling RS in a statement: “It’s unfortunate that Lindsey has chosen to tell a revisionist history of what transpired in 2018 with Fleetwood Mac. “And so, it became a little bit like Trump and the Republicans.” He’s since been back in touch with Mick Fleetwood, who has hinted he might welcome him back if Nicks allows it, but Buckingham lays the blame squarely at Nicks’ feet in terms that seem like a death blow to any thoughts of yet another reunion. “I think others in the band just felt that they were not empowered enough, individually, for whatever their own reasons, to stand up for what was right,” he said. Lindsey Buckingham Sells His Catalog of Fleetwood Mac, Solo Songs to Hipgnosis
The band carried on with Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell filling out the lineup for a tour Buckingham said he didn’t see, but based on the set list he called “somewhat generic and perhaps bordering on being a cover band.”
“I think she wanted to shape the band in her own image, a more mellow thing, and if you look at the last tour, I think that’s true,” Buckingham said of his former life and music partner Nicks. He sued the band for what he estimated to be $12 million to $14 million in lost wages from the tour - a suit that has since been settled - and told the magazine that stories about his smirking causing the rift were “bulls-,” and that it was the new album that really caused the split. It was less than a week later that Buckingham, 71, was booted from the group. Buckingham - who joined the band in 1975 along with Nicks - complained when he felt the Nicks-written song “Rhiannon” that played them on had “ undermined” the impact of their entrance, and then Nicks was reportedly angered by what she felt was Buckingham’s smirking mockery of her long speech on behalf of the band. Months of what he said were unanswered emails and calls to the other members led up to the testy evening in January 2018 when the band accepted their MusiCares Person of the Year award. Fleetwood Mac Songbird Christine McVie Sells Catalog to HipgnosisĮven though Fleetwood Mac’s 2018 tour dates were already on the books and most of the group - drummer Mick Fleetwood, keyboardist-singer Christine McVie and bassist John McVie - were reportedly flexible, lead singer Stevie Nicks would not agree, even after Buckingham suggested he could book gigs for Mac’s off nights to fill in their three-show-a-week schedule.