(Credits: Far Out / Steve Proctor)
Realistically, Fleetwood Mac was a ticking time bomb, and it always seemed to be. In every iteration of the group and every lineup, something seemed to be bubbling under the surface that threatened to blow. When it eventually did, the band would dust off, reshape and keep going in what is surely one of the most fascinating group histories in music. But in 1975, when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined as a package deal, entering the scene as long-time lovers and collaborators, that ticking sound got louder. However, it took decades to truly blow as the history of Buckingham and the band is complex.
It should have been anthropologically studied. After joining in 1975, the worst possible thing that could happen to a band built out of two couples quickly happened. John and Christine McVie divorced, and Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks split from the relationship they’d forged back in school. For most bands, that would be that. But for Fleetwood Mac, it gave them their best-loved album, Rumours, as they channelled all that tumult into the tracks.
That didn’t bleed the poison out, though. It’s not as if the issues in the group’s dynamics were all done and sorted the second the record charted. Instead, things just kept getting harder. After flinging musical insults back and forth on Rumours, the connection between Buckingham and Nicks was bad. It was then made so much worse when Nicks started an affair with Mick Fleetwood, widening the divide between the two.
It was made professionally worse, too, at every turn. Given the atmosphere, touring proved hellish, leading the members to turn dramatically to drugs to get through it. Their follow-up album, Tusk, saw everyone turn against Buckingham, who was, in the words of their producer, “a maniac.” By the end of the decade, things were so bad that Buckingham was throwing guitars at his bandmates on stage, and the members had to be kept apart if they were forced to perform together.
But still, they just kept going. Things would blow up, and they’d take hiatuses to cool off, but no one quit. Until 1987, when Buckingham first walked out. “I needed to get some separation from Stevie, especially because I don’t think I’d ever quite gotten closure on our relationship,” he said about that decision. “I needed to get on with the next phase of my creative growth and my emotional growth. When you break up with someone and then for the next ten years you have to be around them and do for them and watch them move away from you, it’s not easy.”
(Credits: Far Out / IMDB)
In 1997, though, he returned. After reuniting with his bandmembers and healing those connections over time through behind-the-scenes collaborations, the original Rumours lineup came back together for some shows. It seemed like everything was going well as Buckingham said their “chemistry was very present”. But still, the ticking was there. This was the moment where that infamous performance of ‘Silver Springs’ was recorded, where Nicks stares Buckingham out for a solid portion of the performance, leading to rumours that there had been some degree of romantic rekindling that had perhaps been squashed by the announcement that Buckingham was expecting his first child.
Once again, things just kept going. The band came together for tours with a revolving lineup as ever, in keeping with their history. But then, the 2010s hit, and things changed when Buckingham was gone out of the blue.
Was Lindsey Buckingham fired from Fleetwood Mac?
At the start of 2015, Buckingham seemed super excited about the band’s future. He and the other members talked a lot about new music and more tours, and it seemed like a lot was coming up. For the next few years, it was business as usual until suddenly, in April 2018, Buckingham was out of the group, this time with rumours that he hadn’t quit but had been fired.
It all came down to disagreements over their upcoming tour and what material they would play, with Buckingham refusing to commit and sign onto the dates in the middle of these arguments. It seemingly was the final straw, and when Mick Fleetwood was asked if the guitarist was fired, he politely said, “We don’t use that word because I think it’s ugly.”
But there was clearly hostility as later that year, Buckingham sued the band for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract, and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, among other claims. However, there were once again rumours that it all still came down to Nicks and to the long-term tensions between the old lovers.
Have Fleetwood Mac ever broken up?
This should be such a simple question with a simple answer, but in the world of Fleetwood Mac, it’s not.
On one hand, the answer is yes. There have been several periods in the group’s history where they have disbanded and taken long hiatuses, where fans had no idea if or when they would ever return. There have been many periods of total uncertainty, including before the most famous lineup came together when the group were caught up in a dispute over name and ownership of that name after Peter Green left the group he formed.
However, the answer is that they rarely got too close to officially ending. None of these periods ever came with an official statement that the band had called it quits as the door was always left open for more. Perhaps the closest they’ve ever come to an official break up happened recently when the death of Christine McVie marked an ending as Fleetwood said the group was “done” and Nicks could see no reason to continue it without her friend.
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