Some quotes.
November 18th 1990 - Sun Herald
WHEN singers Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie quit supergroup Fleetwood Mac next month at the end of a US tour, it will come as no shock to fans who have followed the band’s 23-year history. McVie plans to take a brief rest from the music business and Nicks will complete a new solo album in 1991, although both singers said they would participate on Fleetwood Mac’s next album. The band has sold 50 million albums around the world.
December 6th 1990 - Los Angeles Times
Stevie Nicks had hoped to make it to Friday night at the Forum before the tears started falling. That’s when she and Christine McVie apparently will be making their last appearance as full-time members of Fleetwood Mac. Though the two are slated to contribute to the next Mac album, the Inglewood Forum concert will mark the end of an era for a group that ruled the pop charts in the late ’70s, with the two women as the public focal points.
Nicks figured that it would be Friday, during her introduction of her song “Landslide,” in which she always makes a dedication to someone at the show, before the emotions of change would really hit her. But she didn’t even make it through a recent interview. “In my heart I don’t believe it is the last show,” Nicks said through sobs while talking on the phone from Saskatoon, Canada, where the group was performing.
"I know that’s not what everybody else has said to you," Nicks said. "We are all individuals and have our opinions, and until three years go by and I see the whole thing with no chance of getting back together, I’ll never believe it’s over. I really believe everything is destined, and if we’re supposed to be together, we will be."
December 12th 1990 - Los Angeles Times
The last Fleetwood Mac concert for Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks? It was hard to tell Friday at the Forum, with the pair making what was billed as their last appearances as full-time members of the band after respective tenures of 20 and 15 years. No tears, no retirement speeches and few indications that this was more than just the end of a grueling, nine-month tour, that this was the end of an era.
But there were dramatic moments. Midway through the 2 1/2-hour show, the band left the stage eerily empty. After a brief pause, Nicks returned, escorting Lindsey Buckingham, her former musical and romantic partner who left the band two years ago and had not appeared with them on stage in eight. Nicks emotionally introduced their pre-Mac duet “Landslide,” expressing the “hope that someday he’ll find it in his heart to spend some time with me and maybe make some music.”
July 14th 1991 - Boston Sunday Globe
"I said [to Mick] if you don’t give me back my song, then I won’t write two new songs for your new record. So that’s where it stands right now … He won’t talk to me about it. I have no clue as to why he made that decision. It never stops, does it? Fleetwood Mac goes on like a miniseries. It’s one of those ‘Gone With the Wind’ things that goes on & on; & I never really know what’s going to happen. I never burn bridges, but right now I don’t think I’ll work with them."
Also in 1991:
"Right now I’m not very happy with Mick, & it’s over a pretty serious thing. He won’t give in & I feel it’s unfair, & since he’s not considering my feelings & I’ve always considered his, for the first time in my life I can actually say, ‘No, I’m not going to tour with them or work with them on this record.’ Not them, but him, because he’s done something that is unforgivable."
"I can’t believe he’s stupid enough to break this band up for a song he dumped in the garbage can. I fought like a dog to keep this band together for 15 years. I didn’t have to because I had my own solo career. I have always loved Mick, & I have always done everything I could to keep him going. It’s a pretty sad way to end Fleetwood Mac. This is going to be a shock to the rest of the band when they see the stupidity of Mick’s decision. It has nothing to do with all the other things we could have broken up over. I didn’t even get mad at him about his book. Last December, as we were wrapping up the tour, when I introduced the band, I would say ‘the fabulous Mick Fleetwood, drummer extraordinaire & best-selling author!’ I was trying to help him sell the damn book!"
VH1-1 she was asked where her relationship with Fleetwood Mac stood at that point. “It does not stand,” she said. “It [recording with the band] is not going to happen. Because the story’s already all over, so there’s no reason for me to really go into it. It all stems down to an argument between me & Mr. Fleetwood. And that’s down to the fact that he would not return to me a song that he dumped in the can 14 years ago, slapped on the back of a single & was never heard from again. And I wanted to put it on ‘Timespace’ because it belongs to my mom, & he said, ‘Over my dead body.’ And I said, ‘Well then, you just broke the camel’s back.’ So I won’t be involved anymore.”
"I told Dennis [Dunstan, Mick’s manager] what I wanted. I said, ‘I want Silver Springs because it belongs to my mother.’ … When ‘Timespace’ came around, it didn’t occur to me that they wouldn’t let me have it back. Switching back quickly to the night I called Mick a couple of months ago, & he didn’t want to return my call, I talked to his manager & said: ‘Well, you find Mick, & you tell him that if I don’t get those tapes by Monday, I am no longer a member of Fleetwood Mac.’ And he said, ‘Ok, give me until 10:30. I’ll find Mick. Don’t do anything yet.’ And I said, ‘Ok.’ And at about 10:15 Dennis called back & said that he had finally tracked Mick down. And Mick had said, ‘Over my dead body will I ever give that song back.’ And now he has ruined Fleetwood Mac’s future."
"Mick & I are having an intense argument. We’re not speaking. We haven’t spoken since the 7th of December of last year, which was our last gig at the Forum. He & I have come to a crossroads. And so, I don’t know if Mick can pull this one out of the bag. He may be able to, because Mick’s very magic sometimes, & he may be able to talk me out of it, but I don’t think so. Not this time."
"I would definitely have worked on the next record that they’re gonna do, which is gonna be a big, BIG, like, conglomeration of songs from, you know, 30 years ago all the way up until now, & some new ones. And I said, ‘Of course I’ll do that. Whatever.’ Because I’m a very soft touch. They all know it … And when I say ‘they’ that’s not very fair, because they have nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with me & Mick. WE are having the argument, not Fleetwood Mac & I. … How he’s gonna get out of this, I don’t know. Because, obviously, ‘Timespace’ is already out, & ‘Silver Springs’ isn’t on it."
And for good measure...
23rd April 1992 - Billboard
"A few years ago," says Lindsey, "Stevie and I bought back the rights to the ‘Buckingham Nicks’ album" - whose assistant engineer was Richard Dashut, still Lindsey’s best friend and co-producer. "That record has become one of the most requested albums not yet on CD, and we may put it out around the same time as a Fleetwood Mac boxed set that’s planned for Christmas. Incidentally, Stevie and I have agreed to go into the studio in a week or so to contribute some new stuff to the boxed set."
17th July 1994 - The Boston Herald
"It was very hard to leave [Fleetwood Mac]. I just couldn't leave them after Lindsey left [in 1987]. I couldn't do that to-- them. I just couldn't. But after Lindsey came and played the inaguration with us, I realized I could never deal with Fleetwood Mac again unless it would be the five of us. And it never will be that way again. So I decided my part in that particular Shakespearean drama is over."