They've been down one time, they've been down two times - heck, it's probably more at this point - but Mick Fleetwood says he and former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham have patched up their differences.
“I’ve really enjoyed being re-connected with Lindsey, which has been gracious and open,” Fleetwood told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “And both of us have been beautifully honest about who we are and how we got to where we were.” The drummer said the duo reconciled following the passing of the band's co-founder and original guitarist Peter Green in 2020.
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Buckingham, who joined the Mac for their most commercially successful period from 1975 to 1987 and again in 1997, was let go from the band ahead of a 2018 tour. (As was the case following Buckingham's first exit, two musicians ended up replacing him: Mike Campbell, guitarist for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn of Crowded House.)
Fleetwood said in the interview he envisions a future tour where "we actually say ‘this is goodbye’ and go out and actually do that." That vision, he says, would include the "classic" line-up of the band (himself, Buckingham, singers Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie and founding bassist John McVie) as well as Campbell and Finn (currently reviving Crowded House for a new album and tour of their native New Zealand).
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The interview also acknowledged commentary from Christine McVie in February 2021 that the band may not have much longer ("She just got caught up in whatever she was saying and she also felt she had been misunderstood," Fleetwood said) as well as the theoretical reunion's major stumbling block: Buckingham and Nicks' fraught relationship, which led to his most recent exit. “I can’t speak for the dynamic with Stevie and him,” he admitted. “It’s so known that they’re chalk and cheese in so many ways."
Ultimately, Fleetwood says, he is happy to be friends with his old bandmate. “I know for a fact that I intend to make music and play again with Lindsey,” he said. “I would love that. It doesn’t have to be in Fleetwood Mac."
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