The 70-year-old rocker reveals the band’s 2018 world tour will include a few rarities. Fleetwood Mac leader Mick Fleetwood has assured fans the band’s 2018 tour won’t be a finale.
Bandmate Christine McVie has hinted that the upcoming 18-month global trek will be a farewell, but the drummer insists the band has more music to play and perhaps record.
“In my mind, it’s not (the final tour), and everyone in the band has decided that it’s not,” he tells Rolling Stone, “but we thought we were finished 30 years ago…
“I don’t know if morbid is the correct word here, but when everyone is in their 70s and you think about five years from now… Phil Collins is calling his tour Not Dead Yet. Well, we’re not dead yet, but God forbid, we might be, so you could be like, ‘I better go and see them!’
“But you will not see a poster saying this is our farewell tour that I could dream of.”
And Fleetwood, 70, reveals he and Stevie Nicks recently met up in Italy and checked out some old forgotten songs they’re thinking of revamping for the 2018 tour.
“She said to me, ‘Let’s sit down and really listen to some stuff that sort of almost got forgotten’,” he shares. “So I know she’s already thinking she wants to do some things we haven’t done in years. I always think that Stevie and Lindsey (Buckingham) should do a Buckingham Nicks song in the set. And Christine should do a blues song.”
And there’s always the possibility that the band could play an entire album onstage – like Rumours.
“It would be fantastic, but we’d have to be like Bruce Springsteen – out there for seven hours,” Fleetwood laughs. “Then it could be the last tour. You’ll see wooden boxes onstage. Five of them.”
Stevie Nicks is one of rock music’s most iconic figures.
And the 69-year-old singer-songwriter has talked about her affinity for the gypsy-like lifestyle, instilled in her at an early age as a result of her father’s work as the vice-president of Greyhound Buses and president of a food company.
‘I was able to go into new schools and make new friends. My brother, on the other hand, didn’t cope with it so well,’ she told Stellar.
‘I was always that gypsy’: Stevie Nicks has talked about her affinity for the gypsy-like lifestyle, instilled in her at an early age as a result of her father’s work
This extended into her life on the road with Fleetwood Mac in 1975, and her successful solo career, which followed in the 80s.
‘So the thing is, am I still that gypsy? Well, I was always that gypsy,’ she said.
Even today, life on the road sees the Landslide singer travel around the world to perform shows.
NEW YORK (AP) – Fleetwood Mac will be named the 2018 MusiCares Person of the Year, becoming the first group to receive the honor.
FILE – In this Oct. 9, 2014 file photo, John McVie, from left, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood from the band Fleetwood Mac appear on NBC’s “Today” show in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
The Recording Academy announced Wednesday that the 28th annual benefit gala will take place at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Jan. 26, 2018, two days before the 2018 Grammy Awards.
The organization said they are honoring the iconic group for “their significant creative accomplishments and their longtime support of a number of charitable causes.”
Mick Fleetwood, who called the award “tremendous” in a statement, will receive the honor along with Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and John McVie.
Past honorees include Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder and Barbra Streisand. The MusiCares Foundation offers health and human services and programs to members of the music community.
The Fleetwood Mac singer believes her friend Prince was devastated by his prescription drug addiction after making it his life’s work to “preach about the downfall of people that do drugs”
Stevie Nicks fears that close pal Prince may have wanted to end his own life.
The legendary hitmaker died aged 57 in April last year after taking an accidental overdose of prescription drug fentanyl.
He had been battling chronic hip pain and Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie, who got close to Prince in the 1980s, says he was isolated.
She explains: “I don’t know in my heart of hearts whether he just took too much.
“Or did he purposefully take too much? Did he accidentally take too much?”
“When you get to be our age – and he was younger than me – and you’re like, ‘I’m not making hit records any more… I’m not able to really tour any more because of my health…’
“You’re not married, you don’t have children… you don’t hang out with a bunch of people because you’re really an isolationist.”
Stevie, 69, who takes to the stage at Hyde Park’s British Summer Time concert alongside her life-long pal Tom Petty tomorrow night, reckons Prince was devastated by his prescription drug addiction.
She adds: “Fentanyl is the worst of the worst of the worst; way stronger than heroin, morphine, anything – and he was having to take it because I think he was probably fractured from his neck down to his feet.
“I think when you’re in that much pain, and you’re somebody who has made it your life’s work to preach about the downfall of people that do drugs, that had to be [a burden]. I think that broke his heart.”
But Prince lives on in her song Moonlight which she regularly dedicates to him.
Fans have gone wild with the news that Fleetwood Mac are reuniting for a world tour next year
By Becky Pemberton
16th June 2017, 11:36 am The Sun
THE legendary Fleetwood Mac have announced they are coming together for a global 2018 tour. But what do we know about the tour, when will it take place, and which members will be involved?
