Stevie Nicks Reveals She and Lindsey Buckingham Are Communicating Again

Throughout its history, Fleetwood Mac has been synonymous with drama, much of which can be traced back to the introduction of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

The couple joined the band in 1974, nearly a decade after Peter Green had established the original lineup. By the time Nicks and Buckingham arrived, Green had departed, yet the remaining members were more than capable of creating their own chaos.

Buckingham and Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac as a romantic couple, making them the second such pair in the band along with Christine McVie and her then-husband, John McVie. (Mick Fleetwood completed the lineup during this era.)

It wasn’t long before tension emerged. Within a few years, both couples had split, and Nicks began an affair with Fleetwood, who was married to Jenny Boyd. Miraculously, the band stayed intact, though the unrest persisted, particularly owing to Nicks and Buckingham’s volatile post-relationship dynamic.

“I met her when I was about 16,” Buckingham recalled in a 2009 BBC documentary about Fleetwood Mac. “It’s been most of my life. Sadly, for the lion’s share of those years, there has been distance and animosity of some kind, mixed in with everything else too. It’s never been just one thing.”

Though the former couple worked together for decades, their collaboration came to an abrupt end in 2018 when Buckingham was dismissed from Fleetwood Mac. They announced a reissue of their Buckingham Nicks album in 2025, but it remains uncertain whether they’ll do any promotion together after years apart.

Keep reading for a full timeline detailing Nicks and Buckingham’s relationship and its aftermath:

1966

Buckingham and Nicks crossed paths while attending high school in Atherton, California. According to Nicks, their first meeting occurred at an after-school event where they harmonized to the song “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas & the Papas. They began collaborating on music after Buckingham invited Nicks to join his band, Fritz.

1972

After Fritz disbanded, Nicks and Buckingham’s relationship became romantic. “I’m not sure we would have even become a couple if it wasn’t for us leaving that band,” Nicks reflected. “It kind of pushed us together.”

1973

The duo released their one and only collaborative album, Buckingham Nicks, which was deemed a commercial failure at the time. For over 50 years, the album was not available in digital formats.

1974

Nicks and Buckingham, still a couple at the time, joined Fleetwood Mac on New Year’s Eve. “If we hadn’t joined Fleetwood Mac, would Lindsey and I have carried on and made it?” Nicks speculated in an interview with Uncut. “I was really tired of having no money and being a waitress. I might have gone back to school, and Lindsey probably would have returned to San Francisco.”

1975

The duo’s inaugural album with the band, titled Fleetwood Mac (popularly known as The White Album), was released on July 11. This album featured “Landslide,” which Nicks mentioned she wrote during a period of uncertainty regarding her future in music or academia.

1976

Nicks and Buckingham separated after being together for about four years. Nicks indicated that their relationship was already strained when they joined Fleetwood Mac; however, they believed they needed to stay together for the team.

“We’d only been in Fleetwood Mac for a year and a half, and we were breaking up before we even joined Fleetwood Mac,” she recounted in a 2022 interview with The New Yorker. “So, we just temporarily patched things up, aware that if we had split right away, it might have ruined everything. I tried to make things as smooth as possible.”

1977

Fleetwood Mac released Rumours, their most renowned album, which continues to be one of the best-selling albums in history. Many tracks from the album, like “Dreams” and “Go Your Own Way,” clearly reflect the turmoil between Nicks and Buckingham.

In a 2009 documentary, Nicks shared her feelings about the lyrics of “Go Your Own Way,” expressing that they felt “extremely disrespectful.” Buckingham countered that he was merely being truthful in his songwriting, saying, “It may be a rather blunt observation, but that’s how you write songs.”

1987

Post solo album success, Nicks and Buckingham reunited with Fleetwood Mac to create their 14th LP, Tango in the Night, released on April 13. However, when discussions of the tour arose, tensions flared, culminating in Buckingham’s refusal to participate.

“When Lindsey said, ‘I’m not going,’ I think I ran across the room and tried to strangle him,” Nicks recounted in the 2009 documentary. “Then he chased me out of the house through Christine’s driveway, leading to a massive fight. And that was that. He was out.”

Buckingham wouldn’t return to the band until 1997.

1997

This lineup of Fleetwood Mac reunited to record their live album, The Dance, which was also released as a video. Their performance of “Silver Springs,” a Nicks track cut from Rumours, became iconic, especially for the intense exchange between them as she sang lines like, “You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loved you.”

