Lindsey Buckingham has spoken about his departure from Fleetwood Mac for the first time.
The band confirmed they had parted ways with Buckingham in April and had drafted in Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Crowded House leader Neil Finn for their upcoming 2018/2019 North American tour.
Now Buckingham has addressed the situation, speaking at a fundraiser in the US on Friday night.
In a video posted by Brian Larsen, which can be watched below, and reported by Medium, Buckingham says: “For me, personally, probably some of you know that for the last three months I have sadly taken leave of my band of 43 years, Fleetwood Mac.
“This was not something that was really my doing or my choice. I think what you would say is that there were factions within the band that had lost their perspective.”
A fan then shouts out a comment about Stevie Nicks, to which Buckingham responds: “Well, it doesn’t really matter. The point is that they’d lost their perspective and what that did was to harm – and this is the only thing I'm really sad about, the rest of it becomes an opportunity – it harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build.
“That legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfil one’s higher truth and one’s higher destiny.”
Speaking in April about the situation, Mick Fleetwood told Rolling Stone: “This was not a happy situation for us in terms of the logistics of a functioning band. To that purpose, we made a decision that we could not go on with him.
“Majority rules in terms of what we need to do as a band and go forward.”
Fleetwood Mac’s tour dates will get under way with their new lineup in October and will run through until April 2019.
