Lindsey Buckingham sang “Go Your Own Way” with Fleetwood Mac, but he’s not happy that the band actually made him do that.
Buckingham announced on Friday that he is suing his former bandmates for kicking him off the group’s new tour, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The rock legend said his manager told him in January that the band had decided to tour without him, but that none of his bandmates bothered to explain why.
Buckingham wants bandmates Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and John McVie to pay him his full share of tour revenues because he still wants to be in the group.
The 69-year-old Buckingham said he agreed to do 60 shows with the band, but asked if the 2018 dates could be postponed so he could do a solo tour.
When the request was refused, he claims, Buckingham rescheduled the solo dates only to be told he was terminated anyway, according to People.
He has been replaced on the tour by former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Neil Finn of Crowded House fame.
Buckingham speculated to Rolling Stone earlier this week that Stevie Nicks was behind the termination.
Two nights before he was canned from Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham and the others performed in New York at a MusiCares benefit show honoring the group.
“We rehearsed for two days, and everything was great,” Buckingham said. “We were getting along great.”
However, Buckingham said group manager Irving Azoff later told him that Nicks was angry that he had an issue with the band walking on stage to her song “Rhiannon,” and that he “smirked” during her thank-you speech.
“It wasn’t about it being ‘Rhiannon,’ ” Buckingham said. “It just undermined the impact of our entrance. That’s me being very specific about the right and wrong way to do something.”
He also didn’t confirm or deny the smirk.
“The irony is that we have this standing joke that Stevie, when she talks, goes on a long time,” Buckingham says. “I may or may not have smirked. But I look over and Christine and Mick are doing the waltz behind her as a joke.”
Fleetwood Mac publicist Kristen Foster said in a statement Friday that the band denies all of Buckingham’s allegations.
“Fleetwood Mac strongly disputes the allegations presented in Mr. Buckingham’s complaint and looks forward to their day in court,” Foster said. “The band has retained Dan Petrocelli to handle the case.”
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