Lindsey Buckingham claims Stevie Nicks got him fired from Fleetwood Mac
Lindsey Buckingham claims that Stevie Nicks was responsible for his firing from Fleetwood Mac earlier this year.
Back in April, Fleetwood Mac broke the surprise news that Buckingham had parted ways with the band with Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell replacing him.
Weeks later, Stevie Nicks claimed that Buckingham was fired over a tour dispute, saying: “We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June and (Buckingham) wanted to put it off until November (2019).”
Now, in a candid interview with Rolling Stone, Buckingham has given his side of the story and has firmly blamed Nicks for his departure.
Buckingham claims that two nights after he performed with Fleetwood Mac at the MusiCares event in New York back in January he received a phone call from the band’s manager Irving Azoff telling him “Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again.”
He alleges that Azoff listed a number of things “Stevie took issue with” during the performance, saying he “smirked” throughout her speech and had an “outburst” during their introduction music, which was the studio recording of Stevie Nicks’ ‘Rhiannon.’
Commenting on the “smirking”, Buckingham said: “The irony is that we have this standing joke that Stevie, when she talks, goes on a long time. I may or may not have smirked. But I look over and Christine and Mick are doing the waltz behind her as a joke.”
Assuming at the end of the call that Nicks herself was going to quit Fleetwood Mac, after Mick Fleetwood didn’t respond to an email, Buckingham said a few days later he phoned Irving Azoff and asked: “This feels funny. Is Stevie leaving the band, or am I getting kicked out?”
It was then that the manager informed him he was “getting ousted” and that Nicks gave Fleetwood Mac “an ultimatum: Either you go or she’s gonna go.”
Asked how he feels about his acrimonious exit, Buckingham said: “Am I heartbroken about not doing another tour with Fleetwood Mac? No, because I can see that there are many other areas to look into.
“The one thing that does bother me and breaks my heart is we spent 43 years always finding a way to rise above our personal differences and our difficulties to pursue and articulate a higher truth. That is our legacy. That is what the songs are about. This is not the way you end something like this.”
He also revealed that since the MusiCares gig he has not spoken to any of his former Fleetwood Mac band mates.
Fleetwood Mac’s North American opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma on 3rd October and wraps up in Philadelphia on 5th April 2019. The band are yet to confirm any UK shows.