Lindsey Buckingham Says Half Of Fleetwood Mac Wants Him Back

As Lindsey Buckingham preps for his upcoming solo tour and new studio album — he maintains that half of Fleetwood Mac wants him back in the band. Three years after being tossed out of the group, the soon-to-be-divorced Buckingham has overcome open-heart surgery, hits the road early next month, and releases his self-titled collection on September 17th.

While talking to Mojo, Buckingham shed light on what precipitated his unplanned 2018 exit from Fleetwood Mac: “I did the record with Christine McVie (Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie in 2017) and wanted to go straight on to this (solo album). Fleetwood Mac wanted to tour. So we ended up going in a direction I didn’t see coming. Stevie (Nicks) orchestrated that, and the others were stuck in the middle. I thought at this point in our careers it doesn’t speak well of the legacy. So I had to restructure everything. But, hey, that's rock n' roll. . .”

Regarding a reunion with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham said, “It would be so appropriate for the five of us to go out again, even if you want to call it a farewell tour. I didn’t see the last shows (with Mike Campbell and Neil Finn) but I heard it was a little generic, like a covers band. That’s fine, because there’s always a faction of people who are coming for the brand, per se, and aren’t going to differentiate in terms of members as long as Stevie is up there. But it would be great for us to share it one last time. I know Mick (Fleetwood) and Christine would love that to happen. Wait and see.” Buckingham neglected to offer whether bassist John McVie is open to him returning.

When pressed about the contrast of his new album's songs detailing a solidly domesticated long-term relationship, and his split with wife Kristen after three kids and 25 years together, he explained, “I wrote these songs when my wife and I had been together a long time. Things drift. Suddenly, you’re at a point where everyone is pulling to reboot the entire scenario of domestic life. That’s something that happens. So while a lot of these songs are celebrating long-term relationships, they’re doing it in a non-romanticised way.”

Lindsey Buckingham understands that the psychodrama between him and Stevie Nicks — not to mention the divorce of Christine and John McVie — was the gasoline that ran the engine of the band, especially during the legendary Rumours album: “One of the real draws of Fleetwood Mac beyond the music in those earlier days was this musical soap opera. And it was a very literal portrayal of what was really going on behind the scenes. Y'know, you could certainly make a case for saying that we made a great deal of success on a career level but we were pretty dismal failures in our personal lives, for any number of years, y'know?”