Mick Fleetwood Open to Reunion With Lindsey Buckingham - Rolling Stone
 

With the concert industry shut down for the foreseeable future and his bandmates spread to various spots around the planet, Mick Fleetwood truly doesn’t know what the future holds for Fleetwood Mac. But that hasn’t stopped the drummer from looking ahead and sketching out a possible farewell tour in his mind.

“I’m very aware that we’ve never played that card,” he tells Rolling Stone on the phone from his Hawaii home. “I think the vision for me, and I think it would be hugely appropriate, is that we actually say ‘this is goodbye’ and go out and actually do that. That has always been my vision and I’m a flatly confident that we can do that. We owe it to the fans.”

The comments appear to contradict Christine McVie’s recent statements to the BBC where she said that bassist John McVie was “a little bit frail” and no longer had “the heart for it.” She also said, “If we do it, it’ll be without John and without Stevie [Nicks], I think…I’m getting a bit old for it now. I don’t know if I can get myself back into it.”

McVie later walked back the comments, and Fleetwood says they shouldn’t be taken literally. “I think she got out of bed on the wrong side that day,” he says with a laugh. “She meant to say, ‘We’ve done so much. I don’t know whether or not we can keep going.’ Anything other than that, she can speak for herself. But I can assure you we are alive and well. And she has no regrets. She just got caught up in whatever she was saying and she also felt she had been misunderstood.”

Christine McVie also said that John McVie was focused largely on sailing the world on his boat, but Fleetwood says that’s never once stopped him from participating in band activities. “He’s always more interested in going sailing until you put it in front of his face,” he says. “He’s so not caught up in the drama of the workings of the band. That has always been my world. I’ve never not known John to answer the call and say, ‘Show me the gig and I’ll plug my bass in.'”

There hasn’t been any reason for McVie to plug his bass in since Fleetwood Mac ended their last world tour in November 2019. It was their first tour since parting ways with Lindsey Buckingham and bringing in Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to fill the void. “It was a massive, really lovely world tour that was beyond successful in every way,” says Fleetwood. “And a happy tour.”

They initially planned on booking about eight stadium shows with other big artists the following year, but the pandemic made that impossible. Last July, Fleetwood Mac founding guitarist Peter Green died just months after Fleetwood staged a massive tribute concert in his honor at London’s Palladium.

It was a devastating blow to Fleetwood, but it also caused him to get back in touch with Buckingham after two years of bitter estrangement. “I’ve really enjoyed being re-connected with Lindsey, which has been gracious and open,” says Fleetwood. “And both of us have been beautifully honest about who we are and how we got to where we were.”

The reconciliation leads to an obvious question: Might Buckingham come back into Fleetwood Mac for the farewell tour that Fleetwood is plotting out in his mind? “Strange things can happen,” says Fleetwood. “I look at Fleetwood Mac as a huge family. Everyone plays an important role in our history, even someone like [early Seventies] guitarist Bob Welch, who was huge and sometimes gets forgotten. Lindsey’s position in Fleetwood Mac will, for obvious reasons, never been forgotten, as it should never be forgotten.”

“My vision of things happening in the future is really far-reaching,” he continues. “Would I love to think that [reunion] could happen? Yeah. I’d love to think that all of us could be healed, and also respect the people who are in the band, Neil Finn and Michael Campbell.”

The major impediment to a reunion with Buckingham is his relationship with Stevie Nicks, which had been strained for decades and finally reached a breaking point in early 2018. No reunion tour can proceed without the two of them arriving at some sort of detente. “I can’t speak for the dynamic with Stevie and him,” says Fleetwood. “I don’t even need to protect it. It’s so known that they’re chalk and cheese in so many ways, and yet not.”

For now, Fleetwood is just happy he’s back on speaking terms with Buckingham. “I know for a fact that I intend to make music and play again with Lindsey,” he says. “I would love that. It doesn’t have to be in Fleetwood Mac. And Fleetwood Mac is such a strange story. All the players in the play are able to talk and speak for themselves. Somehow, I would love the elements that are not healed to be healed. I love the fantasy that we could cross that bridge and everyone could leave with creative, holistic energy, and everyone could be healed with grace and dignity.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...bSOQ1rpWp01_ws

Just wishful think on Mick's part.
Stevie- solo work through 2022. Lindsey???...over her dead body.
John- probably too old, no matter what Mick thinks.
Lindsey- I hope he doesn't give it the time of the day.

Buckingham, Fleetwood, McVie- I guess I could go for that, but realistically I can't even see that ever happening now.

As somebody said in another thread, Mick leeching off Lindsey on a Lindsey solo tour or (Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood) is about the best he could hope for.

It is my theory that THIS was the plan all along. Give Lindsey and Stevie (who hate each other) some time apart, Lindsey time to do his solo work, and enlist Neil and Mike (who were just sitting around) as nothing more than hired hands.

Next, come back with a large scale "Farewell Tour" featuring the "Rumours" lineup for the final cash grab.

