Mick Fleetwood Reveals How Lindsey Buckingham Reacted to His Affair With Stevie Nicks: ‘He Suffered Terribly’
Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood had an affair after the singer dated their Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Lindsey Buckingham. Here’s how Fleetwood described Buckingham’s reaction to the illicit romance.
When did Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks’ affair start?
Singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac as a couple on New Year’s Eve 1974. Their relationship was already on the rocks, and it couldn’t hold up against the pressures of fame and working together constantly. Their bitter breakup inspired some of the band’s most popular songs, including “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” and “Silver Springs.”
After their breakup, Nicks had an affair with drummer Mick Fleetwood in 1977, during the Australian leg of the Rumours tour. Nicks was in a relationship with the Eagles’ Don Henley, and Fleetwood was working on his marriage with Jenny Boyd.
Nicks has since said that her affair with Fleetwood was not “a good thing.” “It was doomed,” she said for Oprah’s Master Class. “It was a doomed thing, caused a lot of pain for everybody, led to nothing.”
But Nicks has also implied that she doesn’t regret her romance with the drummer. “It was a great love affair – something I would never trade in a million years,” she told The Boston Globe in 1991 (per In Her Own Words).
Mick Fleetwood said Lindsey Buckingham ‘suffered terribly’ over his affair with Stevie Nicks
Although he and Nicks had broken up before her affair with Fleetwood started, Buckingham was still deeply hurt by the relationship.
“Lindsey once said it took him years and years and years to get over what happened,” Fleetwood told The Telegraph (via Fleetwood Mac UK). “He is a happily married man now, but he will still talk about it as if it was [snaps fingers] yesterday and say, ‘That was really brutal for me.’”
He added, “For someone like Lindsey it was like being in hell. He suffered terribly.”
The drummer shared what Lindsey Buckingham said about his illicit romance with the singer
Mick Fleetwood said Lindsey Buckingham was surprisingly gracious when he learned of the affair. Fleetwood revealed that the guitarist simply said, “Nice of you to tell me. I appreciate it.”
“That was not the issue,” the drummer explained. He knew that Buckingham’s sensitivity made it difficult for him to continue working with Fleetwood and Nicks once he learned of their entanglement. “It was about life itself in the band. Lindsey suffers a lot more because by nature he suffers.”
Fleetwood admitted he regretted how he and Nicks treated Buckingham. “I am sorry that we didn’t think about Lindsey enough,” he said. “We just thought he was OK, but he needed to be acknowledged.”
