Lindsey Buckingham says Mick Fleetwood wants him to return to Fleetwood Mac
"It's really going to take Stevie coming to that point of view."
By Maureen Lee Lenker
August 09, 2021 at 11:06 AM EDT
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Caption: John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, in 2014 | CREDIT: D DIPASUPIL/FILMMAGIC
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow — especially if that tomorrow includes a reunited version of Fleetwood Mac.
The band parted ways with Lindsey Buckingham back in 2018, but ahead of the release of his self-titled solo album this September, the guitarist tells EW that fans shouldn't count out a potential reunion one day.
"There have been intimations from Mick [Fleetwood], who I've talked to several times, that he wants to try to get the five of us back together," he says. "I did not see their last tour. I'm sure it was fine, but I think it was probably very mellow by comparison...They were covering so much other Fleetwood Mac material, and they were doing Crowded House songs and Tom Petty songs. So, I wasn't sure how that was going to pan out, and I wasn't sure how Mick ultimately felt about it either, but that was the politics of the situation that led to that."
Buckingham was ousted from the band in 2018 following a request that was reportedly instigated by his former bandmate Stevie Nicks. At the time, Buckingham said he was informed by Mac manager Irving Azoff that Nicks never wanted to share a stage with him again. He was replaced by the combination of Neil Finn and Mike Campbell on Fleetwood Mac's tour shortly after.
But despite the seeming finality of the request from Nicks (and a since-settled lawsuit from Buckingham), he's hopeful that the world could see the five most renowned members of the group back together one day in the future.
"Mick — he didn't want to see me go in the first place — but he's talking about that," he says. "I would never hang my hat on that. It's really going to take Stevie coming to that point of view, and I haven't spoken to Stevie in a long, long time, so I don't know where that's at. It's certainly something that more than one person who is close to the situation has brought to me."
As for his part, Buckingham would be more than open to the prospect of returning. "I wasn't happy about how that went down," he reflects. "It wasn't so much that I felt slighted that I didn't get to do yet another Fleetwood Mac tour, but I thought it really did not respect the legacy that we built, which was all about overcoming adversity."
"Anything that anyone had an issue with, with me, was so small in comparison with other things we managed to rise above," he adds. "So anyway, that's a — perhaps slim — possibility."
Come back to EW this fall for much more from Buckingham on his new album, which is available everywhere Sept. 17.
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