By JOHN DALY
Lindsey Buckingham broke his silence on being fired from Fleetwood Mac during a political fundraiser Friday night in Los Feliz.
As recorded on video by Brian Larsen and reported in Medium by Jeremy Roberts, Buckingham made his comments at a campaign fundraiser supporting environmental attorney Mike Levin who is seeking election to the U.S. 49th Congressional District.
“For me, personally, probably some of you know that for the last three months I have sadly taken leave of my band of 43 years, Fleetwood Mac,” Buckingham said. “This was not something that was really my doing or my choice.”
Buckingham had previously departed the band after Tango in the Night in 1987, and didn’t return until The Dance in 1997.
See video by Brian Larson:
Factions Within Band ‘Lost Their Perspective’
“I think what you would say is that there were factions within the band that had lost their perspective,” he said, at which point a fan yelled out an expletive about Stevie Nicks.
“…The point is that they’d lost their perspective,” Buckingham said. “What that did was to harm — and this is the only thing I’m really sad about, the rest of it becomes an opportunity — it harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build. That legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill one’s higher truth and one’s higher destiny.”
He compared his situation with our government, saying: “Now, we also are at a point with our country in Washington where there’s been a loss of perspective. …”
Filling in for Buckingham
Buckingham was replaced by Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Campbell has had a longtime friendship with Nicks.
Fleetwood Mac kicks off a 52-date North American arena tour on Oct. 3 in Tulsa. Nicks has said that one of the main reasons Buckingham was fired was because he did not want to go on the road right away.
The firing of Buckingham was first reported by Shirley Halperin at Variety.