Lindsey Buckingham Finally Gives Response To Mick Fleetwood’s Accusations
via CBS Mornings / Youtube
Fleetwood Mac’s journey to being one of the most iconic bands in rock history has been marked by tumultuous narratives of key members departing and rejoining the band. By the mid-1980s, the band had long departed from its British blues days of being led by legendary guitarist Peter Green.
The classic roster that will always be remembered and revered by the public is the Rumours lineup of frontwoman Stevie Nicks, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, bassist John McVie, keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie, and drummer Mick Fleetwood.
Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ is back in the top 10 of the #Billboard200 https://t.co/2isVeESSGZ pic.twitter.com/cJlcZCyym1
— billboard (@billboard) October 19, 2020
Although they never replicated the roaring success of Rumours, the band continued to score strings of hits and fill arenas with their tours, even to this day.
But in 1987, a decade after their most successful record, Buckingham suddenly left Fleetwood Mac after being drained by the tours and the ever-present strains within the band.
Buckingham would spend his next five years working on his solo effort, Out of the Cradle. While he was doing what he does best, his former bandmate Fleetwood would write a tell-all book about his time with the band, including what supposedly led to Buckingham’s departure.
The drummer, in his book Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, documented a heated altercation between Lindsey and Stevie, during which the guitarist directed some hurtful words towards his former girlfriend.
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The confrontation between the two former lovers escalated further, with Mick even disclosing in his book that Lindsey physically confronted Stevie, leading their managers to intervene and intervene to separate them.
When reminded about this years after this incident, Buckingham claimed that none of this ever happened.
Mick Fleetwood’s accusations and Lindsey’s response
“That never happened,” the guitarist denied Fleetwood’s accusations in the book during an interview with Q in September 1992.
Buckingham then shared: “Three months after the book was out they were on the road, and I sat in for the last two West Coast shows on Go Your Own Way. I hadn’t seen Stevie for a long time and she came up to me and apologized to me for Mick having written that.”
The “Trouble” singer revealed that he did not address the issue immediately thinking that there was no need to “dignify anything in the book”.
I think I’m in Trouble… pic.twitter.com/q7RDAOvkQe
— Lindsey Buckingham (@LBuckingham) August 24, 2023
“I haven’t read it, but I did skim it. I had a difficult time with what I saw. Although there were some nice things, Mick’s slant on some of what happened was pretty tough. If you were to ask any of the members in the band, I think you’ll find they were all a little hurt by things like that that never happened, a lot of inaccuracies, the general trashy level. What I saw of it, anyway.”
Buckingham thought that his Mick Fleetwood was just a “little bit bitter” about his departure from the band. “But if Mick and I see each other, there’s nothing wrong. The chemistry is there – that’s what the band was all about in the first place,” he shared.
He also defended his former bandmate saying that Mick probably did not proofread the book and just went along with it.
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“Part of it might be him not taking enough responsibility for the editing. Probably the general way that Mick told the story to the writer was a lot of late nights free-associating,” Buckingham thought.
The guitarist just sighed and concluded “What can you say? That’s showbiz.”
An awful breakup
Interestingly, fast forward to 2017, Stevie Nicks echoed Mick’s words in her own book, Gold Dust Woman.
Nicks’ own tell-all account revealed that Buckingham “manhandled Stevie, slapped her face and bent her backward over the hood of his car. He put his fingers around her neck and started to choke her.”
And this extended end of their tumultuous relationship was just a terrible exclamation mark of a dreadful affair.
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The book claims that Buckingham had always hated her songs, particularly her mega-hits “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” which were about their fading romance. None of the guitarist’s work surpassed or even came close to achieving what the songstress did.
The sessions for Rumours widened the cracks, and the pair broke up. The McVies also split in the middle of all of this, and Mick Fleetwood became the lynchpin that held the band together until the completion of their best record to date.
Stevie’s affair with Fleetwood shortly after their breakup did not help matters. The next album, Tusk, intensified the bitterness leading to onstage fights.
Then, in 1987, that manhandling incident happened. The band stood up to Lindsey, and the latter would leave the band shortly after.
At that time, Nicks was terrified. She said, “I thought he was going to kill me.”
Lindsey, on the other hand, shared that not having closure on their relationship, was taking quite a toll on him, emotionally and creatively.
“When you break up with someone and then for the next 10 years you have to be around them and do for them and watch them move away from you, it’s not easy.”
Reunion and departure (again)
Despite what Fleetwood revealed in his book, Lindsey was still open to working with him. The latter even reached out to his former bandmate and asked for help on a song.
In turn, Buckingham showed up as backing vocals in one song off the band’s 1996 album, Time.
The collaboration lasted much longer than planned until the classic lineup gathered and Fleetwood Mac reunited. The five members went on a tour called The Dance in 1997 and the success and profits from this effort healed the cracks somehow.
Christine McVie left the band in 1998 due to her phobia of flying, and the band continued being a foursome. Christine would still appear as guest vocals for Say You Will, Fleetwood Mac’s last album that would feature the classic lineup.
The tours and live albums would go on until 2018 when Buckingham would once again leave Fleetwood Mac. But this time, he was fired.
A lot of vitriol was once again spewed between parties – with Lindsey even initiating legal actions – but the reopened rift never closed.
In 2001, after things calmed down a bit, Buckingham claimed that Mick sent feelers about a reunion once again.
“There have been intimations from Mick, who I’ve talked to several times, that he wants to try to get the five of us back together,” the guitarist said.
Buckingham continued: “I would never hang my hat on that. It’s really going to take Stevie coming to that point of view, and I haven’t spoken to Stevie in a long, long time, so I don’t know where that’s at. It’s certainly something that more than one person who is close to the situation has brought to me.”
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Sadly, Mick Fleetwood’s dream of having the five of them back together will not come to fruition.
Christine McVie, whom Fleetwood sees as his “soul mate” and “sister”, died of a stroke on November 2022, at the age of 79.
