Fleetwood Mac: Lindsey Buckingham Reveals The 1 Song That Makes Him Think of Stevie Nicks
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks made a lot of music together, even before joining Fleetwood Mac. But one song stands out to Buckingham as a reminder of his former girlfriend and bandmate.
Find out which song makes Buckingham think of Nicks and what he said about it.
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks worked together before joining Fleetwood Mac
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham have a long and storied history that predates their joining the classic rock supergroup Fleetwood Mac.
Buckingham and Nicks were high school sweethearts, and they both played in the band Fritz before breaking off to form the musical duo, Buckingham Nicks. They recorded one album together. The now-iconic record cover shows the couple topless, and Nicks has since said she was forced to strip for the photoshoot.
Mick Fleetwood, one of the founding members of Fleetwood Mac, heard the Buckingham Nicks song “Frozen Love” and invited Buckingham to replace guitarist Bob Welch in the band. Buckingham agreed, on one condition: his girlfriend had to join the group, too.
Lindsey Buckingham said this one Fleetwood Mac song makes him think of Stevie Nicks
Nicks and Buckingham’s romance didn’t last, but their careers as rock stars did. The two musicians continued to work, tour, and perform together after their breakup.
Many of Fleetwood Mac’s most famous songs are about Nicks and Buckingham’s bitter breakup. Nicks wrote “Silver Springs,” while Buckingham penned “Go Your Own Way.”
In a November 2021 interview with Vulture, Buckingham was asked which song most reminds him of Stevie Nicks. “There are so many. Let’s see, probably ‘Dreams,’” the guitarist replied. “There are a lot of reasons for that. Obviously, it was written about me. So there is that.”
Buckingham said the song reminded him what an excellent musical team he and Nicks made. “It also reminds me of us as a musical force together. It speaks to the quintessential essence of what we could be together, in terms of her and me coming together and adding our own things to make something greater than the sum of its parts.”
But the song “Dreams” also holds memories of his difficult breakup with Nicks. “I think the other reason “Dreams” reminds me of Stevie is because it was still fairly much at the beginning of things. When we recorded that, it was 1976, and she and I were kind of broken up but were still … I was watching her move away from me, and that song is also the embodiment of that whole thing I had to deal with in the aftermath, which was to choose to do the right thing for her on a professional and human level,” Buckingham explained.
“And yet, still having to deal with the pain of the loss of our relationship and not necessarily having the luxury to have closure by having distance from her because I had to see her every day. So all of that comes to mind when I think of ‘Dreams.’”
The former bandmates no longer speak to each other
Although they managed to work together for years after their split, the tension between Nicks and Buckingham finally came to a head. According to Buckingham, the former couple is no longer on speaking terms.
Fleetwood Mac fired Buckingham in 2018. The guitarist has said in various interviews that he thinks the “Gypsy” singer is responsible, which she has denied.
Buckingham had a heart attack in 1029 that required triple-bypass surgery. He said Nicks reached out to him after the procedure, and he has sent her a few texts and emails since, but she doesn’t usually respond.
