Steve Granitz/Getty ImagesLindsey Buckingham has shared some first-hand news about why he was fired from Fleetwood Mac earlier this year. The singer-guitarist tells Rolling Stone that his former flame, Stevie Nicks, was responsible for pushing him out of the group.
Buckingham says that a couple days after Fleetwood Mac was honored and performed at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala in January, the band’s manager, Irving Azoff, called him and said, basically, “Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again.”
Azoff informed Buckingham that Nicks had a list of complaints about Buckingham’s actions at the ceremony, including him objecting to the use of “Rhiannon” — a song Stevie wrote — as the band’s intro music, and smirking while Nicks was giving her thank-you speech.
Buckingham admits that he did object to “Rhiannon” being played, although, he maintains, “It wasn’t about it being ‘Rhiannon.’ It just undermined the impact of our entrance.”
Regarding him smirking, Lindsey notes, “The irony is that we have this standing joke that Stevie, when she talks, goes on a long time. I may or may not have smirked. But I look over and Christine [McVie] and Mick [Fleetwood] are doing the waltz behind her as a joke.”
Buckingham says that when Azoff called him, he initially thought that Nicks was planning to quit the band, but it soon became clear that he was being ousted.
Buckingham says he’s reached out to Mick Fleetwood a number of times since he was fired, but the drummer hasn’t responded, nor has he heard from the other band members.
As for whether he could see ever playing with Fleetwood Mac again, Buckingham says he hasn’t “technically closed the book on anything…But I am not planning that anything will change from what it is now.”
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