Sell-outs and show-offs: The three bands Lindsey Buckingham grew to loathe
When it comes to dishing out criticisms of other rock bands, Lindsey Buckingham really, quite frankly, has some cheek to talk.
It goes without saying that he’s an integral part of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, but quite equally, there’s no other outfit which can even come close to some of the dramatic and warring escapades of Fleetwood Mac over the years. He can attempt to pass the blame all he wants, but we all know who the main stirrer is in these situations.
Of course, this does not stop Buckingham from asserting his acerbic opinions, however unfairly, on other musicians and bands – it’s just our choice whether we indulge him or not. In this case, it kind of defeats the purpose not to, and so we will brace ourselves for the onslaught of irateness Buckingham has for the groups he just happened not to like.
While it might somewhat be a matter of the pot calling the kettle black when he calls other people “sell-outs” and “show-offs”, Buckingham nevertheless had three bands which he grew to loathe over the course of the years and decades he shared the rock realm with them. Let’s just say some were more valid than others.
The three bands Lindsey Buckingham grew to loathe:
Van Halen
The one thing you can say for Fleetwood Mac is that every role and instrument is accounted for in their sound – there’s none of this noise rock rubbish where everything turns into a blur. In a nutshell, that was essentially Buckingham’s major gripe with Van Halen, and particularly its guitarist Eddie Van Halen, as he just felt the talent was lost in between turning up the amps.
“I’ve always believed that you play to highlight the song, not to highlight the player. The song is all that matter,” Buckingham opined. “There are two ways you can choose to go. You can try to be someone like Eddie Van Halen, who is a great guitarist, a virtuoso. Yet he doesn’t make good records because what he plays is totally lost in the context of this band’s music.” Maybe he’d have enjoyed it more if Eddie had more of a solo career?
Eagles
As I’ve said before, it’s pretty rich for Buckingham to criticise the dynamic of any other band when the one on his doorstep was constantly blazing to the point of inferno. But the old adage does go that the loudest calls of naysayers always come from within the same house, hence the guitarist branding Fleetwood Mac the “anti-Eagles”.
He famously once claimed that the band “sold out” after the success of Hotel California, where their remaining albums were simply a replica of the formula they now knew rocketed them to the top of the tree. Whether you agree with that sentiment or not, or could even apply it to Fleetwood Mac, is another matter – but it’s clear these were very much two bands at war.
Fleetwood Mac
In the interest of spreading the sludge of negativity a bit more evenly, we should turn the mirror back inwards to make Buckingham examine himself and his own shortcomings – or, at least, a version of them. It is true that he eventually learned to loathe Fleetwood Mac… just when he wasn’t actually appearing with them.
After he was fired in 2018 and the band went on tour without him, he snarled: “Look, it’s Fleetwood Mac, anything’s possible. Maybe they’ll get it out of their system.” But then, as is customary, taking aim at Stevie Nicks, he continued: “I don’t know what they’re doing. It’s a cover band kind of deal, and Stevie [Nicks] may be enjoying that, and that’s fine. If she is happy doing that, there is no one outcome that I think is going to be okay.”
Now those guns have seemingly fallen silent for the time being and their feud has reportedly been put to bed, we can all dare to dream that these fights are in the past – but we all know what to do the next time Buckingham has someone in the firing line.
