Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsay Buckingham says the band’s upcoming album with Christine McVie will be a “beautiful way to wrap up this last act.”
She officially rejoined this year after retiring in 1998, and they’re currently touring the world under the banner On With The Show.
But Buckingham, who admits to initial doubts over her return, has given his strongest hint yet that Mac are considering winding down – and he’s putting solo plans on hold until the completion of their first record since 2003.
He tells PBS: “If you want to think of this as the beginning of the last act, that’s how it feels. Christine really fills the gap of the polarity that might exist otherwise, and helps things breathe.
“We got this call from Christine saying she wanted to come back. We were in the middle of touring, the four of us. My initial reaction was, ‘Okay – we have to take this with baby steps.’ The want to return doesn’t mean you can repeat history; it doesn’t mean all the tools, all the reference points are still there for it all to work.”
But after McVie made a guest appearance in London in 2012, his concerns evaporated. “She gave me a bunch of stuff to take home. I worked on it, came back and she loved it. We went into the studio and came out with the best songs we’ve co-written in years.
“Christine was always a working musician – she always had a great discipline and was very grounded in her craft. The confidence was high that it would come back. But it was daunting in the early days.”
Buckingham has only recently been able to evaluate the impact Mac have left on the music world. “When you’re commercially successful it doesn’t mean it’s going to hold up,” he says. “One of the things we’re finding now is you’ve got the people who were listening to Rumours and Tusk in the day, and you’ve also got young artists who seem to have picked up the mantle of what we were doing, and it makes sense to them.
“It’s just in the last few years we’ve realised that we did make a difference. It’s a nice place to be.”
He adds: “We’re going to continue working on the new album, and the solo stuff will take a back seat for a year or two. A beautiful way to wrap up this last act.”
Fleetwood Mac return to the UK in May:
May 27: London O2
May 28: London O2
Jun 08: Birmingham Genting Arena
Jun 09: Birmingham Genting Arena
Jun 12: Manchester Arena
Jun 14: Isle Of Wight festival
Jun 16: Glasgow SSE Hydro
Jun 17: Glasgow SSE Hydro
Jun 20: Dublin 3Arena
Jun 22: London O2
Jun 24: London O2
Jun 27: London O2
Jun 30: Leeds First Direct Arena
Jul 01: Manchester Arena
Jul 04: Birmingham Genting Arena
Jul 05: Leeds First Direct Arena
Jul 08: Glasgow SSE Hydro
Jul 10: Dublin 3Arena
