Lindsey Buckingham offers rare insight into Fleetwood Mac’s making of ‘Rumours’

Exclusive: Musician reflects on how the band made one of the most storied albums of all time

Lindsey Buckingham has said that the members of Fleetwood Mac were able to rise above their “personal differences” in order to make their classic 1977 album, Rumours.

Speaking to The Independent as he marked the 45th anniversary of their experimental album 1979 record,Tusk, the musician reflected on the famously fraught period for the band as they dealt with their personal turmoils and the success of their self-titled 10th album.

The late singer and keys player Christine McVie was recently divorced from her bandmate, guitarist John McVie, while Buckingham was in a tumultuous on-off relationship with singer Stevie Nicks. Meanwhile co-founder Mick Fleetwood had recently discovered his wife, Jenny Boyd, was having an affair with guitarist Bob Weston, whom he fired.

Nicks and Buckingham, however, were able to channel their frustrations with one another into their music, from her cool dismissal on “Dreams” to Buckingham’s fiery “Go Your Own Way”. McVie, ever the hopeful romantic, soothed with upbeat tracks such as “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun”.

“We rose above our personal difficulties so beautifully in order to make [Rumours],” Buckingham said. “In doing that [we realised] we had a destiny that was more important and greater than all of us personally.

“When that album did succeed on the level it did, it just made us realise that our personal lives were one thing, but there was something more profound that was going on, and that it was our job to embrace that. In a way, I guess you could say that was galvanising.”

Lindsey Buckingham (left) says that Fleetwood Mac were able to rise above their personal strife in order to make ‘Rumours' (Getty)

In the decades since its release, Rumours has been consistently ranked by music experts and fellow artists as one of the greatest albums of all time. In a 2013 report, it was estimated that one in six US households owned a copy of the record.

“Rumours represents, along with The Eagles’ Greatest Hits, the high-water mark of America's Seventies rock-culture expansion, the quintessence of a counter-cultural mindset lured into coke-fuelled hedonism,” The Independent’s late albums critic Andy Gill wrote in a five-star review of a deluxe remastered version of the album.

From left: Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie pose with their Album of the Year Grammy Award for ‘Rumours’ in Los Angeles, 23 February 1978 (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“Its very sound, with those winsome melodies, those West Coast harmonies, and that rhythm section lagging fractionally, imperceptibly behind the beat conjures a fantasy world of luxurious, liberal excess and Californication, captured with sleek perfection.”

Fleetwood Mac fans have been speculating this week over a recent flurry of activity from the band, including the launch of a new official Instagram account that is being followed by Nicks.

In recent months, the band have also launched an official TikTok account, leading some fans to wonder whether an announcement is forthcoming.

They have also been praising Nicks for her performance on Saturday Night Live on 12 October, where she sang her new single “The Lighthouse” as well as her 1981 solo single “The Edge of Seventeen”.

Buckingham was ousted from the band in 2018, shortly before Fleetwood Mac embarked on a world tour. He sued the band for an alleged breach of contract, then said in December that year that he and his former bandmates had managed to reach a settlement.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham performing together with Fleetwood Mac in 2014 (Getty Images)

Fleetwood said in a June interview with Mojo magazine that he hoped that Nicks and Buckingham would one day reconcile.

“It’s no secret, it’s no title-tattle that there is a brick wall there emotionally,” he said. “Stevie’s able to speak clearly about how she feels and doesn’t feel, as does Lindsey.

“But I’ll say, personally, I would love to see a healing between them – and that doesn’t have to take the shape of a tour, necessarily.”