Following the bombshell revelation earlier this month that guitarist and Fleetwood Mac stalwart Lindsey Buckingham would no longer be working with the band, the group have now shared some of their reasoning in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
“Words like ‘fired’ are ugly references as far as I’m concerned,” says drummer and handily-monikered band spokesman Mick Fleetwood.
“Not to hedge around, but we arrived at the impasse of hitting a brick wall. This was not a happy situation for us in terms of the logistics of a functioning band.”
And, apparently, they made the tough call via an old-fashioned show of hands:
“To that purpose, we made a decision that we could not go on with him. Majority rules in term of what we need to do as a band and go forward.”
According to bandmate and vocal powerhouse Stevie Nicks, part of the problem was a simple clash of work ethics within Fleetwood Mac:
“We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June and he wanted to put it off until November [2019]. That’s a long time. I just did 70 shows [on a solo tour]. As soon as I finish one thing, I dive back into another.
“Why would we stop? We don’t want to stop playing music. We don’t have anything else to do. This is what we do.”
Fans of the catty band-drama which has been the group’s hallmark since year dot will salivate over Nicks’ analysis of her relationship with Buckingham as being akin to a marriage:
“Some couples get divorced after 40 years,” she continued. “They break their kids’ hearts and destroy everyone around them because it’s just hard.”
“This is sad for me, but I want the next 10 years of my life to be really fun and happy. I want to get up every day and dance around my apartment and smile and say, ‘Thank god for this amazing life.’”
On a more forward-looking note, Stevie Nicks is happy that the band can now play a more wide-ranging setlist, as “certain people in the band” made a point of insisting they stick to tunes from the classic 1975-1987 era.
“There are 10 hits we have to do. That leaves another 13 songs if you want to do a three-hour show. Then you crochet them all together and you make a great sequence and you have something that nobody has seen before except all the things they want to see are there.”
“At rehearsal, we’re going to put up a board of 60 songs. Then we start with number one and we go through and we play everything. Slowly you start taking songs off and you start to see your set come together.”
On their forthcoming tour, Buckingham will be replaced byTom Petty and The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, and Crowded House’s Neil Finn.