Fleetwood Mac is made up of members Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie on the keyboard, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks
Who are Fleetwood Mac?
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band who have sold over 100 million records worldwide – making them one of the most successful bands of all time. They formed back in 1967 and revealed their first album, Peter Greens Fleetwood Mac, in 1968.
The successful band has seen a number of changes to the line-up over the years, with the only original member still remaining being drummer Mick Fleetwood.
The band, pictured in 1973, has seen a change to the line-up over the years, with Bob Weston (far left) being a previous member
The band is now made up of members Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie on the keyboard, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Their last tour was in 2014-2015 for their On With The Show world tour, which included two nights at London’s O2 Arena.
When is the Fleetwood Mac tour?
Christine McVie confirmed on The One Show that Fleetwood Mac will be going on tour next year.
She said: “We’re going to start rehearsing in March, next year. The tour is around June. It will be global.”
The 2018 tour is currently set to feature the full mid ’70s Fleetwood Mac line-up.
The band is due to perform at festivals in New York and Los Angeles this summer, but have no other live shows scheduled.
By Associated Press PUBLISHED: 18:25, 5 June 2017
Daily Mail (UK)
Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, “Lindsay Buckingham Christine McVie” (Atlantic)
The first duet album from Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie is nearly Fleetwood Mac, with only Stevie Nicks missing from the band’s classic lineup.
Its development began even before McVie rejoined the band after 16 years for the 2014-2015 “On With the Show” tour, when Buckingham recorded several songs with the Mac rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, who also contribute to the finished album.
More layers were added when Buckingham worked on snippets of chords, lyrics and melodies he was sent by McVie and a couple of their writing collaborations – the vocals-soaked pop of “Red Sun” and “Too Far Gone,” with a Knopfler-esque, bluesy guitar riff and pounding drums – are among the highlights of the self-titled album.
“Game of Pretend” is a trademark McVie piano-led ballad which starts with great promise but turns to mush on the refrain. The other track she penned alone on the 10-song album is the excellent closer “Carnival Begin,” her best vocal wonderfully framed by Buckingham’s production touches and his typically yearning guitar solo that fades away too soon.
If the album was meant to be part of a full Fleetwood Mac comeback at some point, the Buckingham tunes have more of a solo album feel.
Still, the track sharing a name with the last Mac tour reveals both the beauty and apparent inescapability in the life of a musician like Buckingham – “As long as I stand, I will take your hand, I will stand with my band/There’s nowhere to go, but on down the road, let’s get on with the show.”
30 minutes with…
Peter Robinson
Thurs 1st June 2017
The Guardian
The guitarist talks about how Christine McVie – with whom he has recorded a duet album – rejoined the band
Lindsey Buckingham: ‘Christine told me she had some rough ideas … I, of course, took great liberties with them in my studio.’ Photograph: ACE/Rex/Shutterstock
Hello Lindsey. Where are you? I’m in London and it’s quite hot. I’m in Los Angeles and you’d think it would be hotter, but it’s actually quite cool.
What have you done so far today? I’ve got three kids who are all in the last couple of weeks of school so my wife and I got up, had coffee and breakfast, and got the kids off to school. I went out and took my morning walk up a hill and down to get the blood going, then had a shower, and immediately got on the phone to do interviews.
Now here we are. Here we are. A little bit later, I’m off to rehearsals. We’ve got a couple of Fleetwood Mac festival shows, but they’re interspersed with Christine and I doing a few dates – we’re starting off by doing 20 or so shows.
Let’s talk a bit about your new album with Christine [1] before I subtly manoeuvre the conversation on to demanding information about the new Fleetwood Mac album. A lot of it was done remotely, is that right? Well, only initially. It was done in stages – before Christine decided to rejoin Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and I had gone into the studio, just the three of us, to cut some of my songs. We put that material on the shelf. A year after that, Christine phoned up Mick and was nosing around about wanting to rejoin the band.
“Nosing around”? Yes! I don’t think she assumed we’d necessarily be OK with it — we had been doing quite well as a four-piece. I think she was trying to nose around to see if there was any openness to it before she got too assertive or specific about it. [2] I had to have a conversation with Christine and say: “Well, we’d love you to come back, but you can’t leave again.” She told me she’d been reconnecting with her creative muse and had some rough ideas she sent to me – I, of course, took great liberties with them in my studio. And she was interested in these songs I’d been working on, and Mick and John thought it would be good to bring her over early and cut tracks on some of these things. It was unbelievable. We only expected to do it for a couple of weeks but we stayed for a month. Nobody was saying it was a duet album – we didn’t care what it was!
