Last Time

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Fleetwood Mac doing what would become their final performance with Lindsey Buckingham.

On January 26th, 2018, they were the first band ever honored as MusiCares Person of the Year at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

While many of their hits were covered by Brandi Carlile, Portugal. The Man, Keith Urban, Lorde, Little Big Town, Miley Cyrus, the Zac Brown Band and others, they took the stage at the end for five songs — “The Chain,” “Little Lies,” “Tusk,” “Gold Dust Woman” and “Go Your Own Way.”

In April of that year, news broke that Buckingham was out of the band, reportedly due to Stevie Nicks giving them an ultimatum — him or her — because, for one, she felt he made fun of her behind her back on stage at MusiCares.

He filed a lawsuit, which was quickly settled out of court, and was replaced for a tour by Mike Campbell from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn of Crowded House.

Then in May, Buckingham gave his side of the story from the stage during a fundraiser for Democratic congressional candidate Mike Levin in Los Feliz, California.

“Probably some of you know that for the last three months I have sadly taken leave of my band of 43 years, Fleetwood Mac. This was not something that was really my doing or my choice. I think what you would say is that there were factions within the band that had lost their perspective.”

Audience member: “[BLEEP] Stevie Nicks.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. The point is that they lost their perspective and what that did was to harm — and this is the only thing I’m really saying about it … the rest of it becomes an opportunity — but it harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build. And that legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill one’s higher truth and one’s higher destiny.”