Daily Mail
12th Oct 2018

He was unceremoniously fired from Fleetwood Mac in January.

Now longtime guitarist, singer and songwriter Lindsey Buckingham has filed a lawsuit against former bandmates: Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Christie McVie and John McVie for ‘breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.’

According to court documents obtained by Radar Online and Us Weekly, Buckingham claims the firing cost him between $12 to $14million.

In the suit, Lindsey claims the lost wages are part of a deal the band signed with events promoter Live Nation for 60 shows over two-years, where members were to earn up to $14million each.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Buckingham said he received a call from band manager Irving Azoff two days after the band was honored at a MusicCares benefit show in New York.

‘Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again,’ Azoff was quoted as saying.

Her gripes reportedly included Buckingham’s outburst over the band’s intro music, and that he smirked during Nicks’ thank you speech at the MusiCares ceremony.

After the call, the guitarist assumed Nicks would quit the band, so he tried to contact drummer Mick Fleetwood, but he never heard back from him or any other members.

A couple of days later he called Azoff, who told him Nicks gave the band an ultimatum: ‘either Lindsey goes or I go.’

Subsequently, Lindsay was replaced by Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House, and then the new version of the Fleetwood Mac headed out on an American tour in April.

‘Am I heartbroken about not doing another tour with Fleetwood Mac? No, because I can see that there are many other areas to look into,’ he told Rolling Stone. ‘The one thing that does bother me and breaks my heart is we spent 43 years always finding a way to rise above our personal differences and our difficulties to pursue and articulate a higher truth. That is our legacy. That is what the songs are about. This is not the way you end something like this.’

Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and became part of what’s known as the classic line-up of the group following the huge success of their Grammy Award winning album Rumours in 1977.

He left the band in 1987, but returned 10-years later and had been with the group until his firing in late January.

Buckingham has been touring as a solo artist since his departure and he has new solo album, tentatively called Blue Light, that comes out in 2019.