Lindsey Buckingham Preferred to Make ‘Esoteric’ Albums like ‘Tusk’
With most of the Fleetwood Mac members writing for the rock band, some albums (and their original songs) for “political” according to guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. The songwriter and producer shared he “would’ve been quite happy” to work on albums like Tusk, which led to his solo project.
Lindsey Buckingham wrote songs ‘Tusk’ and ‘Go Your Own Way’ for Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac is known for its collaborative, chart-topping releases. At its height, the band featured artists Mick Fleetwood, Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, and John McVie.
Buckingham had a role in writing and producing Fleetwood Mac originals — “Go Your Own Way” off Rumours becoming one of the most successful. All five band members contributed to “The Chain” in the same collection.
Even before joining Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham was writing music alongside Nicks. The two released a self-titled album as a duo. Buckingham continued writing solo music alongside his work with the rock band.
Lindsey Buckingham would’ve preferred to make more Fleetwood Mac albums like ‘Tusk’
Tusk was a different creative direction for the group, according to Buckingham. With songs like “Sara,” “Sisters of the Moon,” and “Storms,” this was the songwriter’s preferred album for storytelling, as noted in a Louder Sound interview.
One of the most popular Tusk songs, the title track, was written by Buckingham. Fleetwood Mac added it to their Greatest Hits collection, with “Tusk” snagging over 75 million Spotify plays. However, other band members were responsible for writing and creative choices.
“I probably would’ve been quite happy to go on making more esoteric albums like that in Fleetwood Mac, but the politics dictated otherwise within the band,” Buckingham noted. “Mick [Fleetwood] and everyone else was initially sort of skeptical about what I wanted to do on Tusk, and then got drawn into it.”
“But then when it didn’t sell sixteen million albums like Rumours there was a kind of a rethink about whether that was what we wanted to do,” he added.
Lindsey Buckingham released music as a solo artist
Although he continued to write and perform with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham released projects as a solo artist. That includes “Trouble,” “Go Insane,” and “Scream.” He even created an album with Christine McVie. This was the songwriter’s creative outlet, as noted in the same interview.
“I realized the only way for me to sort of continue to explore the more left side of my talent – which I was pretty sure was where the growth was going to lie for me as an artist – was that I was going to have to do it on solo albums,” Buckingham said.
Other Fleetwood Mac members branched to release solo music, most notably Nicks, who released “Edge of Seventeen” and other hit songs. She performs concerts as a solo artist, recently headlining New Jersey’s Sea.Hear.Now Festival and Connecticut’s Sound on Sound.
