Lindsey Buckingham On How Coronavirus Has Sidelined His Work

Lindsey Buckingham has put his upcoming tour on ice as the public at large self isolates. The dates were to be his first shows since undergoing open-heart surgery a year ago. The 12-date trek was to kick off on April 25th in Las Vegas and hit venues in California, Colorado, Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arizona.

During a chat with The New Yorker, the ousted Fleetwood Mac guitarist was one of several musicians to talk about how the current situation has affected their work, explaining, “The Coronavirus pandemic has been like no other phenomenon I’ve ever witnessed. The breadth of its reach, the seeming geometric progression of events, along with the chaotic manner in which information is unfolding, makes it a little difficult to maintain a grasp on what’s going on. Things seem to change by the day.”

Buckingham touched on how he's been forced to cool his jets in terms of touring and issuing new music: “I have a new album coming out at some point, and though the main body of my tour in support of that album is planned to begin in August, we’d also booked some earlier dates, in May, and thus were supposed to begin rehearsals this week. On Friday, I conferenced with my agent and managers and decided it would be best to cancel those May dates and not convene for rehearsals.”

He went on to say, “So, for now, everything’s on hold. A couple of tracks I’ve been listening to lately are the new single from the Killers, 'Caution,' which I played on, and the new one from Haim, 'The Steps,' which is also great. And my son turned me on to the new King Krule album. He’s someone I find very interesting — a touch of Joe Strummer! But, mainly, I’ve been listening a lot to my own album, as I’m right in the middle of mastering. That’s something I’ve continued doing, as it’s important to finish as many things as possible and have the album ready when things eventually get back to normal.

A while back, Lindsey Buckingham admitted to us that having a happy and stable family life has centered him — especially when it comes to his music: “I actually saw a lot of my friends who were parents, or were spouses, who were not really there for their families back then (and I) did not want to be one of those people. And the fact that I was lucky enough to meet someone and was able to have children relatively late after all of that other garbage was out of the way, y'know, it's been a great gift. Y'know, you could talk about the balance between the big machine and Fleetwood Mac and the small machine of solo work and how those two things feed off each other and support each other — and you can also talk about the balance between a creative life and a family life.”

CANCELLED: Lindsey Buckingham tour dates:

April 25 – Las Vegas, NV – Smith Center
April 28 – Boulder CO – Boulder Theater
April 30 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
May 1 – St Louis, MO – The Pageant
May 3 – Memphis, TN – Beale Street Music Festival
May 5 – Atlanta, GA – The Woodruff Arts Center
May 6 – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre
May 7 – Huntsville, AL – Von Braun Center Arena
May 9 – Wichita, KS – Orpheum Theatre
May 10 – Oklahoma City, OK – The Criterion
May 12 – Tucson, AZ – Fox Tucson Theatre
May 13 – Cajon, CA – Magnolia Performing Arts Center