Odd Things About Stevie Nicks And Lindsey Buckingham's Reunion That Don't Add Up

There are few love affairs that have created as much timeless art as that between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, the Bay Area musicians who went on to become megastars with Fleetwood Mac in the mid-1970s. Having joined the band together in 1974, the two became central to Fleetwood Mac's sound thereafter.

Their songwriting and performances took the former hard rock band to new commercial heights, with the band's 1975 self-titled album containing three hit singles, including the Nicks vocal classic "Rhiannon."  And more was to follow two years later when the band released "Rumours," which to this day remains one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. The album contains classic tracks such as "Go Your Own Way" and "Dreams," which combine earworm catchiness with emotionally-charged lyrical depth. As later became apparent, much of the inspiration for the album came from the fact that two of the relationships in Fleetwood Mac were splintering. Vocalist Christie McVeigh and her bassist husband John were going through a divorce, while Nicks and Buckingham had already been through a famously bitter break-up of their own.

So in July 2025, it was surprising for fans to see that the pair's separate social media channels had each teased a shared project: the rerelease of "Buckingham Nicks," their 1973 debut album that was released when they were first performing as a duo. In the decades since their break-up, the pair have made it quite clear that tension still exists between them, and that they have to put aside their grievances for the sake of Fleetwood Mac. But that they would choose to return to their debut album and promote it together doesn't add up for several reasons.

It goes without saying that Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham experienced a whirlwind relationship that captivated the imaginations of the listening public. But what is often overlooked is that their love affair was full of tension, long before circumstances involving the band would lead to them going their separate ways romantically.

Nicks and Buckingham met when they both attended Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California. Both budding musical talents, Buckingham soon invited Nicks to join his psychedelic rock group, Fritz, before they began a relationship and struck out on a musical path as a duo in 1972. Their chemistry was undeniable, but what only became clear later was the degree to which Buckingham would push Nicks out of her comfort zone, and in a way that today looks very problematic.

The most famous incident that indicated the dynamic between Buckingham and Nicks wasn't particularly healthy occurred during the photoshoot for the album cover of "Buckingham Nicks." As Nicks later recalled in interviews, she had planned to wear a white blouse for the shoot, but was pressured into posing topless alongside Buckingham by both the photographer and Buckingham himself. "But I did it because I felt like a rat in a trap," Nicks told Mojo (via WMMR). Nicks has said that her expression on the cover is the result of her crying during the shoot — that she would want the album to be reissued with the same cover is somewhat unexpected.

Stevie Nicks has recalled how she and her ex-partner Lindsey Buckingham acted professionally to keep Fleetwood Mac going, despite their relationship falling apart. They poured their emotions into their music. "My songs were all about Lindsey, and Lindsey's songs were all about me," Nicks added, "and you just had to blow it off and play the song," Nicks said in the documentary "Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop" (via E News).

Though both Nicks and Buckingham managed to hold it together in the years after "Rumours" made them megastars, so much so that they continued to tour and release follow-up records, hostilities between them would emerge across the decades. Nicks has admitted that she tried to physically attack Buckingham when he refused to go on tour in 1987, with the eruption that followed effectively leading to Buckingham's departure from the band. Famously, Nicks' break-up anthem "Silver Springs" was cut from "Rumours" at Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood's behest and relegated to being a B-side, much to Nicks' distress. 

Decades later, she would get her revenge on Buckingham by singing its pointed lyrics directly at him during the recording of their lauded "The Dance" tour — reportedly with Buckingham's wife in the audience. Nevertheless, the two managed to intermittently return to the stage and the recording studio together, with both appearing in 2003's "Say You Will" album.

The 21st century seemingly saw Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham reach some sort of understanding, with reunions and world tours throughout the 2010s. Now both well into late middle age, it seemed safe to assume that the years had mellowed the two former lovers, whose very public break-up was now pushing half a century in the past.

But in 2018, relations between the pair appeared to have broken down once again, with reports that Buckingham had been fired from the band on the eve of a proposed Fleetwood Mac reunion tour. Early statements suggested there was a disagreement between Buckingham and the wider band, led by Fleetwood. But as Nicks later revealed, she had reached the end of her tether when it came to spending time around her ex, who she criticized for being rude to the people around him at a charity event, including singer Harry Styles.

According to an October 2024 Rolling Stone interview, Nicks recalled: "I could hear my mom saying, 'Are you really going to spend the next 15 years of your life with this man?' I could hear my very pragmatic father ... saying, 'It's time for you guys to get a divorce.' Between those two, I said, 'I'm done.'" She claims to have spoken to Buckingham once more since then, at the funeral of their bandmate Christie McVie, and that the conversation lasted just three minutes.

As with all of their greatest work, the material on "Buckingham Nicks" appears to deal with the inner workings of their passionate and fraught romantic relationship. And for those familiar with their fallout and decades-long feud, it was strange to see their social media accounts synchronize to promote the rerelease of "Buckingham Nicks." The first teasers appeared on July 17, 2025, with Stevie Nicks' accounts posting the lyric "And if you go forward..." and Lindsey Buckingham's posting "I'll meet you there."

The lyric is from the "Buckingham Nicks" song "Frozen Love," which appeared on their debut album as a duo. Soon after, the pair confirmed that the album was being reissued. Despite all the drama — and the real possibility that Nicks and Buckingham may not have even had any direct contact to get the reissue off the ground — the album's rerelease makes sense. Though it sank like a stone upon its first release and received only lukewarm reviews, the album has long circulated as a bootleg among fans. It has been reappraised in recent years as a lost gem, which demonstrates the growing talent that Nicks and Buckingham would bring to Fleetwood Mac just a couple of years later, revolutionizing the group's sound and making them one of the biggest bands in the world.