One side of why Stevie Nicks left Fleetwood Mac is because, in 1989, Nicks set to work with Fleetwood Mac on “Behind the Mask”, which was released in 1990 as a moderate success in the United States. But, in the United Kingdom, the album entered the chart at number one and became platinum. Due to the success, the band went on a world tour to promote the album and on the last night, Buckingham and Nicks reunited on stage to perform “Landslide”.
Once the tour finished, Stevie Nicks left the group after a disagreement with Mick Fleetwood because he wouldn’t allow her to release “Silver Springs” on her album. He wanted to save it for release on an upcoming Fleetwood Mac box set as he knew how valuable it would be as a selling point to their fans who had shown a lot of interest in it.
All in all, there are other claims that the reason that Stevie Nicks removed herself from recording songs as a member of Fleetwood Mac is due to the rocky relationship between her and Lindsey Buckingham, which has a long rollercoaster ride of a story.
The Beginning of it All
It all started when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks met in high school in California in the late 1960s. Buckingham was in a rock band called Fritz, and he asked Nicks to join it as a lead singer after two members of the band had gone off to college. At this point, they weren’t romantically involved, they were just both really interested in making music. The band stayed together until the early 70s. Finally, Fritz broke up which led to Nicks and Buckingham suddenly becoming an item.
In 1973, they called themselves the Buckingham Nicks and released an album that failed completely. Then, their record label dropped them. Things got tough at this point; they didn’t have a lot of money which caused them to fight and yet, making music remained a constant throughout their relationship. “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” were some of the music they made during this difficult time in their lives.
Later in 1974, Buckingham and the three members of Fleetwood Mac had met, and Fleetwood wanted Buckingham to join the group because of his guitar skills. But Buckingham told them that if he were to join the band, Stevie Nicks was a part of the package deal. Fleetwood asked them to join the group. At this point, it was like the couple had finally hit the jackpot for the first time since moving out to LA. And so, this is when their adventure as members of Fleetwood Mac began.
When Stevie Nicks Joined Fleetwood Mac
When the group was writing and recording the “Rumours” album, Nicks and Buckingham had ended their love affair. The other two members of the group who were married, John and Christine McVie, also broke up. Although it was a rough time for all the members of the group, some of their best songs like “Dreams” and “Go Your Own Way” came from all this.
Many years and more complicated love affairs later, the band was still able to walk up on stage and be very close to one another. Everything seemed to be working out okay at that time. Until later in 1980 when Buckingham started releasing solo music which led him to leave the band. Nicks shortly did the same and began working on her solo career. But they both ended up going back to Fleetwood Mac.
Many years later, in 2018 is when things got tense. In the early part of the year, the band had a tour scheduled but Buckingham asked if it could be delayed by 3 months to promote his work as a solo artist. All the members of the group were flexible except for Nicks who said, “the dates are the dates, and they are not changing”.
What had happened during this time was nothing compared to what they had gone through for so many years. Yet this is what led to the final split of the group when Buckingham was fired from Fleetwood Mac. There have been claims that Stevie Nicks was the one that wanted him fired but in an interview, she said otherwise. She made it clear that she, “didn’t ask him to be fired nor demand him to be fired from Fleetwood Mac”. Quite frankly, she fired herself from the group for several reasons but because of the bumpy relationship between her and Buckingham throughout all these years which had become a negative influence on her well-being.
The Future of Fleetwood Mac
Although no one can for sure know what happened on the inside of the group, it seemed that they had gone through a lot together and over time, when the tension builds, it can be difficult to ignore. All that said, what Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac created together is something that will live on forever!
Their music is legendary and who knows what the future will bring considering not too long ago in August 2021, the group performed at the Island Showroom in Michigan. This event was organized by the Island Resort and Casino. Not only could visitors enjoy an epic show by Fleetwood Mac, but they could also experience popular casino games like poker, bingo, slot machines, and even casino jackpots in the casino hall of the venue. This one night only re-creation of Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac sold out. The audience got to appreciate the group performing their most classic songs!