In the Greatest Feud of Our Time, earlier this year Fleetwood Mac fired Lindsey Buckingham ahead of their tour for typical band bickering. Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood claimed at the time that it was mostly a scheduling conflict that bought him a one-way ticket home, but Buckingham now says the blame rests solely on Nicks. Describing his unceremonious termination now to Rolling Stone, he says he was fired over the phone by the band’s manager, Irving Azoff, while watching the Grammys. “Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again,” he was told, to Buckingham’s surprise. The two had just shared a stage two nights prior and he was under the impression that “we were getting along great.” Turns out, Nicks — who later called their relationship “volatile” — had a laundry list of complaints just waiting to unload on Buckingham. During the call, Azoff relayed to him that Nicks “took issue” with his “outburst” over their intro music, and did not appreciate him smirking during her speech.
Buckingham assumed the call meant Nicks was leaving the group, only to later learn he was the one “getting ousted” and that Nicks had privately told the rest of the band members it was either her or Buckingham — and they chose her. Buckingham says that, despite his reaching out, he hasn’t heard from anyone in the group since their last performance together in January. Which is fine, really. Buckingham just wants the receipts: “I don’t think there was ever anything that was just cause to be fired. We have all done things that were not constructive. All of us have worn on each other’s psyches at times. That’s the history of the group.” And we just want this drama to keep going another four decades.
