They’re feuding like it’s 1976 again! Fresh from his unexpected Fleetwood Mac firing “after a disagreement†regarding their upcoming tour schedule, Lindsey Buckingham is venting his frustration about the way everything went down. Mostly that the termination surprised him, and he didn’t really have a say in the matter. “It’s been an interesting time on a lot of levels,†he said at a political fundraiser on Friday, per Medium. “For me, personally, probably some of you know that for the last three months I have sadly taken leave of my band of 43 years, Fleetwood Mac. This was not something that was really my doing or my choice.â€
The most significant point for Buckingham, though, is that he now believes Fleetwood Mac’s legacy will be tarnished by the way they handled kicking him out. “I think what you would say is that there were factions within the band that had lost their perspective,†he continued, apparently not engaging with a spectator who shouted Fuck Stevie Nicks! during his remarks. “The point is that they’d lost their perspective. What that did was to harm — and this is the only thing I’m really sad about, the rest of it becomes an opportunity — it harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build, and that legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill one’s higher truth and one’s higher destiny.â€
As for the band, they’ve explained how Buckingham wanted to delay their tour rehearsals until November 2019, which didn’t sit well with their musical pursuits. (The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn will take turns subbing in for him on the tour.) “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,†Stevie Nicks explained after the news broke, while Mick Fleetwood offered up a more diplomatic response: “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.â€