Lindsey Buckingham Sues Over Getting Kicked Out of Fleetwood Mac Tour

Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in the Los Angeles superior court against his former Fleetwood Mac bandmates, claiming they cut him out of their North American tour, depriving him of money he might have earned.

According to the lawsuit, a rift formed between Buckingham and his bandmates over his desire to play some solo shows, which conflicted with the 2019-19 tour the group had planned. The lawsuit alleges each member of Fleetwood Mac would have earned between $12 million and $14 million on the 50-city tour, The Guardian reports. According to Rolling Stone, Buckingham made this request to perform solo shows after Stevie Nicks asked that the band perform a maximum of three time a week. He says he wanted to comply with Nicks’ demand and book some of those empty days.

The suit claims that the other band members, “intentionally acted to interfere with Buckingham’s relationship with [concert promoters] Live Nation and the prospective economic benefit he was to receive as a result of his participation in the tour.”

In the lawsuit Buckingham also contends that despite remaining flexible, he was kicked off the tour without warning a few days after Fleetwood Mac performed at the 2018 MusiCares ceremony in January. The band announced at the time that he’d be replaced by Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House. Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974.

The lawsuit states that “After 43 years of camaraderie and friendship, not a single member of Fleetwood Mac has returned any of Buckingham’s phone calls to provide him with an explanation for his purported expulsion from Fleetwood Mac.”