What Really Happened Between Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham? A Deep Dive Into Their Relationship
From see ya later to a new album, this couple has been through it all
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham officially announced that they would be re-releasing their debut album Buckingham Nicks later this year. This news comes after the pair hinted at a possible reunion just a few weeks prior and will be the first time since 2021 that the two have publicly acknowledged one another. To celebrate this wonderful news, we have decided to look back at their entire musical journey, including when their relationship became a landslide of makeups, breakups and hit rock songs. Read on for more.
Stevie Nicks meets Lindsey Buckingham
After moving to Atherton, California in the 1960s, Nicks met Buckingham during their senior year of high school. After graduating, the couple attended San José State University together before dropping out to pursue music.
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham started making music
Post-college, Buckingham became involved with a band called Fritz and later recruited Nicks to join in 1967.
The two remained in Fritz until 1972, during which time they opened for people like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. After their time there was up, they transitioned from friends to lovers.
Says Nicks, “I’m not sure we would have even become a couple if it wasn’t for us leaving that band. It kind of pushed us together.”
The couple releases an album
Fritz might have broken up, but that didn’t stop Nicks and Buckingham from continuing to pursue their musical dreams. In 1973, the pair signed with Polydor Records and released their first-ever album, Buckingham Nicks. Featuring 10 songs, it sadly failed and the two were released from their contract.
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham join Fleetwood Mac
Buckingham Nicks might have failed, but its song “Frozen Love” was the reason Mick Fleetwood asked Buckingham to join his band Fleetwood Mac, to which Buckingham agreed, but only if Nicks came with him.
Soon after, their first-ever album with the band was released in 1975. It was entitled Fleetwood Mac, and Nicks took lead vocals on the songs “Landslide” and “Rhiannon.” Buckingham, however, could be heard as the band’s lead guitarist.
The pair’s relationship was rocky at best during that time, though, with Nicks saying in 2014, “When we joined Fleetwood Mac, I said, ‘Okay, this is what we’ve been working for since 1968. And so Lindsey, you and I have to sew this relationship back up. We have too much to lose here.’”
The rock and roll power couple breaks up
One year into their time as official Fleetwood Mac members, Nicks and Buckingham decided to end their love affair.
“I broke up with Lindsey in 1976,” explained Nicks. “Something happened that was, you know, ‘We’re done.’ And he knew it. It was time. And the band was solid by that time, so I could walk away knowing that he was safe. And that the band was safe. And that we could work it out.”
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham write songs about each other
Following their break up, Nicks and Buckingham did what most musicians do: they wrote several songs about it.
“I can just go right back to what pushed me toward writing those words. And I always laugh, because Lindsey’s ‘Go Your Own Way’ and my ‘Dreams’ are like counter songs to each other,” Nicks explained. “I’m, like, ‘When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know,’ and he’s, like, ‘Packing up, shacking up’s all you want to do.’ Both songs kind of mean the same thing — it’s really about our breakup. He’s looking at it from a very unpleasant, angry way, and I’m saying, in my more airy-fairy way, ‘We’re gonna be alright. We’ll get through this.”
She also said that while the songs might have mirrored each other, she was not a fan of “Dreams” when it came out.
“I very much resented him telling the world that ‘packing up, shacking up’ with different men was all I wanted to do. He knew it wasn’t true. It was just an angry thing that he said. Every time those words would come out, I wanted to go over and kill him. He knew it, so he really pushed my buttons through that.”
The pair sings ‘Landslide’
In 1997, Nicks and Buckingham appeared on MTV to sing the hit Fleetwood Mac song ‘Landslide.’ In the now viral performance, the two appear only to be performing to each other, which seems to symbolize their moving past everything that had happened between them and becoming friends.
This performance also inspired Taylor Jenkins Reid’s hit book Daisy Jones and The Six.
“When I decided I wanted to write a book about rock ‘n’ roll, I kept coming back to that moment when Lindsey watched Stevie sing ‘Landslide.’ How it looked so much like two people in love. And yet, we’ll never truly know what lived between them,” Reid said. “I wanted to write a story about that, about how the lines between real life and performance can get blurred, about how singing about old wounds might keep them fresh.”
Lindsey Buckingham leaves Fleetwood Mac
Over the next several years there were numerous Fleetwood Mac reunions, but that officially came to a halt when Buckingham left the band,
“It was all Stevie’s doing,” the guitarist said in 2021. “Stevie basically gave the band an ultimatum that either I had to go or she would go. It would be like [Mick] Jagger saying, ‘Well, either Keith [Richards] has to go, or I’m going to go.'”
Nicks denied these rumors, though, saying in a statement, “I did not demand he be fired. Frankly, I fired myself. I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my well-being. I was done. If the band went on without me, so be it.”
Buckingham’s comment in 2021 was the last time either of them has publicly commented on one another.
Stevie and Lindsey hint at a possible reunion
On July 17, both Nicks and Buckingham posted lyrics from “Frozen Love,” a song released in 1973 on their album Buckingham Nicks, on Instagram. Nicks wrote “if you go forward…” and then about an hour later Buckingham wrote “… I’ll meet you there,” in the exact same style font.
Then, a week later, a billboard popped up on Sunset Boulevard featuring the Buckingham Nicks album cover; however, it wasn’t until Wednesday, July 23, that fans found out what it meant.
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham announce a new album
On Wednesday, July 23, Nicks and Buckingham collaborated on Instagram to announce that a re-recored version of Buckingham Nicks would be available to stream on September 19.
Update: Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham re-release their second song
On Wednesday, August 13 Nicks and Buckingham shared via social media that they were re-releasing the song “Don’t Let Me Down Again.” This came after they initially teased something was coming earlier this week. This is the second song from the album to become available, as they have already shared “Crying In The Night” with their adoring fans.
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