Earlier in April, Fleetwood Mac announced they are parting ways with their guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. The first reports said the split came over a disagreement about an upcoming tour, but neither the band nor Buckingham revealed further details at first. Now, members of Fleetwood Mac decided to offer an explanation while talking with Rolling Stone.
“We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June, and he wanted to put it off until November [2019],” revealed vocalist Stevie Nicks. “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.”
Still, Fleetwood Mac doesn’t want to say they fired Lindsey Buckingham.
“Words like ‘fired’ are ugly references as far as I’m concerned,” Drummer Mick Fleetwood said. “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 order to replace Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac brought in guitarists Neil Finn (Crowded House) and Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers).
The band also announced that they will embark on a 52-date tour across North America. The tour begins with a show in Tulsa, Oklahoma on October 3rd and finishes with a show in Philadelphia on April 5th, 2019.
