The guitarists who saved Fleetwood Mac from “catastrophe” in the 1980s
When the core members of Fleetwood Mac welcomed Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nick into their lineup, they likely didn’t realise just how much of a godsend they truly were.
At the time, the recruitment process was about as casual as meeting someone’s friends at a pub and seeing how well you gel with them after a couple of drinks. This was pretty much the same scenario for Nicks, who was told later that the main thing they had their eye on at the time was how well she got on with Christine McVie.
Nicks had, of course, prepared to an almost excessive extent beforehand, and had bought all of the band’s previous records to study them so that she’d be able to offer an opinion by the time they actually met. However, she was told later that her personality was the most important thing, and that if they didn’t feel like she fit in very well, she wouldn’t have been accepted.
“I found out later that they had to say to Christine, ‘If you like her, then we will ask them to join the band’,” she later reflected, “‘If you don’t like her, then we won’t, even though we want Lindsey and we need Lindsey, we won’t’.”
This was an especially large gamble given the fact that Buckingham and Nicks, of course, quite literally saved their entire career. After all, had the pair not joined the group, it’s obvious that the Mac’s jangly blues-rock offering would have quickly become dated, leaving them to scramble to maintain their relevance in an arena that was quickly embracing a more modern and electric style of rock.
And what Buckingham had that they perhaps hadn’t incorporated before was a style of guitar-playing that told its own story, something meatier and more dynamic than anything they’d explored before that ultimately pushed the band from being at the forefront of the British blues-rock boom to one with innovative excellence and a broader, timeless appeal.
Buckingham has talked about his approach in previous conversations at length, but one particular remark that perhaps explains everything about his contributions to Fleetwood Mac is his love for other storytellers and how they brought nuance to musical progression in ways that pushed the entire rock genre forward. Yusuf/Cat Stevens, for instance, taught Buckingham about blending “breathtaking” vocals with “sublime” melodies and rhythms.
As such, Stevens encouraged Buckingham to “find my own way” as a songwriter and artist, taking all his folk, rock and classical influences and allowing them to push Fleetwood Mac to greatness. This is also why you can effectively hear multiple things at once on many of Buckingham’s Mac tracks, from his proficiency as a world-class guitar player to his interest in telling universal stories that resonate forever.
However, not everything lasts forever, and at one point, the band had to start thinking about what they might do should Buckingham ever decide to pursue pastures new. Around the time the band went on tour to promote Tango in the Night, they started testing the waters and trying out guitarists that might fill his shoes, recruiting rhythm guitarist Billy Burnette (who had also played in Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo) and Rick Vito on lead guitar.
This temporary lineup was the perfect backup plan for whenever Buckingham decided to spread his wings elsewhere. “It was almost predetermined that they would join after Lindsey left,” Fleetwood later told the Pioneer Press, “They turned what could have been a catastrophic event into a smooth transition”.
