Stevie Nicks has confirmed she and fellow musician Lindsey Buckingham are speaking again, following a dispute that led to Buckingham’s 2018 departure from Fleetwood Mac.
Nicks and Buckingham discussed their renewed communication during separate interviews for the latest episode of the “Song Exploder” podcast, where they analyzed “Frozen Love,” a track from their recently reissued 1973 album “Buckingham Nicks.”
In 2024, Nicks said Buckingham’s behavior toward her and others at a 2018 MusiCares benefit concert prompted her to end their professional relationship. “I could hear my mom, Barbara, who died in 2011, saying, ‘Are you really going to spend the next 15 years of your life with this man?’” Nicks said.
After Buckingham’s departure, Fleetwood Mac brought in Mike Campbell and Neil Finn to join the band for what became its final tour, ending in 2019. Since the death of keyboardist and singer Christine McVie in 2022, Nicks has said the band will not reunite.
Speculation that Nicks and Buckingham had resumed contact began when they jointly promoted the re-release of their album on social media in July. However, this marks the first time either has publicly confirmed they are speaking.
“Lindsey and I started talking about it last night,” Nicks said, reflecting on the duo’s early years. “This whole thing seems really like yesterday to us.”
Buckingham described how he and Nicks collaborated during their partnership, with Nicks writing songs and lyrics and Buckingham handling production. “I don’t think she craved my input on that (songwriting) level, and nor did I crave hers on production or instrumental level, either,” he said. “She understood that I was transforming things for her, and I understood I wouldn’t have had anything to transform without the beautiful center that she’d given me.”
Nicks also addressed their tumultuous relationship, describing it as both “difficult” and “fantastic.” “Our relationship was up and down and up and down and up and down and difficult, but at the same time, fantastic,” she said. “And what we were doing was so fantastic, that it was worth putting up with the trials and tribulations of a relationship that’s difficult.”
Nicks also joked she owed Buckingham a call to apologize for a lyric in “Frozen Love” that she wrote as “Fate gave you me for a lover,” but which sounded like “hate” on the recording. “That’s not good. I’m sorry, Lindsey. I’m calling him later,” she said.
