SPIN - LB Calls Current Group a “Cover Band" (Stereogum article excerpts)
 

https://www.spin.com/2018/12/lindsey...nion-possible/

NEWS \
Lindsey Buckingham Is Down to Rejoin Fleetwood Mac, Calls Current Group a “Cover Band”
Tosten Burks // December 10, 2018

lindsey-buckingham
CREDIT: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Lindsey Buckingham sat down with Stereogum for an interview about his solo career that inevitably landed on the topic of his ongoing feud with Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham said he’s willing to return to the group, couching his offer in a series of digs at his former bandmates. “Look, it’s Fleetwood Mac, anything’s possible. Maybe they’ll get it out of their system,” he said. “If they ask me to come back, would I? Sure.”

Buckingham added, spicily, that his return would be in the group’s best interest, and compared Fleetwood Mac’s current tour lineup to a cover band. “Look, I mean it does make me question who these people are,” he said, “but again, to look at it compassionately, I think it’s all coming from a lack of perspective and to some degree a certain weakness on their parts. I can’t stop loving them because of that.”

That wasn’t Buckingham’s only snide remark. Hypothesizing why he hasn’t spoken for months with Mick Fleetwood or Stevie Nicks, he called Fleetwood “too weak-willed” and Nicks “so needy for a certain kind of attention and maybe not wanting to compete with the vitality that I have.” Elsewhere, he described Fleetwood’s 2015 autobiography as “a real trashy thing” and said the drummer “doesn’t have a mechanism for self-editing.”

Buckingham recently settled his lawsuit with the band over his alleged firing earlier this year, as he revealed Saturday on CBS This Morning, but it’s clear the legal resolution hasn’t cleared the air. Buckingham’s solo tour wrapped last night in Pennsylvania. You can read Stereogum’s full interview here.

Sounds like he wants to be back in the band more than they actually want him back. I still would rather have a new album from the current lineup more than a tour with LB back.

And he would rather be doing his solo stuff anyway, but yes he'd like to see better closure for their legacy. But they're a drain on his resources--mental, musical, and time--so I'm glad he makes it clear that he doubts it's going to happen.

A new album from the current lineup? Can't wait to hear all of those great new Stevie tunes she was holding out on the rest of Fleetwood Mac for the past fifteen years.

I Really Do Love Me
verse....

I love myself
I love myself
I love myself

Chorus
bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
you will never forget me
bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

verse 2...
I love myself more than last verse
I lover myself more than last verse
I love myself more than last verse
bahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Repeat chorus

Written By Stevie Nicks Jimmy Iovine Rick Nowels Rod and Sandy Stewart Mike Campbell and Chrissy Hyde

I don’t think this current iteration will do anything beyond the last 2019 tour dates. And I can’t imagine why Neil and Mike would want to stick around for more

Haha. Not holding my breath, was just saying. I wouldn’t expect more than 3 or 4 new songs per songwriter anyway. In Stevie’s case she could pull from her old demos and we wouldn’t be shocked.

:lol::lol::lol:

From the same 2 F and G major chords.

All that matters is the running time.

Under five minutes?
Add another verse!

Still too short?
Repeat the entire song from start to finish!
#Lady

Can you imagine Rod and Sandy Stewart together... :lol:

jbrown cracks me up.

I’m very glad to see Lindsey both speaking his mind and leaving the door open for giving the band the closure it needs and that fans deserve.

I am very cautiously optimistic.

Thanks.. :wavey:

I don't think she will ever work with him again. I would love to see her go solo and the fearsome foursome do an album and small tour.

I selfishly need my own closure with the Rumours 5. However, I’d be just fine with the above. Stevie came alive with the 24 Karat tour and I’d love to see what another solo tour would bring. Perhaps she will get really bold and do entire Bella Donna or something like that. Or entire Street Angel :laugh:

She made millions upon millions with those 2 chords though....nice work, right?

I'm with you. I, too, would rather have a new album by the current lineup than another tour with Lindsey. I really don't think Mick, Stevie, or John have any interest in recording with Lindsey again, especially after his interview. However, I can see them all recording with Neil, along with Christine. Christine I can see recording another album with Lindsey, too. But FM recording with Lindsey again? I really don't see that happening.