Ramifications of their 1997 performance have become so significant that fans can buy unofficial T-shirts featuring the phrase, “Sorry, I can’t talk. I’m thinking about the 1997 performance of ‘Silver Springs’ where Stevie Nicks stares a hole through Lindsey Buckingham.” (Nicks herself commented that they were “shooting daggers” at each other while performing.)

2018

Following a successful reunion tour with the Rumours lineup in 2014 and 2015, Fleetwood Mac experienced its definitive breakup before another planned tour. Initially, Buckingham rolled his eyes during Nicks’ speech at a MusiCares benefit concert, which she interpreted as a strong indication that collaboration was no longer viable. Subsequently, Buckingham was permanently dismissed after requesting a three-month delay to promote his solo work.

Buckingham later claimed that Nicks had ultimatum the band, stating she’d only remain if he exited, a narrative she has denied. “I did not demand he be fired,” she explained to Rolling Stone in 2021. “Frankly, I removed myself from the band voluntarily, realizing it was no longer healthy for me. I was finished. If the band continued without me, so be it.”

Months after his dismissal, Buckingham sued the other members for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract, and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. They reached a settlement by year’s end.

2019

Author Taylor Jenkins Reid released the novel Daisy Jones & the Six, which she recognized was partially influenced by Fleetwood Mac, particularly from witnessing Nicks and Buckingham in The Dance during her childhood.

“Years later, after understanding Fleetwood Mac’s entire story, I revisited The Dance on YouTube. It captivated me,” Reid revealed in 2019. “I noticed how Nicks performed ‘Silver Springs’ with intense emotion, as if her voice would always haunt him. As I matured, I realized what I couldn’t comprehend in 1997: Love is incredibly complex.”

Buckingham also had bypass surgery following a heart attack. Nicks shared with the Los Angeles Times in 2020 that she sent him a letter wishing him well. “You must take care of yourself. Follow their guidance to recover your voice and appreciate the grace of surviving this,” she advised.

2021

In a revealing discussion with the Los Angeles Times, Buckingham alleged that Nicks was the driving force behind his firing from Fleetwood Mac, which Nicks subsequently denied. He mentioned that she had reached out after his surgery, although she frequently would not reply to his texts, observing, “She’s quite guarded and protective of her own world, perceiving me as a potential disruption.”

2022

Christine’s passing at 79 eliminates any possibility of the Rumours lineup reuniting. Two years later, Nicks reiterated this sentiment to Mojo, stating, “Without Christine, it’s impossible for Fleetwood Mac to come back together. It just wouldn’t work.”

2024

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Nicks disclosed speaking with Buckingham face-to-face at Christine’s memorial service. “The only time I’ve talked with Lindsey was there, for about three minutes,” she recalled. “I tried to manage Lindsey for as long as I could. You couldn’t say that I haven’t given him over 300 million chances.”

She also expressed no regrets regarding the end of Fleetwood Mac in 2018. “Everything unfolded exactly as it was meant to. It occurred spontaneously at a MusiCares [benefit concert]. I didn’t even acknowledge it mentally until the event concluded,” she reflected. “That’s when he wasn’t kind to anyone, even to Harry Styles. I could hear my mother’s voice asking, ‘Are you truly going to waste the next 15 years of your life with this man?’ I heard my practical father saying, ‘It’s time for you two to part ways.’ That’s when I decided, ‘I am through.’”

2025

Recently, the two followed each other on Instagram, sharing lyrics from their Buckingham Nicks album. Ultimately, they confirmed a reissue of the album set to be released on September 19.

Following the album’s release, they toasted to it on social media, expressing, “We are thrilled that this album is getting a second chance. We hope you enjoy it.” They also reshared a post from Fleetwood Mac’s official account, which praised, “The day Mick Fleetwood walked into Sound City and heard fragments of Buckingham Nicks, he unknowingly altered the course of our lives. Our heartfelt thanks to Mick, John, and Christine for this incredible journey… With love, Stevie & Lindsey.”

Just a month later, in an interview on the “Song Exploder” podcast, Nicks casually mentioned that she and Buckingham are on speaking terms again after nearly three years of silence. Recalling their high school meeting, Nicks said, “Lindsey and I were chatting about it last night. This all feels incredibly recent for us.”

Although they seemed to conduct their podcast interviews separately, Nicks joked that she would reach out to him to apologize for a lyric she sang on Buckingham Nicks. (She clarified that the lyric “hate gave you me for a lover” was originally meant to be “fate gave you me for a lover.”)

“Hearing myself sing that line, it sounds like I’m implying ‘hate,’” Nicks noted. “That’s not great. I owe Lindsey a call later.”