Lindsey Buckingham delivered his first public comments on his recent split from Fleetwood Mac during a political fundraising event in California on May 11, and video from the event has surfaced online.
Medium reports the guitarist spoke about the situation between songs at an evening in Los Feliz, CA supporting environmental attorney and Democratic candidate Mike Levin, who is seeking election to the U.S. House to represent the 49th Congressional District of California.
“It’s been an interesting time on a lot of levels,” Buckingham told the crowd. “For me, personally, probably some of you know that for the last three months I have sadly taken leave of my band of 43 years, Fleetwood Mac. This was not something that was really my doing or my choice.
“I think what you would say is that there were factions within the band that had lost their perspective [a female fan shouts, ‘F — k Stevie Nicks!,’ prompting Buckingham to raise his hand]. Well, it doesn’t really matter. The point is that they’d lost their perspective.
"What that did was to harm – and this is the only thing I’m really sad about, the rest of it becomes an opportunity – it harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build. That legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill one’s higher truth and one’s higher destiny.”
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.
Fleetwood Mac shocked fans last month by announcing the Buckingham split, with Nicks telling Rolling Stone, “We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June [for an October tour start) and he wanted to put it off until November [2019]”, and drummer Mick Fleetwood adding, “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, with shows already scheduled into the spring of 2019.
See also:
Fleetwood Mac detail split with Lindsey Buckingham
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
Search Stevie Nicks at hennemusic
Search Fleetwood Mac at hennemusic
