Stevie Nicks shoots back at Lindsey Buckingham about Fleetwood Mac split: 'I did not have him fired'
Stevie Nicks is breaking her silence on Lindsey Buckingham's firing from Fleetwood Mac after her former bandmate shared his side of the story in a new interview with Rolling Stone.
"It's unfortunate that Lindsey has chosen to tell a revisionist history of what transpired in 2018 with Fleetwood Mac," she said in a statement to the publication. "His version of events is factually inaccurate, and while I've never spoken publicly on the matter, preferring to not air dirty laundry, certainly it feels the time has come to shine a light on the truth. I could publicly reflect on the many reasons why, and perhaps I will do that someday in a memoir, but suffice it to say we could start in 1968 and work up to 2018 with a litany of very precise reasons why I will not work with him."
Lester Cohen/Getty Images Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham
Nicks continued to defend herself, saying, "To be exceedingly clear, I did not have him fired, I did not ask for him to be fired, I did not demand he be fired. Frankly, I fired myself. I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my well-being. I was done. If the band went on without me, so be it."
The singer added, "I have championed independence my whole life, and I believe every human being should have the absolute freedom to set their boundaries of what they can and cannot work with. After many lengthy group discussions, Fleetwood Mac, a band whose legacy is rooted in evolution and change, found a new path forward with two hugely talented new members."
Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac three years ago at Nicks' request, and was replaced by Crowded House singer-songwriter Neil Finn and Mike Campbell, a former member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Buckingham revealed that the group's issues started when he asked his bandmates if they'd agree to delay their 2018 tour dates so he could promote what would become his seventh solo album.
Most of Fleetwood Mac's members were amicable about shifting the dates, but Nicks reportedly refused to agree to his request. Their fraught relationship reached its breaking point at the January 2018 MusiCares festival, when the group accepted their Person of the Year award and Nicks became angry at a reaction from Buckingham that she considered to be insulting. When the band used the Nicks-written "Rhiannon" as their entrance song to receive the award, Buckingham felt it "undermined" the occasion's impact, and then Nicks was reportedly annoyed when Buckingham smirked during her long speech on behalf of the group.
D Dipasupil/FilmMagic Fleetwood Mac members John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Mick Fleetwood in 2014
But Buckingham now maintains that his wanting to work on his album caused problems, not his reaction to Nicks' speech.
"I think she wanted to shape the band in her own image, a more mellow thing, and if you look at the last tour, I think that's true," Buckingham told Rolling Stone. "I think others in the band just felt that they were not empowered enough, individually, for whatever their own reasons, to stand up for what was right. And so, it became a little bit like Trump and the Republicans."
Last month, EW spoke to the iconic guitarist, who said he hasn't ruled out reuniting with Fleetwood Mac despite the contentious split. "It's really going to take Stevie 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," he admitted. "I wasn't happy about how that went down. It wasn't so much that I felt slighted that I didn't get to do yet another Fleetwood Mac tour, but I thought it really did not respect the legacy that we built, which was all about overcoming adversity."
Come back to EW this month for more from Buckingham on his new self-titled album, which is available Sept. 17.
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