But the one aspect of this whole saga that has really stood the test of time—and, honestly, has stretched into the present—is the Buckingham-Nicks beef. The Rumours barbs, such as on “Go Your Own Way” and “Never Going Back Again”, are well documented. Less so are the ones from Tusk. In his book Get Tusked, Caillat suggested that Buckingham wrote “What Makes You Think You’re The One” about Nicks, and imitated her vocal vibrato in doing so, “giving it a bleating goat-like quality… which he knew made her self-conscious.” In a move that was arguably more hurtful, Nicks was more focused on writing songs (well, allegedly, “Storms”) about their fellow bandmate, Fleetwood, rather than Buckingham.
In the ’80s, the recording of Tango In the Night caused further fractures. Nicks reportedly only spent a few weeks in the studio with the band throughout the process, which went on for 18 months. She was absent in part because post-rehab aftercare in the mid-80s had led her to become addicted to the prescription tranquilizer Klonopin. “Stevie was the worst she’s ever been,” Buckingham told Uncut magazine in 2003 (though he also admitted that the entire band’s drug use was seriously out of control at this point). A few months after the album was released, according to Fleetwood’s autobiography, a physical altercation between the two of them led to Buckingham quitting the band. He’d later rejoin for The Dance—the live album that infamous 1997 “Silver Springs” clip is from—around which time, both exchanged thinly-veiled barbs in the press. (During a radio appearance, Nicks explained “Silver Springs”: “I’m so angry with you. You will listen to me on the radio for the rest of your life, and it will bug you. I hope it bugs you.”).
Buckingham’s most recent (and seemingly permanent) departure from the band came in 2018, and he claims it happened after Nicks gave the other members an ultimatum. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Buckingham said that Nicks was pissed off with him after he had “smirked” during her acceptance speech at an awards ceremony. He sued the band, and it was settled out of court. Since then, it’s been largely crickets, though every now and then one of them will be asked to comment on the other in an interview, and the beef gets thrown back on the barbecue. “I think sometimes she might find it difficult that I was lucky enough to find my soulmate late in life and got married and had my first child when I was 48,” he told CBS This Morning. That was something that she never did… I don’t know if that plays into it or not.”
In her own interview with Rolling Stone last year, Nicks suggested that there was more at play in his firing. “He wasn’t very nice to anyone. He wasn’t very nice to Harry Styles,” she said, adding that she barely spoke to Buckingham at a memorial service for McVie in early 2023. “I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could. You could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances.”
So, any indication that these two are communicating, if only through lawyers, music industry executives or some other sort of interlocutors, is tantalizing. Even with these teasing posts, a reunion in 2026 seems about as likely as a Drake and Kendrick Lamar collab. But the reissue of Buckingham Nicks, a great bit of early work from two excellent songwriters? We’ll take it.
This article originally appeared in British GQ.