No matter how successful she’s been solo, the most recognized solo song from any of them is and will always be a LB song.

What Song?
 

"Stand Back" is I bigger than anything he did. So is "Stop Draggin' Your Heart Around" (which I realize she didn't write).

The only #1 hit any of them wrote is "Dreams."

Stevie turned Fleetwood Mac into a cover band because she had nothing new to offer.

wait what? bigger than Holiday Road?

i think Eo17 is her huge solo song. and then however many Tom Petty ones i didn't even know she was on.

Don't Stop, Go Your Own Way and Landslide are probably the most well known FM songs to general public. whether they were #1 on some ancient chart nobody cares about anymore or not. The Chain is huge too, and was never even a single.

Holiday Road is far more recognizable, any way you slice it.

i love this new candid LB. pulling no punches. making it clear Azoff muzzled him for the sake of bleeding-in FM cash through him. making it clear Mick is "weak" and cannot edit himself or knowing where to draw the line in any of his personal endevours. finally calling his wife his soulmate, something he never did in interviews before, now when he doesn't have to walk on eggshells anymore to appease Nicks.

i bet Christine and John are jealous they cannot let loose but still have to toe the party line!

on that note, i'd love it if McVies quit the sham band after this tour is over and join LB for another album and tour. or if LB has to rejoin FM (i really hope it never comes to that!), then it has to be FM without people that caused all this huge time waste for FM since 1998 (while trying to build their own solo brand instead). LB, McVies and Mick are fast with recording and pushing out new stuff with that classic FM feel, and both LB and CM are still very prolific and creative. we can get several FM albums out of those 4.

Agreed 100%

So he wants back and thinks insulting them is the right way?
After him being so "classy" for nearly a year, the band settled with him. He deserves all the money he got. But the second his lawyers aren't advising him to play nice or be quiet, he uses every opportunity to prove their point, that he was a pain...
I was shocked and sad when the band fired him, but in the last interviews, he is not doing himself any favours, spewing vitricol, making snide comments, all passive ggressive with "I love them, but..." Sure Lindsey.
His solo tour is over, he is probably already bored - can't he just go into a studio and do some recording or anything else productive?
He should move on, his ex-band has.

I'll bet you're a lot of fun at parties...:laugh::wavey:

I can't be bothered, but I would love it if someone complied every Stevie Nicks comments regarding Lindsey since 2003. Don't come at me with this **** about vitriol, snide comments, and passive aggressiveness. Are you being purposefully obtuse, or is the sheer lack of awareness unintentional. You Stevie fans have no idea what irony is.

I agree. I cringed when she called him “Mr. Useless” last year.

Still, it’s hard to maintain the high road while slinging mud with pigs.

or way longer than that. completely agree with you. she's been hitting him way below the belt for decades. somehow she's been given a pass for all that, over and over. now he's just stating some facts, after she got him fired and ruined their band - and now he's somehow the bad guy? she's been holding Fleetwood Mac back since 1998 - when they staged the intervention for him to come back, according to his Stereogum interview. why would he need to be the only one who has to be overly and boringly diplomatic in that band, always putting band first and yet always being accused of not doing that, while Mick and Stevie can be hypocritical, trashy and passive agressive and that's somehow fine?

this interview is refreshing and fun. all his interviews from last week are. he calls spade a spade. well, about time! if one doesn't like sincerity and calling it like it is, don't read LB's interviews. it's as simple as that. his whole lawsuit was about putting out the truth, he won, and he's putting it out!

I don’t think Mick has said anything other than it was an unhappy situation and that he asked for a delay. Lindsey admitted asking for a delay (which is when I think the decision was made), and it obviously wasn’t happy, otherwise why fire someone?

It certainly has to be cathartic for him. Let’s just hope, for his sake, that it’s construed as catharsis and not as bridge burning, because he’s the only one talking about a possible reunion, not them.

This last week of press from Lind's; as I've stated previously, are the most interesting and honest we've seen from this band in recent memory.

