Lindsey Buckingham, in perhaps his most “like sands through the hourglass” moment in recent memory, has alluded to Stevie Nicks not being over him.
Buckingham mentioned this in a new interview with U.K’s The Times (as transcribed by Yahoo Music.) He said, “There were a number of years where I wasn’t over her. It is possible that she has never been completely over me either.”
Buckingham and Nicks’ infamous breakup was immortalized on Fleetwood Mac’s landmark album Rumours, but Buckingham thinks literally working through their split may have affected how the two of them moved on.
He said, “The way we had to get through ‘Rumours’ is part of the legacy and heroics of the whole thing. We didn’t have time to heal or move on in the traditional sense. I think — and she was the one who moved away from me back then — that we both had to compartmentalize our feelings. That is not a healthy thing to do because those little compartments can remain sealed up for years, until things start seeping out when you don’t realize.”
Buckingham then detailed how his and Nicks’ different personal paths following their split may have impacted their feelings saying, “I met the love of my life late and that gave me a whole other take on the world. Stevie did not have children. She went down a different route and has placed more importance on her professional life. How that played out in the last three, four, five years… It’s hard for me to know what her mentality is towards me, but I know what mine is to her because I’ve been married for 21 years and I have three children and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
For the past few years, the Fleetwood Mac/Buckingham drama has been playing out in the press. Buckingham was ousted from Fleetwood Mac in April 2018. Since then, there has been a lot reported on why he was fired in the first place.
Buckingham told Rolling Stone in October 2018 he was fired from Fleetwood Mac after Nicks allegedly gave the band a “him or me” ultimatum following the band being honored at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala in January 2018 where she was not pleased with some of Buckingham’s behavior. There was also an issue within the band regarding the start of Fleetwood Mac’s current tour. The band wanted to start in August, while Buckingham wanted to start in November to give him time to promote and tour in support of a solo album.
Nicks would finally publically comment on the Buckingham situation for the first time in October 2020 in an interview with the Los Angeles Times saying, “I never planned for that to happen. Any time we re-formed to do a tour or a record, I always walked in with hope in my heart. And I just was so disappointed. I felt like all the wind had gone out of my sails.”
Despite all of this, Fleetwood told Rolling Stone in August that the July 2020 death of co-founder Peter Green led to him getting back in touch with Buckingham after not speaking for two years.
“I’ve really enjoyed being reconnected with Lindsey, which has been gracious and open, and both of us have been beautifully honest about who we are and how we got to where we were,” said Fleetwood.
Fleetwood also mentioned in that interview that he’s thinking about a potential farewell tour, likely once it’s safe to tour again following the coronavirus pandemic. He said, “I’m very aware that we’ve never played that card. I think the vision for me, and I think it would be hugely appropriate, is that we actually say ‘this is goodbye’ and go out and actually do that. That has always been my vision and I’m flatly confident that we can do that. We owe it to the fans.”
Buckingham then told Entertainment Weekly in August, “There have been intimations from Mick [Fleetwood], who I’ve talked to several times, that he wants to try to get the five of us back together. I did not see their last tour. I’m sure it was fine, but I think it was probably very mellow by comparison.”
Buckingham continued, “…They were covering so much other Fleetwood Mac material, and they were doing Crowded House songs and Tom Petty songs [since Neil Finn and Mike Campbell joined the band.] So, I wasn’t sure how that was going to pan out, and I wasn’t sure how Mick ultimately felt about it either, but that was the politics of the situation that led to that.”
Buckingham would add, “Mick — he didn’t want to see me go in the first place — but he’s talking about that. I would never hang my hat on that. It’s really going to take Stevie [Nicks] coming to that point of view, and I haven’t spoken to Stevie in a long, long time, so I don’t know where that’s at. It’s certainly something that more than one person who is close to the situation has brought to me.”