It seems that Fleetwood Mac is sailing through some changing ocean tides.
Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham told E! News at Variety’s Power of Young Hollywood event Aug. 6 that he and lead singer Stevie Nicks, 78, chat it up regularly these days. The development comes after a famously tension-filled history between the two, who were not only bandmates but also exes. They feuded on and off for decades.
“Stevie and I are talking all the time now,” Buckingham, 76, told the outlet.
For decades, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who once dated, had a rocky relationship despite putting out a number of hits with Fleetwood Mac. Getty Images
Buckingham attended the event to present the songwriter of the year award to artist Sombr. The guitarist, who joined Fleetwood Mac with Nicks on New Year’s Eve of 1974, said that the group has been working on a documentary, referring to the upcoming Apple TV project on the band. And it’s had an unexpected effect.
“That’s going to be coming out the very beginning of next year, so we are celebrating that,” Buckingham told E! News. “I think the process of making that has been a very circular healing process for all of us.”
The guitarist explained to the outlet that the band was in a rocky place in 2019. That year, the group had been on a roughly yearlong final concert tour, which spanned 80 shows across eight countries. However Buckingham was fired from the band in April 2018 before the tour even kicked off.
“We had left things in 2019, maybe as far as I was concerned, not in a very good place for all the wrong reasons,” he said of the band, whose lineup at the time included Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Nicks, and Christine McVie, along with new additions Mike Campbell and Neil Finn. Christine McVie died in 2022 at 79 years old.
Fleetwood Mac with awards for British sales of their albums ‘Rumours’ and Tusk’ at Wembley Arena in London in June 1980. Left to right: John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Michael Putland/Getty Images
“No one was happy about it, and all of that has been healed and worked out,” Buckingham said of the band’s issues following the tour.
However, Buckingham stopped short of implying that fans can expect any touring on the horizon.
Fleetwood Mac, one of the best-selling acts of all time, has been known for releasing hit after hit despite interband drama. Buckingham and Nicks joined the band while in a relationship, but cracks would soon develop. And during the recording of their legendary 1977 album “Rumours,” the two split. Additionally, John McVie and Christine McVie were navigating their own divorce. And Fleetwood’s marriage was falling apart as well.
The rocky breakup between Buckingham and Nicks led to classics on the album including “Dreams,” written by Nicks, and “Go Your Own Way,” by Buckingham. Though the pair initially stayed in the band, they both eventually departed between 1987 and 1991 to pursue their own projects.
The group came back together in the late 1990s for a tour. But following Buckinham’s firing, Nicks ceased all communication with her former flame until Christine McVie’s death prompted a brief reunion.
“The only time I’ve spoken to Lindsey was [at McVie’s memorial], for about three minutes,” Nicks told Rolling Stone in a 2024 interview. “I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could. You could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances.”
However the two appeared to mend fences and last year, they reissued their 1973 album, “Buckingham Nicks,” on streaming and other formats. The project was made prior to their involvement in Fleetwood Mac.
Next year, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the iconic “Rumours” album, will be an “interesting” one, Buckingham told E! News.
“I think quite a few things will reveal themselves,” he said.