Mick Fleetwood said he plans to make music with Lindsey Buckingham again, but it may not happen under the Fleetwood Mac name.
The band’s founding drummer previously credited the July 2020 death of founding guitarist Peter Green as the catalyst that brought an end to a bitter estrangement between him and Buckingham. The singer and guitarist was fired from the group in April 2018, after apparently angering Stevie Nicks with his behavior at a benefit concert.
“I know for a fact that I intend to make music and play again with Lindsey,” Fleetwood told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “I would love that. It doesn’t have to be in Fleetwood Mac.”
Fleetwood also still has hopes for a full-band reunion onstage – which he thinks should include current band members Mike Campbell and Neil Finn – as part of a farewell tour, whenever it’s safe for bands to hit the road again. “I think the vision for me, and I think it would be hugely appropriate, is that we actually say ‘this is goodbye’ and go out and actually do that,” he explained. “That has always been my vision, and I’m a flatly confident that we can do that. We owe it to the fans.”
He also acknowledged that his grand plans may not be possible, even while dismissing Christine McVie‘s recent suggestion that the band’s touring days could already be behind them: “I think she got out of bed on the wrong side that day. She meant to say, ‘We’ve done so much. I don’t know whether or not we can keep going.’ Anything other than that, she can speak for herself. But I can assure you we are alive and well.”
The relationship between Nicks and Buckingham, however, still needs repair first. “I can’t speak for the dynamic with Stevie and him,” Fleetwood admitted. “I don’t even need to protect it. It’s so known that they’re chalk and cheese in so many ways, and yet not. … Somehow, I would love the elements that are not healed to be healed. I love the fantasy that we could cross that bridge and everyone could leave with creative, holistic energy, and everyone could be healed with grace and dignity.”