All was going perfectly as planned UNTIL a pesky heart attack and a global pandemic altered the course of the universe.

Rest assured, the "Farewell Tour" WITH the "Rumours" lineup will almost certainly happen, even if on a smaller scale with less dates.

There is no doubt in my mind. PR representative and managers are behind all of this.

I will give you and a few people credit, you did say this.

I hope LB rolls his solo album into a new FMac album and they tour it!!!
Just kidding, Elle. :xoxo:

Wow.. he's giving Stevie the Playboy Interview treatment.

With this interview the public knows: a reunion with Lindsey is up to Stevie.

That is if the public knows who Lindsey is:laugh:

If Stevie permits LB to perform with them again, they'd have to make new music with Mike and Neil if it's going to be a 6 member band.

If they're only going to play the old songs, would Lindsey and Neil trade vocals on Tusk and Oh Diane? Or does Neil sing the Welch, Kirwan, Green songs?

Lindsey should NEVER go back. F*ck Dick Fleetwood! Douchebag!

Homie who do you think the other big artists were for the stadium shows?
Eagles and Springsteen?

These guys never cease to amaze me. What the hell kind of comment is Chris woke up on the wrong side of the bed about? I believe she knows that John is done and Stevie is done and she is pretty much done also.

I would love to see an album and farewell tour, however they want to do that. Maybe a pay per view event instead of a real tour, but Stevie has a lot of groveling to do and I don't think she would even try until her projects are finished.

Wishful thinking Mick but I don't know, this one might be a bit of a reach.

****yawn****

This is so boring because its so predictable. You can activate old threads from years ago that predicted this was going to happen. I've been saying it for years. Mick realizes a reunion tour would spark enough interest to pad his wallet one more time with meet and greets. I also believe the legacy aspect hit him as well. 6 months ago, he was adamant that Lindsey was never rejoining. I laughed at that too. The sad part is poor Lindsey has been offering this olive branch since 2018.
Now this is the part that is not a coincidence. The interview with RS comes almost immediately after Chris said the Mac was pretty much done. Chris tried a mop up job but that was not good enough for the boss. Mick is trying to put the pieces back together that he shattered. The worst part is he definitely touched base with Stevie to make sure she would be ok with a farewell tour. I think she got fan push back and she realizes it was all for nothing but big ego.

So predictable that its not even worth posting. Biddy's undies are not selling. He needs one last huge cash grab.

Seriously though, I would much rather see a Lindsey solo concert or Buck/Vie to a greatest hits farewell. I dont want to hear Gypsy "hey Hey" again. Chris could barely play last tour. Now she will barely be able to sing in 2 years. Mick is trying to lay the groundwork and I have always said it will happen. I just don't think it will be a monster world tour. I bet its like 30 US Dates. It will be a typical Mac setlist that we will all flame. But Stevie and Lindsey will sing "I dont want to know" as well as Silver Springs.

Is anyone writing this down?

Exactly. Christine spoke honestly and Mick panicked at the thought of losing potential revenue. He’ll do and say anything to keep the FM flag flying.

I like the idea of a pay-per-view event.

Mansplaining. But I don't think Chris would care. After all, she's worn "blackface" before :eek:

I love the idea, but I think the days of a long farewell tour have passed. How about something ..... a little different? If I'm going to dream about it, here's mine:

- Keep the tour short, something do-able. 12-15 dates (maybe 20 on the outside)
- Smaller Venues + STREAM (pay-per-view opportunity here)
- Have 1-2 days break between shows
- Keep the show length at 2 hours max (90 minutes would be ok)
- Forget trying to recreate the studio sound. Scale songs down, maybe a new arrangement to give them a fresh feel. Even go acoustic. "Gypsy" acoustic, like 2000? Even "Stand Back" had an interesting arrangement during the 1994 rehearsals (scaled down in one version, full band in others)
- Throw in a nod to the deluxe releases. Perform something simple, like "Cool Water" from the Mirage deluxe set.

I can dream!

Huh? Neil was literally about to go on stage when Mick called. Neil had just finished the album with Liam and Mike had just finished the Dirty Knobs album. I get being angry about Lindsey getting sacked, but I don’t get the need to just make stuff up about Neil and Mike. Anyway, it’s clear they’re still part of the equation going forward.

I’m not convinced, though it’s Fleetwood Mac so I wouldn’t rule it out. The upcoming offshoots will be interesting, though.

See, I’m not sure any of them are being completely honest. I’m skeptical and wouldn’t be surprised if they were intentionally creating drama in the press. It’s like there’s one or two vague interviews coming out every month. Stevie should be popping up in two to three weeks.

For having not toured in 15 years, Christine sounded great in 2014-2015. She sounded good in 2017 too. Idk what happened in that year, but she sounded like she was struggling in 2018-2019. I’d love a final Rumours farewell tour, but Christine and John are pushing 80. The others are well into their mid 70s too. And with the pandemic, there’s no telling.

The farewell tour should have been in 2017 promoting the new album. All made sense.