Credit: Far Out / Steve Proctor
Tue 22 September 2026 19:37, UK
Like every single one of his peers, Lindsey Buckingham was firstly a fan before having any modicum of success in the music industry, ahead of taking on the world by storm with Fleetwood Mac.
Getting inside the belly of the beast can make many musicians see their prized hobby become a career, and in some cases, even a chore. Buckingham, thankfully, has never fallen into that category, and to this day, he’s still a student of the game who has taken his ear away from the ground or refused to stop learning.
In fact, seeing how the sausage is made has only enhanced his hunger to improve as an artist and develop his skills in the studio. It also gave him a newfound appreciation for the masters of his craft that came before him and developed the innovation that changed the course of the industry.
Buckingham has always admired musicians who embrace change and avoid staying confined to a single genre. If it had been entirely up to him, Fleetwood Mac would have been even more dynamic than they already demonstrated on their records, despite the significant musical dexterity they showcased.
At the height of their fame, following the monumental success of Rumours, Fleetwood Mac could have taken the easier route of attempting to recreate that same album until the end of time and given audiences a rehash of a tried-and-tested formula. Instead, Buckingham took the creative reins on the follow-up record, Tusk, steering the band in a new direction.
Credit: Far Out / Press
For Buckingham, the album was a statement that represented putting artistic integrity above all else and a refusal to be confined to a singular box, telling Forbes that “the whole impulse was to make sure that you didn’t succumb to the external expectations”.
The guitarist also said that it’s perceived that audiences “want you to sort of formulise and stick to for the rest of your life, which is tantamount to painting yourself into a corner creatively.”
Further reading: From The Vault
Instead, Buckingham was focused on the long-term picture, and whether Tusk outsold Rumours was not worthy of worry. In the same interview, he used Elvis Presley as an example of an artist who went the other way, going stale in the process, claiming that “he did become sort of a caricature of himself,” which he wanted to avoid at all costs.
Rather than following the Elvis path, Buckingham looked at The Beatles and Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys, acts that he considered to be the masters of reinvention. He noted of his heroes, “The evolution that went with that and how they took, not only the music community but the world, along with them, that’s a fine example of making good choices. Brian Wilson did the same thing, and obviously, he’s a big hero of mine.”
However, intriguingly, Buckingham didn’t always have that view of Wilson, who sadly died in 2025. Pet Sounds is almost universally revered as a seminal body of work that altered the direction of music, but it wasn’t love at first listen for Buckingham. Then, once he found fame with Fleetwood Mac, the guitarist understood Wilson’s decision in a whole new light and had the utmost respect for the bold album.
Wilson’s website boasts the following quote from Buckingham, “The first time I heard Pet Sounds, I have to admit that I did a little bit of knee-jerk in the same way probably the record company and some other people did because it wasn’t as accessible as Brian’s songwriting approach had been up to that time. I’m not sure I fully appreciated that until years later (when) I started making records myself.”
Buckingham wasn’t alone in feeling initially bamboozled by the ambitious Pet Sounds; but once he’d been in Wilson’s shoes, he could finally understand the monumental body of work that he produced.
Art can take decades to be fully appreciated, and many records never receive the deserved amount of love, but thankfully, those, including Buckingham, later swallowed their pride and admitted the album was the sound of a genius at work.
Then, in 1988, he had the honour of co-writing ‘He Couldn’t Get His Poor Old Body to Move’ with Wilson, which was further proof, if he needed it, that he was dealing with a true, one-of-a-kind talent.