My biggest issue with the discourse is the fact that Fleetwood Mac got the first swing in their CBS interview, they presented their version of events; of which some fans choose to believe, I recall SugarMouse stating that until Lindsey breaks his silence he/she could only believe the version of events being proffered. The moment Lindsey started defending himself those same people wanted the Mac to have the right of reply, Saying Lindsey "MUST have done something" and wanting to give Stevie another right of reply.

Well in my world that's BS, they wouldn't have settled if they had just cause for his firing. You don't get a do-over once your lies have been exposed.

Truthfully, I don't know what the end game is for the fan community, it's so fractured and nasty that it mirrors the current state of world politics. Our once sacred and treasured band of which most of us have followed for well over 15/20 years has now descended into heartbreak.

I hope sooner rather than later I can return to the band's music as a whole without thinking about this situation. Until that point, Lindsey's VITAL solo career on which he is still a creative entity is a solace to me.

I agree on the timing. I think this is more or less what happened:

1. In November 2017 Lindsey asks for delay, the band refuses, and he storms out of the band meeting. The band decides to fire him, but also decides to wait until after MusiCares to pull the trigger.

2. Lindsey meanwhile withdraws his request, but by then he is the proverbial dad man walking, as they have already decided to cut ties.

3. When fired, in Lindsey's mind it can't be on account of his insistence on a delay because he had since withdrawn that request, but in the band's mind November (not January) was when he was really fired.

4. The band cites his insistence on a tour delay to justify the firing, but is vague and misleading on the timeline. They say he wanted to wait a year, but it was a year from the band meeting, not a year from when they wanted to start touring. Stevie also says "next November" instead of "November 2018" or just "November," which leaves the door open to the inference that he wanted a delay of up to 19 months.

Wonder how things would have unfolded (including in the studio) had Lindsey let Sheryl Crow into the band in 2008 like Mick and Stevie wanted.

that one made me choke on my dinner!!! :laugh:

Not true, Christine made an overture about Stevie wanting him back..

So by this reasoning, during the negotiation stage of the tour planning, a monumental decision was made between two of the five legitimate members of the band, with two of the key songwriters unaware of the plan to replace a key member. If your timing or version of events is true, treason is certainly an appropriate word to bandy around.

She did.

Then he talked publicly about it.

Actually it is pretty clear Lindsey had agreed to tour on FM timetables prior to the decision. Thus the instant decision to settle.

Christ on a Stick Steve you are bending over backwards to support the band on an unsupportable decision.

Lindsey is an arrogant ahole who probably got some of what was coming to him. But he is the principal sonic architect of all the writers’ songs since 1975. To act like this is a better band without him is just pure lunacy or maybe jealousy.

Obviously two key songwriters were out of the loop. We already knew that, though. That would also true if the decision had been made after MusiCares. Even Lindsey doesn’t blame Christine for what went down.

Doesn’t dispute my theory, though. I think he was gone after making the request. In fact, I’ve never suggested there was one single factor in his firing.

Who said I supported the decision? I disagreed with the decision, but I like who they got and see the merit in what they’re doing musically, but I never said I agreed with the decision.

Who said it was better?

y'all do realize that they SHOULD HAVE given him that delay in the first place? not fire him for it! yet he said ok, no delay. he bent over backwards for that band over and over. and somehow some here find justified to fire him over wanting measly 2 months for his solo career that has been put om the back burner while waiting for Nicks since 2012? or over one sentence he said in some interview nobody even knows about except like 2 people here who are fixated on it. :laugh:

please.

Seems like he went forward with a solo tour in 2012, and the LBCM tour.

However, apples and oranges from 2012. That was six years ago, Stevie was extending a tour for an album that had been out for a year, Christine wasn’t in the band, and John hadn’t had cancer.

Aside from being in the L.A.Times, that interview was broadcast on SiriusXM. I heard it when I was driving through Indianapolis on my way home from Chicagoland. Damn near wrecked my car! I remember looking over at my girlfriend and cringing. She cringed, too. Regardless, none of us had money invested in that wannabe festival series. Azoff had millions. Can we at least agree that the comment did Lindsey no favors?