Fleetwood Mac recently shocked fans by announcing a split with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham ahead of a 2018-2019 North American tour, and now the group are detailing the reasons behind the lineup change.
“We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June and he wanted to put it off until November [2019],” Stevie Nicks tells Rolling Stone. “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.”
While fans are left to decide if Buckingham left on his own or was fired, founder Mick Fleetwood explains the situation was a full band decision.
“Words like ‘fired’ are ugly references as far as I’m concerned,” says the drummer. “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. 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.”
In Buckingham’s place, Fleetwood Mac have brought in Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House to handle guitar duties for an extensive North American tour that will begin in Tulsa, OK on October 3.
Ahead of rehearsals, Nicks says the group have already decided to expand the setlist to feature songs from the entire history of Fleetwood Mac, not just the original Buckingham/Nicks run from 1975 to 1987.
“We were never able to do that since 1975 because certain people in the band weren’t interested in doing that,” Nicks reveals. “Now we’re able to open the set with a lot; a raucous version of [1969’s] ‘Rattlesnake Shake’ or something. I’d also like to do [1970’s] ‘Station Man,’ which has always been one of my favorites. We’re definitely doing [1970’s] ‘Oh Well.’”
Buckingham and then-girlfriend and musical collaborator Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974 before their recording debut with the group for a self-titled 1975 album – of which an expanded reissue was released in January.
The guitarist has yet to comment publicly on his split with the band.
See also:
Fleetwood Mac announce tour following split with Lindsey Buckingham
Fleetwood Mac fires guitarist Lindsey Buckingham ahead of new tour
VIDEO: Former AC/DC singer Brian Johnson performs with Mick Fleetwood in Maui
AUDIO: Fleetwood Mac stream unreleased version of Monday Morning
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Search Fleetwood Mac at hennemusic
