Stevie Nicks Said Lindsey Buckingham ‘Disappeared From [Her] Life’ After They First Met
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham have had a long and storied history as Fleetwood Mac bandmates, but how did it all begin? The singer revealed exactly what happened when she met the guitarist, and how he “disappeared from [her] life.”
Lindsey Buckingham got Stevie Nicks into Fleetwood Mac, and he blames her for why he’s no longer in the band
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac as a duo, although the guitarist was the one the band really wanted at first.
Drummer and founding member Mick Fleetwood was searching for a new guitar player when he heard Buckingham playing on the song “Frozen Love” by Buckingham Nicks. He invited Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac, and the “Big Love” singer accepted on one condition: Nicks, his girlfriend at the time, had to join the band, too.
Decades later, Buckingham claimed in multiple interviews that he believed Nicks was the reason he was fired from the group. “It would be like a scenario where Mick Jagger says, ‘Either Keith [Richards] goes or I go,’” he told the L.A. Times in September 2021. “But I guess the singer has to stay. The figurehead has to stay.”
Nicks vehemently denied sole responsibility for Buckingham’s firing in a statement to Rolling Stone. “To be exceedingly clear, I did not have him fired, I did not ask for him to be fired, I did not demand he be fired. Frankly, I fired myself,” the “Dreams” singer wrote. “I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my well-being. I was done. If the band went on without me, so be it.”
Stevie Nicks said that Lindsey Buckingham ‘disappeared from [her] life’ for years after they first met
Lindsey Buckingham may have helped Stevie Nicks become part of Fleetwood Mac, but their story begins long before that fateful day.
The “Rhiannon” singer opened up to Q Magazine about the first time she met the guitarist. “I was in the 12th grade [17 years old] and he was in the 11th grade,” Nicks said. “About halfway through the school year I was invited to some little get-together and Lindsey was sitting in a corner with a guitar and he started playing The Mamas & The Papas’ California Dreamin.’ Being the brazen brat that I was, I walked right up and, knowing the song as well as I did, just burst into song and I sang it with him.”
But Nicks said she and Buckingham didn’t make a romantic connection right away. It took them years to get together. “Right after I met Lindsey I met the guy I ended up going out with for five years, David Young,” she said. “Lindsey disappeared out of my life.”
The Fleetwood Mac singer revealed the guitarist did not invite her to join his band
Before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, they were in two other bands together. They were part of the band Fritz, and then formed their own duo called Buckingham Nicks.
But Nicks revealed that Buckingham wasn’t the one who invited her into Fritz, effectively launching their decades-long music career together. It was the band’s drummer, Bob Geary,
“He didn’t ask me, the drummer did, Bobby Geary,” said the singer. “Bob, I think, had been there that night I sang with Lindsey and said, ‘What do you think about asking that girl that sang California Dreamin’ with you that night to join our band?’ And Lindsey’s like, ‘Oh, OK.’”
