Mick Fleetwood says that he and the rest of Fleetwood Mac all wish former member Lindsey Buckingham well.
They 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.
And as the band rehearse for the road trip, Fleetwood admits it will be different without his old bandmate on stage.
He tells Billboard: “We’re very excited. Obviously this is a huge change with the advent of Lindsey Buckingham not being a part of Fleetwood Mac. We all wish him well and all the rest of it.
“In truthful language, we just weren’t happy. And I’ll leave it at that in terms of the dynamic. And he’s going out on the road more or less the same time I think.”
He adds jokingly: “Not in the same places, I hope.”
Fleetwood calls Campbell and Finn “really credible gentleman and really talented” and adds: “We are a week into rehearsals and it’s going really well and we’re looking forward, in true Fleetwood Mac style.
“If you know anything about the history of this band, it’s sort of peppered with this type of dramatic stuff. It’s a strange band really.
“It’s ironic that we have a 50-year package coming out with all the old blues stuff with Peter Green, all the incarnations of Fleetwood Mac, which was not of course planned. But that’s what we’re feeling, especially myself and John, having been in Fleetwood Mac for 55 years. So it’s exciting, totally challenging in the whole creative part of it, and we’re really loving it.
“We’re just looking at a whole 18 months on-and-off of trekking around the world like we normally do and having it be fun.”
Fleetwood Mac’s tour will get under way at the BOK Centre in Tulsa on October 3 and will stretch into 2019.
Fleetwood Mac 2018/2019 North American tour
Oct 03: Tulsa BOK Center, OK
Oct 06: Chicago United Center, IL
Oct 10: Louisville KFC Yum! Center, KY
Oct 12: Lincoln Pinnacle Bank Arena, NE
Oct 14: Des Moines Wells Fargo Arena, IA
Oct 16: Indianapolis Bankers Life Fieldhouse, IN
Oct 18: Kansas City Sprint Center, MO
Oct 20: St. Louis Scottrade Center, MO
Oct 22: St. Paul Xcel Energy Center, MN
Oct 26: Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena, OH
Oct 28: Milwaukee Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center, WI
Oct 30: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI
Nov 01: Pittsburgh PPG Paints Arena, PA
Nov 03: Ottawa Canadian Tire Centre, ON
Nov 05: Toronto Air Canada Centre, ON
Nov 07: Columbus Nationwide Arena, OH
Nov 10: Edmonton Rogers Place, AB
Nov 12: Calgary Scotiabank Saddledome, AB
Nov 14: Vancouver Rogers Arena, BC
Nov 17: Tacoma Dome, WA
Nov 19: Portland Moda Center, OR
Nov 21: San Jose SAP Center, CA
Nov 23: Sacramento Golden 1 Center, CA
Nov 25: Oakland Oracle Arena, CA
Nov 28: Phoenix Talking Stick Resort Arena, AZ
Nov 30: Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena, NV
Dec 03: Denver Pepsi Center, CO
Dec 06: Fresno Save Mart Center, CA
Dec 18: San Diego Viejas Arena, CA
Dec 11: Inglewood The Forum, CA
Dec 13: Inglewood The Forum, CA
Feb 05: Houston Toyota Center, TX
Feb 07: Dallas American Airlines Center, TX
Feb 09: Austin Frank Erwin Center, TX
Feb 13: Birmingham Legacy Arena at The BJCC, AL
Feb 16: New Orleans Smoothie King Center, LA
Feb 18: Tampa Amalie Arena, FL
Feb 20: Ft. Lauderdale BB&T Center, FL
Feb 22: Columbia Colonial Life Arena, SC
Feb 24: Charlotte Spectrum Center, NC
Feb 27: Nashville Bridgestone Arena, TN
Mar 03: Atlanta Philips Arena, GA
Mar 05: Washington Capital One Arena, DC
Mar 09: Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall, NJ
Mar 11: New York Madison Square Garden, NY
Mar 13: Newark Prudential Center, NJ
Mar 15: Hartford XL Center, CT
Mar 20: Albany Times Union Center, NY
Mar 24: Baltimore Royal Farms Arena, MD
Mar 26: Buffalo KeyBank Center, NY
Mar 31: Boston TD Garden, MA
Apr 05: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA
