https://www.billboard.com/articles/c...reaction-video
Lindsey Buckingham Breaks Silence on Leaving Fleetwood Mac: It Was Not 'My Doing or My Choice'
5/12/2018 by Ashley Iasimone
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Lindsey Buckingham on stage with Fleetwood Mac.
Just over a month after Fleetwood Mac announced Lindsey Buckingham would not be joining the group on its upcoming tour, the guitarist and singer has addressed parting ways with his bandmates.
"I have sadly taken leave of my band of 43 years, Fleetwood Mac. This was not something that was really my doing or my choice,” Buckingham, said during a performance in Los Feliz, Calif., Friday night (May 11). “I think what you would say is that there were factions within the band that had lost their perspective.”
“It harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build," he said of the group's decision, "and that legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill one’s higher truth and one’s higher destiny.”
He refrained from commenting when one audience member yelled "**** Stevie Nicks."
Fleetwood Mac
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Buckingham was performing at a campaign fundraiser for Mike Levin, a California Democratic congressional candidate.
On April 9, Fleetwood Mac issued a statement that simply said, "Lindsey Buckingham will not be performing with the band on this tour. The band wishes Lindsey all the best." it was also revealed that he would be replaced by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell and Crowded House's Neil Finn on tour.
The remaining members of the band -- Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood -- later said the split happened because of conflicts with tour rehearsal schedules, but were reluctant to use the word "fired." “Not to hedge around, but we arrived at the impasse of hitting a brick wall," Fleetwood told Rolling Stone. "This was not a happy situation for us in terms of the logistics of a functioning band. To that purpose, we made a decision that we could not go on with him. Majority rules in term of what we need to do as a band and go forward.”
Hear Buckingham's comments in the video below.