Lindsey Buckingham

Lindsey Buckingham emerged as a principal architect behind Fleetwood Mac’s commercial ascent throughout the 1970s and 1980s. As a guitarist and singer-songwriter he cultivated a singular fusion of pop, folk, and rock distinguished by rapid finger-picked lines, sugary vocal blends, and densely layered studio craft. Those elements helped drive Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Tusk to the summit of the album charts while also powering the music he created apart from the group. He began issuing solo work in 1981 with Law and Order, whose polished single “Trouble” reached the Top Ten, and he has repeatedly turned to outside projects during periods of estrangement from Fleetwood Mac. After departing in the wake of the 1987 album Tango in the Night, he issued Out of the Cradle in 1992, a release that functioned as an independent reintroduction. He rejoined the band in the late 1990s and, over the ensuing twenty years, balanced solo releases with Mac touring commitments until an acrimonious split in 2018. He rebounded with the self-titled Lindsey Buckingham in 2021, an album that drew on every facet of the style he had refined both inside and outside the group.

Prior to entering Fleetwood Mac he had already mapped out his Brian Wilson-inflected approach alongside Stevie Nicks in the folk-leaning duo Buckingham Nicks. Mick Fleetwood recruited the pair late in 1974, and once Buckingham joined, the band’s pop leanings expanded under his guidance. He contributed incisive, often shadowed pop compositions and refined his bandmates’ material through production, arrangement, and striking guitar work. After leaving following Tango in the Night to focus on solo efforts—which by then comprised Law and Order and 1984’s Go Insane—he delivered Out of the Cradle in 1992 and later participated in Fleetwood Mac’s gradual late-1990s reunion. Under the Skin appeared in 2006.

Although Buckingham’s solo albums project a deceptively spare and tranquil surface, intricate arrangements and emotional depth lie beneath the polished finish. None has approached the sales of Rumours or even Tango in the Night, yet each remains a richly textured pop statement. Law and Order yielded the hit “Trouble,” while his contribution to National Lampoon’s Vacation, the buoyant “Holiday Road,” later attained cult status. The concert recording Live at the Bass Performance Hall surfaced in 2008 and was followed months later by his fifth studio album, Gift of Screws. After parting ways with Reprise in 2009 he recorded independently, issuing Seeds We Sow on his own Mind Kit Records imprint through Fontana in September 2011.

He continued touring with Fleetwood Mac while preparing another studio project. Christine McVie formally rejoined in 2014. She and Buckingham convened at Village Recorder’s Studio D in Los Angeles—the same space used for Tusk—to rebuild collaborative rapport. The sessions proved fruitful. Once back in England, McVie forwarded Buckingham additional demos and fragments. The pair reconvened with John McVie and Mick Fleetwood; Stevie Nicks contributed her parts afterward. The core quartet tracked eight songs before pausing to prepare for the On with the Show tour, which ran from fall 2014 through the following year. When Nicks chose to tour her own catalog in 2016 instead of returning to the studio, McVie, Buckingham, Fleetwood, and John McVie resumed work and completed the album. Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie appeared in June 2017.

After the supporting tour, Buckingham was dismissed from Fleetwood Mac at the beginning of 2018 and was succeeded by Neil Finn and Mike Campbell. He responded with the October 2018 compilation Solo Anthology: The Best of Lindsey Buckingham and toured in support. Emergency open-heart surgery in February 2019 caused temporary vocal-cord damage that eventually resolved. Recovery and the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the release of his seventh studio album, Lindsey Buckingham, until September 2021. The archival collection 20th Century Lindsey followed in 2024, spotlighting his first three solo albums together with singles and soundtrack cuts such as “Time Bomb Town” from Back to the Future and “Twisted” from Twister.