Why Did Fleetwood Mac Really Break Up? Find Out What Led To The End of One of the Most Popular Bands
Fleetwood Mac has experienced countless ups and downs, but this is what really went down between the members
Love, drugs, breakups, makeups and undeniably incredible music are all things you can say when talking about Fleetwood Mac. The massively popular rock band, which has changed lineups and sounds a number of times over the years, shot to superstardom during the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, the lineup consisted of Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie, and the five of them changed the music scene forever. And with the addition of Nicks and Buckingham at the very end of 1974, the band achieved greatness and extreme success, especially after the release of their 1977 album, Rumours, which became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Accompanying all of their fame and success came breakups, fights and more drama than the music could drown out. Yet tumultuous ups and downs that each band member experienced severely intertwined with their music, with much of it inspiring Rumours. And while their chaotic personal lives led to the creation of music history, they were also the beginning of the band’s end. Find out what really happened between the members of Fleetwood Mac and learn more about where the group stands now.
The core crew of Fleetwood Mac comes together
On New Year’s Eve of 1974, the lineup of Fleetwood Mac that is known by everyone today was formed, with Buckingham and Nicks joining the already established band. The dynamic duo had already been in the music scene for some time, working together on their own music in a band called Fritz. When Fleetwood asked for Buckingham to join him, he agreed with one condition—that Nicks be invited as well.
Nicks and Buckingham had already been in a romantic relationship for about two years, which began after the disbandment of Fritz in 1972. The two singers were driven together and soon released a project of their own titled Buckingham Nicks. Although the album has since become a cult favorite, it wasn’t a success upon its initial release in 1973. Not long after, the duo met Mick Fleetwood.
“I met Mick right before New Year’s Eve in 1974,” Buckingham recalled. “Stevie and I were living in LA… we were doing demos of new tunes one day at Sound City studio in the San Fernando Valley. At one point I walked towards the control room. I heard a song of ours, ‘Frozen Love,’ being played very loudly and I saw this giant of a man standing up, grooving to a guitar solo of mine. I thought, ‘What is goin’ on?,’ and left them to it. That man was Mick.”
He continued, “When he heard my guitar, something obviously clicked in his mind, because after their guitarist Bob Welch left, I got a call from Mick asking if I wanted to join Fleetwood Mac. Originally they weren’t looking for a duo, but I said Stevie and I were a package deal.”
‘Rumours’ is released
In 1976, Nicks and Buckingham ended their relationship at the same time John and Christine McVie were getting a divorce and not long after Fleetwood had recently split from his wife, Jenny Boyd. So when the group began working on the Rumours record, tensions were high and emotions were all over the place, but that’s what made for such raw and powerful music.
Nicks, Buckingham and Christine McVie were the main songwriters for the album, with all five members contributing to the song “The Chain.” But the drama didn’t stop while they were writing the music. Songs like “Dreams” and “Go Your Own Way” were written by Buckingham and Nicks as jabs at each other.
“When we broke up, two years after joining Fleetwood Mac, it was like living a nightmare,” Nicks recalled. Buckingham remembers, “We fed on the trauma in terms of our writing, and in the studio there were all these raw nerves exposed. It was made more difficult by the late-70s subculture of drugs.”
And while all of their agony and heartbreak was being exposed in the lyrics of their songs, it led to their Number 1, Grammy-winning record.
Drama ensues on the ‘Tusk’ tour
After the Rumours era came to an end, the drama didn’t die down between the band members. Buckingham and Nicks had a major on-stage fight when he tried to trip her and then threw his guitar at her. Nicks recalled the fight, saying they stopped the show and “he [Buckingham] went off, and we all ran at breakneck speed back to the dressing room to see who could kill him first. Christine got to him first, and then I got to him second–the bodyguards were trying to get in the middle of all of us.”
After that tour, Nicks, still a member of Fleetwood Mack, launched her solo career with the release of her debut album, Bella Donna. In 1987, Buckingham left the group to pursue a solo career and three years later, Nicks and Christine McVie left. McVie was technically still in the band and would record with them, but she was no longer willing to tour with the group. Nicks, on the other hand, had a slightly more dramatic exit over her song, “Silver Springs,” which she recorded for the Rumours album. Because the track was unused, Nicks had planned to use it on her 1991 Greatest Hits album, but Fleetwood ended up using the song on another project.
Reunions and breakups
The group rebanded in 1993 to perform at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration, but it was a short-lived reunion, as Nicks went to rehab later that year. Then in 1997, the group came back together to record and release a live version of their album The Dance. In 1998, Christine McVie officially left the band because she was “burned out when I left and I was frightened to fly.” She did come back 16 years later in 2014 due to her desire to get back on stage.
“The truth of the matter is [that] the only people I wanted to play with were the people I had played with all my life–these guys–Fleetwood Mac,” McVie said in 2014.
But in typical Fleetwood Mac fashion, the group was divided once more when Buckingham was fired in 2018 after a disagreement about touring commitments, which led to the guitarist suing the band, though the suit was settled after only two months.
Christine McVie shared in 2022 that the group had “kind of” split up and that she hardly ever saw her bandmates. Unfortunately, in November of that year McVie died of a stroke. Her death was seemingly the end of any reunion rumors between Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood said, “I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with the loss of Chris. I’d say we’re done, but then we’ve all said that before.”
Nicks also commented on this, explaining, “Without Christine, no can do. There is no chance of putting Fleetwood Mac back together in any way. Without her, it just couldn’t work.”
It’s now been three years since the passing of McVie and it seems the band is sticking to their decision on not reuniting. However, it seems that Buckingham and Nicks may have buried the hatchet as they recently re-released their album, Buckingham Nicks, in September 2025. Rumors of a reunion for the Rumours album’s 50th anniversary are floating around, but nothing on that front has yet been confirmed.
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