Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham Don’t Fake Their Love for Each Other on Stage, but ‘When You Go Back to Your Separate Dressing Rooms, It’s Over’

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s relationship mostly took place in the public eye, thanks to some personal songs from Fleetwood Mac. Even after they broke up, though, the love between these artists remained on stage, as noted by the “Edge of Seventeen” singer.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are two members of Fleetwood Mac

Even before joining Fleetwood Mac, Nicks and Buckingham created music together. After their friendship blossomed as teenagers, the artists became a duo, releasing their self-titled full-length album. 

Shortly after, these two were asked to join Fleetwood Mac. They released songs like “Dreams,” “Gypsy,” “The Chain,” and “Go Your Own Way,” earning international recognition in the process. When Nicks and Buckingham went from collaborators to romantic partners, most of that took place in the public eye.

The love between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham on stage was ‘real’

Fleetwood Mac continued performing long after the Buckingham-Nicks breakup. Nicks even had a brief romance with Mick Fleetwood of the same band. When they all appeared onstage together, though, there wasn’t bad blood between these artists. 

“You can go onstage, and have a bit of a love affair,” Nicks said, according to Rolling Stone, “and when you go back to your separate dressing rooms, it’s over. But while you’re on the stage, it’s real. And if it isn’t real, people would really know it.”

The same website reports that when Fleetwood Mac reunited for their 2009 tour, however, the two mostly ignored each other onstage. In 2022, Nicks embarked on tour alone, also continuing to release music as a solo artist.

Stevie Nicks commented on her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham

Years after their breakup, Nicks commented on her relationship with Buckingham. The romance was somewhat impacted by their involvement in Fleetwood Mac, with the timelines interacting in no-so-convenient ways.

“You just have to throw yourself into your song. I mean, I broke up with Lindsey in 1976,” Nicks said during an interview with The New Yorker. “We’d only been in Fleetwood Mac for a year and a half, and we were breaking up when we joined Fleetwood Mac.”

“So we just put our relationship kind of back together, because I was smart enough to know that, if we had broken up the second month of being in Fleetwood Mac, it would have blown the whole thing,” she added.

As a result, many Fleetwood Mac songs detailed the relationship between Buckingham and Nicks. Nicks wrote “Dreams” about the end of their romance, while Buckingham created “Go Your Own Way.” 

Later, Nicks penned “Storms” about her relationship with band member Mick Fleetwood. She turned to Buckingham for his insight, with his then-girlfriend writing that Buckingham “tore apart” Nicks’ original. Now, Fleetwood Mac music is available on most major streaming platforms.