Lindsey Buckingham blames Stevie Nicks for the lack of new music from Fleetwood Mac, telling Classic Rock magazine that the fact that the legendary rock band haven’t released a studio album since 2003‘s Say You Will “wasn’t for lack of trying.”
Buckingham, who released a self-titled solo album earlier this year, was fired from Fleetwood Mac in 2018, and claimed earlier this year that Nicks was the catalyst for that decision: speaking with the LA Times, the guitarist said that Nicks issued a ‘him or me’ ultimatum to the band, in a bid to assert more control over the group, an accusation Nicks has denied.
Now, in a new interview running in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine, on sale on December 7, Buckingham suggests that his former partner’s reticence to get involved in the writing and recording of new Fleetwood Mac material is the reason there’s been no new album from the band in 18 years.
Buckingham claims that work had actually begun on a new Fleetwood Mac album back in 2012.
“I had a bunch of songs, and Mick [Fleetwood] and John [McVie] and I went in with the producer Mitchell Froom and cut a bunch of stuff,” he tells Classic Rock. “This was before Christine [McVie] returned to the band in 2014. We very much wanted to draw Stevie in, and for some reason she refused to participate.”
Buckingham claims that Nicks, “has sort of gotten a little bit disoriented in her wanting to pursue Stevie Nicks in capital letters, if you will.”
“I think she kind of lost track of her writing a little bit,” he says, “and maybe didn’t think she had anything she felt she could offer, and so did not want to be a part of it.”
“That effort to engage her was revamped again when Christine returned,” Buckingham says, “because it was like, ‘well, Christine’s back, maybe now Stevie will want to do this.’ Christine had a bunch of song ideas and I helped her with those, and we eventually went in the studio and cut those. And we were still hoping to make that a Fleetwood Mac album, and Stevie wouldn’t do it. That became the duet album that Christine and I did [2017’s Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie]. So it wasn’t for lack of trying.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Buckingham suggests that he’s open to the idea of another reunion with the band.
“Who knows, maybe we’ll manage to see clear to have one more nice run out there,” he says. “That would be the proper way to go.”
For much more from Lindsey Buckingham, pick up the new issue of Classic Rock magazine, which is on sale from December 7.