So riddle-me-ree: given that this album has involvement from so many members of the band, how many songs could have been Fleetwood Mac songs? That’s sort of a question you can’t answer …
Have a go. Well, defining something being a Fleetwood Mac song is calling it a Fleetwood Mac song, you know? Nothing becomes Fleetwood Mac until that’s what you call it. The thing that defines this duet album as being a duet album is that it has elements of what I’ve learned over the last 15 years and brought to my own work, which is away from the palette of Fleetwood Mac. But there’s also a heart that exists by the symmetry of being only the two of us.
By CLAIR WOODWARD
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, May 28, 2017
DAILY EXPRESS
FLEETWOOD Mac star Christine McVie reveals why she returned to the spotlight with her band… and a new duet album.
Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie return with a new duet album
The new album from Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie feels like a big, warm hug.
The great melodies, intimate harmonies and terrific arrangements are instantly recognisable as coming from two of the band’s songwriters yet they’re new and intriguing enough to make it more than just another side project from an iconic group.
And for Christine, 73 – the understated genius behind the keyboards in Fleetwood Mac and writer of some of their most recognisable songs (Don’t Stop, Little Lies, Say You Love Me, Hold Me and Everywhere) – the sensation of reconnecting with old friends was the inspiration behind the new collaboration.
She officially retired from the band in 1998, after stepping away from touring a few years earlier, and it was her return to it for the 2015 reunion tour that sparked the collaboration with Lindsey.
“We’ve always had a particular musical relationship since he first joined the band – it was immediate,” Christine explains in her warm, honeyed tone.
“The whole band was just chemistry abounding but Lindsey and I, me being the piano player and him the guitar player, understand each other musically without saying anything.
“We’ve always worked well together over the years but never thought about doing an album together until recently and now we wonder why we didn’t think about doing it before.
Turning her back on Fleetwood Mac. Teaming up with Chrissie Hynde. And ditching drugs with a little help from Prince. The rock icon confronts all those rumours
Now this is a treat. It’s Saturday night in a cavernous rehearsal facility in the San Fernando Valley, over the hills from Hollywood, and I’m enjoying a private concert from rock ’n’ roll’s greatest woman – a living, breathing, dancing, sunglasses-indoors legend. Ahead of an American tour, Stevie Nicks is running through a selection of hits from her multi-million-selling career as a solo artist and as frontwoman with Fleetwood Mac.
Rhiannon, Gold Dust Woman, Stand Back, The Wild Heart, Edge Of Seventeen: these are some of the best-loved songs of the past 40 years. And the woman who wrote them – more used to wowing arenas – is standing a few feet away, singing them to me, bashing a tambourine as if her life depended on it, swirling in a vision of black scarves and drapes.
Stevie Nicks has had her own well-publicised battles with addiction in the Seventies and Eighties
During a break, I sit down with Nicks and, as she cradles her beloved terrier Lily, she talks. And talks. At the age of 69, this warm, witty woman remains as irrepressible as ever. As is usual in the world of Fleetwood Mac, there’s a lot to discuss. One topic is her upcoming US shows with fellow icon Chrissie Hynde, in support of Nicks’ 24 Karat Gold album. Another is rumours of a Fleetwood Mac tour – a tour that’s possibly a farewell one.
But more pressing is the imminent release of Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie. It’s ostensibly a duo album from Mac guitarist Buckingham and keyboard player/singer McVie. In the set-up and billing, it feels like a successor to Buckingham Nicks. This legendary ‘lost’ 1973 album was made by Stevie and Lindsey – then a couple – before the Californians joined a mouldering English blues band led by drummer Mick Fleetwood and assisted by bass player John McVie.
Their duo act didn’t last, and neither did their relationship. But Nicks’ and Buckingham’s songwriting contribution – not to mention their split, as famously documented in their songs on 1977’s 40-million-selling album Rumours – helped rocket-power Fleetwood Mac to Seventies rock’s mega-league.
The party line is that Stevie Nicks’ solo commitments have forced Fleetwood Mac to put their next album on hold. But as the recent Tango In The Night reissue proved, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie were often the band’s great unsung partnership.
Confusingly, this duets album also includes bass guitarist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, making it essentially Fleetwood Mac, minus Nicks.
McVie brings the sing-song pop (Feel About You, Red Sun) and the slightly cloying Game Of Pretend; Buckingham, the whispered vocals and fingernail-splitting guitar solos on Sleeping Around The Corner and Love Is Here To Stay, plus the album’s best song: the nagging and melancholy In My World.
Does it miss Stevie Nicks? Yes, just as the last Fleetwood Mac album, 2003’s Say You Will, missed Christine McVie. But until all parties can sync their calen-dars, this will do nicely.
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