Lindsey Buckingham angrily details Fleetwood Mac firing
Lindsey Buckingham released a new solo album on Sept. 17, but the ghosts of Fleetwood Mac still hover.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times to promote his upcoming self-titled release, Buckingham is frank, angry and unfiltered as he discusses his firing from the band in 2018.
His comments provoked rare responses from Stevie Nicks – whom he believes was the ringleader in provoking his ouster – and Fleetwood Mac manager Irving Azoff, who also had managed Buckingham as a solo artist.
Buckingham told the Times that Nicks “saw the possibility of remaking the band more in the Stevie Nicks vein. More mellow and kind of down, giving her more chances to do the kind of talking she does onstage.”
While Buckingham’s dismissal from Fleetwood Mac followed his request that the band delay their 2018 tour by three months so he could support a solo record – the one finally being released next week – it also fell in the timeline of the band’s acceptance of their Musicares Person of the Year award in January that year. Nicks, who detoured into a lengthy speech at the podium, believed Buckingham was mocking her behind her back as she spoke.
Nicks, however, denied she instigated a coup.
Through her publicist, she told the Times that Buckingham’s version of events “is factually inaccurate and while I’ve never spoken publicly on the matter, certainly it feels the time has come to shine a light on the truth. 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. Frankly, I fired myself. I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my wellbeing. I was done. If the band went on without me, so be it.
“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.”
By spring 2018, Fleetwood Mac had enlisted Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and longtime Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell to join the band for a tour.
Buckingham, 71, asserts in the Times interview that the motivation for replacing him in the band and pushing through a Fleetwood Mac tour with replacement players (he refers to the live act as “on the edge of being a cover band”) was purely financial.
“Irving doesn’t need the money, but
he’s still driven by the money,” Buckingham said.
Azoff responded with a lengthy statement to the newspaper:
“I have historically declined comment on artists, but in the case of Lindsey Buckingham, I will make an exception. In speaking with Stevie, her account of events are factual and truthful. While I understand it’s challenging for Lindsey to accept his own role in these matters and far easier to blame a manager, the fact remains that his actions alone are responsible for what transpired.
“Frankly, if I can be accused of anything it’s perhaps holding things together longer than I should have. After 2018 when Fleetwood Mac evolved with their new lineup, my continued work with the band was due entirely to the fact I’ve been aligned with Stevie Nicks in thought and purpose from the earliest of days. While financial gain was not a motivator for me, it was a delightful bonus that the band scored their highest grossing tour ever without Lindsey.”
Buckingham, who had triple bypass surgery in 2019, harbors little hope of a Fleetwood Mac reunion unless Nicks complies.
“I realize I don’t have a lot of control over that – any control over that,” he said.
Buckingham is touring behind his new album through the end of September, with another round of dates in December. The first single from the album is called “Scream.”