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When Stevie Nicks sang “Silver Springs” in concert, she wailed it directly at Lindsey Buckingham. She wrote the song about their breakup, and they relived the intense feelings every time they performed it live. Nicks often made a meal of the performance. Buckingham shared what it was like to have this targeted at him.

Lindsey Buckingham shared what it’s like to be on the receiving end of ‘Silver Springs’

“Silver Springs” is a breakup song that Nicks wrote amid her painful split from Buckingham. Because of this, she sings it directly at him when they’re onstage.

“‘Silver Springs’ always ends up in that place for me because she’s always very committed to what those words are about, and I remember what they were about then,” he told Rolling Stone. “Now it’s all irony, you know, but there is no way you can’t get drawn into the end of that song.”

Their 1997 performance of “Silver Springs” has gone down in history amongst Fleetwood Mac fans for its blistering intensity.

Lindsey Buckingham said ‘Silver Springs’ probably gave the audience ideas about their relationship

Buckingham acknowledged that because of the way they performed “Silver Springs,” people might assume he and Nicks are planning to rekindle their romance. While he said he didn’t have plans for this, he thought anything was possible.

“I think,” Buckingham said, “some people are probably getting the impression that we are back together or something along those lines. Which is certainly not true. Not yet, anyway. You never know. I don’t foresee that at all. But, you know, things . . .”

Nicks was not on the same page.

“Over my dead body,” she said. “See, I don’t want to be part of that darkness. He knows that. When we’re up there singing songs to each other, we probably say more to each other than we ever would in real life.”

Stevie Nicks fought to get the song included on the album

While “Silver Springs” has become an iconic Fleetwood Mac song, it very nearly went under the radar. Nicks wanted it on the A-side of the album, but the rest of the band relegated it to the B-side.

“The battle of Silver Springs was pretty bad,” Nicks told MacLean’s. “[Fleetwood Mac] took that off [Fleetwood Mac’s 11th studio album, Rumors] and they didn’t even ask me. They replaced it with ‘I Don’t Want to Know’ — which was a good song, but it was short. They took ‘Silver Springs’ off because they thought it was too long on the record and there was no way to cut it down. I was told in the parking lot after it had already been done.”

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When the band released The Dance, a collection of live recordings, they released “Silver Springs” as a single. It helped fans get better acquainted with the song.

“I had given that song to my mother so it was kind of a bummer, because it ended up being kind of a dead gift,” she said. “What was great was that when we went back together to do [a live album, 1996’s The Dance] it was the single. My mom ended up getting a $50,000 cheque two months after The Dance went out. To my mother, it had been a million-dollar cheque.”

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