The version of Fleetwood Mac Lindsey Buckingham dismissed as “generic”
Some of the most successful bands of all time seem to have had a revolving door of members. Prog-rockers King Crimson had over 20 players come and go, and Guns N’ Roses drafted in almost as many. Although they managed to push through their personal issues and create some hit songs along the way, soft rockers Fleetwood Mac saw their fair share of lineup changes, too.
The band started out in London in 1967 with singer-songwriter Peter Green. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood were among the players who would join him in the early years, both of whom would form part of the most iconic Fleetwood Mac lineup. But just three years after he had founded the band, Green took his leave in 1970, and a period of disruption seemed to follow.
Several musicians, including Bob Weston and Bob Welch, completed brief stints with Fleetwood Mac in the early 1970s. However, the band only came together when Fleetwood roped in Lindsey Buckingham on guitar. Buckingham agreed to join the band on the condition that Stevie Nicks, his songwriting partner and romantic partner, could also be part of it. Saying yes turned out to be the best decision Fleetwood could have made.
Alongside keyboard player Christine McVie, Buckingham and Nicks became the band’s leading songwriters, providing big hitters like the hazy ‘Dreams’ and the bouncy ‘Go Your Own Way’. Together, this lineup created Rumours, which would prove to be a particularly monumental release for Fleetwood Mac. Inspired by their turbulent personal relationships behind the scenes, the fabled album became the band’s magnum opus.
Despite the divorces and drug problems that plagued the personal lives of Fleetwood Mac, the band members pushed through and ensured that this lineup would last much longer than most. It only changed in 1987, when Buckingham left the band. For the guitarist, the struggles they endured behind the scenes during this time had become completely essential to the story of Fleetwood Mac.
During a chat with Forbes, he commented, “If you talk about how we were strong and heroic enough to rise above all of our personal difficulties in order to fulfil our destiny, that has become part of the subtext in the legacy of Fleetwood Mac.” The lore of the band and their internal relations with one another have certainly become almost as well-known as the music they inspired.
It makes sense, then, that Buckingham wasn’t entirely sold on the lineup of the band that existed from 2018 to 2022. He departed from the band in 2018, and Neil Finn and Mike Campbell were drafted in on guitars for a number of shows in the years that followed. Buckingham didn’t make it to any of the Fleetwood Mac shows without him, but that didn’t stop him from having an opinion on the new lineup.
“I saw the set list,” he commented, “Which had Peter Green and Bob Welch and Crowded House and Tom Petty, and I was like, ‘This is kind of generic here.’” Amidst Fleetwood Mac classics like ‘The Chain’ and ‘Don’t Stop’, the band peppered in a number of covers, such as Crowded House’s ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ and Tom Petty’s ‘Free Fallin’’, a choice that clearly irked Buckingham.
The set may have featured some generic covers, but Buckingham’s frustrations seem somewhat misplaced. On their final reunion, Fleetwood Mac wasn’t necessarily trying to do anything groundbreaking—they didn’t need to; their legacy had already been secured.
