“There has been this sequence of strange events…”
Lindsey Buckingham speaks to Mark Blake.
You recorded this long-player three years ago. Were you tempted to change any of it, considering what has happened since?
“Nothing’s really changed on the record. But there has been this sequence of strange events that kept it from seeing the light of day.”
Starting with your parting of the ways with Fleetwood Mac in 2018?
“I did the record with Christine McVie [Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie in 2017] and wanted to go straight on to this. Fleetwood Mac wanted to tour. So we ended up going in a direction I didn’t see coming [Buckingham was fired]. Stevie [Nicks] orchestrated that, and the others were stuck in the middle. I thought at this point in our careers it doesn’t speak well of the legacy. So I had to restructure everything. But, hey, that’s rock’n’roll…”
Then you had a heart operation in 2019.
“Yes, as soon as I got back into the idea of putting the album out, I started having health problems. So that kicked the whole thing down even further.”
Is it liberating making a solo album rather than a Fleetwood Mac album?
“On one level, yes. But my solo work is often more esoteric, and you lose nine out of 10 listeners because you’re disconnecting from their idea of what Fleetwood Mac is. But I wanted to make a pop record here.”
Is it fair to call this a relationship album?
“I wrote these songs when my wife and I had been together a long time. Things drift. Suddenly, you’re at a point where everyone is pulling to reboot the entire scenario of domestic life. That’s something that happens. So while a lot of these songs are celebrating long-term relationships, they’re doing it in a nonromanticised way.”
A song such as Blind Love sounds like a throwback to The Beach Boys in the ’60s. Are you getting nostalgic?
“I can be nostalgic. But I also try not to be too imitative. I could never write a song as good as Brian Wilson. On Blind Love, I was actually thinking of Sam Cooke, but it could just as easily have been The Beach Boys.”
You are touring with your own band during summer 2021, but could you see yourself performing with Fleetwood Mac again?
“Of course. It would be so appropriate for the five of us to go out again, even if you want to call it a farewell tour. I didn’t see the last shows [Fleetwood Mac’s 2019 tour with Mike Campbell and Neil Finn] but I heard it was a little generic, like a covers band. That’s fine, because there’s always a faction of people who are coming for the brand, per se, and aren’t going to differentiate in terms of members as long as Stevie is up there. But it would be great for us to share it one last time. I know Mick [Fleetwood] and Christine would love that to happen. Wait and see.”