How Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham Came to Join Fleetwood Mac
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are award-winning musicians. However, Fleetwood Mac was releasing music before these two even appeared alongside the rock band. Here’s how the duo officially joined the famous band.
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham released music as a duo
As high school friends-turned-musical partners, Nicks and Buckingham appeared as a duo, releasing the album Buckingham Nicks in 1973. At the time, Fleetwood Mac was releasing music with a different lineup.
The original Fleetwood Mac members were Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Peter Green, and Jeremy Spencer. Since their debut on the music scene, this group changed its primary musicians, most notably adding Nicks and Buckingham.
How Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac
By the time Nicks and Buckingham were considered for this band, the lineup had already changed to include Christine McVie and Bob Welsh. According to Music Spotlight Magazine, the lineup change sparked when guitarist Welsh announced his departure from Fleetwood Mac.
After Welch could not be convinced to stay in the band, Fleetwood turned to a guitarist he’d heard at a studio called Sound City — Buckingham. Convinced of Buckingham Nicks’ potential (and his musical relationship with Nicks), a meeting was arranged at El Carmen — a local Mexican restaurant in Beverly Hills.
“We did everything on instinct,” Fleetwood mentioned, according to the same magazine. “Nobody ever auditioned.”
“We all really got on well,” Christine McVie said. “Stevie was a bright, very humorous, very direct tough little thing. I liked her instantly, and Lindsey, too.”
After this encounter, Buckingham and Nicks were officially added to the band, making their debut with the studio album Mr. Wonderful. The rest is history.
“They made me feel wonderful,” Nicks said during an interview with Kerrang! in 1981, “and I fell madly in love with all of them immediately — even though I knew in my heart they didn’t really need me.”
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham took Fleetwood Mac to new heights
Nicks and Buckingham took on additional roles in this band, writing original music for Fleetwood Mac to perform. Subsequently, the group dominated the music scene with Tusk, Rumours, and Tango in the Night.
Although the band rarely releases music anymore, they sometimes reunite for live performances. Like Aug. 27, 2022 concert at Blues Kitchen in London, England.
Together, the band released songs like “You Make Loving Fun,” “As Long as You Follow,” “Go Your Own Way,” and “Rhiannon.” Rumours earned the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. “Dreams” even recently became the audio for a TikTok trend.
Nicks, of course, found success as a solo artist as well. Some of her most famous songs include “Leather and Lace,” “Edge of Seventeen,” “Talk to Me,” “Rooms on Fire,” and “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything To You.”
