If Fleetwood Mac didn’t churn out an entire back catalogue of timeless hits, the scandal behind the band might have been bigger than their music.
Luckily, the ’70s rock group provided generations of fans with iconic hits such as The Chain, Dreams and Rhiannon.
The story of Fleetwood Mac’s complicated and scandalous feuding and break-ups is so legendary, it was the inspiration for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestseller Daisy Jones & The Six and the novel-inspired television series.
Young music fans are just now discovering Fleetwood Mac and the tale of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s failed romance – and learning about the memorable 1997 performance where their feud was on display for the world to see.
Watch the clip above
READ MORE: The story behind Madonna’s controversial 1989 Like A Prayer video
In the ’70s, Nicks, Buckingham, Christine and John McVie and Mick Fleetwood were engulfed in bitter feuds, affairs and drug addictions which threatened to tear the band apart at the height of their success.
When the band’s famous smash-hit album Rumours was released over four decades ago, there was a soap opera-level of crisis going on behind the scenes.
“Drama. Dra-ma,” is how the late Christine McVie described the album’s recording shortly after its release.
She was right; during the Rumours era, Nicks had just split from her long-time lover and musical partner Buckingham, while McVie was in the middle of divorcing her husband and Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie.
I’m so angry with you. You will listen to me on the radio for the rest of your life.
Musical duo Nicks and Buckingham had met in high school in the 1960s and launched their careers together, releasing their first-ever record Buckingham Nicks in 1973.
The bandmates had been on-and-off again during the early 70s, their relationship tumultuous from the very beginning.
During their early relationship, Nicks “cooked and cleaned and took care of” Buckingham, with the pair of them living like a married couple.
But tensions arose when, according to Nicks, as Buckingham wanted her “all to himself” and began to distrust where she’d been or who she had been with.
At the time of the recording for Rumours in 1977, their erratic romance was officially over.
READ MORE: Tragic fate of a streaker who stormed the stage at the 1974 Oscars
“We were just finishing up the end of our 12 songs in Sausalito for Rumours and I said, ‘We’re done. I think that this is over, and we both know now that no matter what it takes, we’re going to keep Fleetwood Mac together,'” Nicks told Oprah in 2013.
“‘Our breaking up is not going to break up this band and I’m not going to quit and neither are you’ – and we were done.”
And done they were. In 1987, Buckingham walked away from the band, telling Rolling Stone at the time he was pursuing his solo career.
Then, in 1990, Nicks and McVie also left Fleetwood Mac.
Frontwoman Nicks’ exit reportedly had a lot to do with the track Silver Springs, which was originally supposed to be on the Rumours album.
That song would go on to be a real tipping point for Nicks and Buckingham, who reunited in 1997 for an emotionally-charged performance of Silver Springs.
Fleetwood Mac reunited for a slew of shows in 1997, and the exes, it seemed, were still locked in a bitter feud.
Audience members had a front seat to history as the pair performed the song, which Nicks had written about their relationship ending.
I’ll follow you down ’til the sound of my voice will haunt you, part of the lyrics read.
“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,” Nicks said of the song to MTV in 1997.
READ MORE: A-list celebrities embroiled in the college admissions scandal of 2019
READ MORE: The heartbreaking way Elvis Presley reacted to the birth of his only child
During that reunion show, it was hard not to notice the dagger looks Nicks and Buckingham threw at each other.
Nicks later said when the band rehearsed for The Dances concerts, the tension between them was virtually non-existent. It only started to flare once the cameras were on.
“In six weeks of rehearsal, it [performing Silver Springs for the MTV special] was never like that…” she told Arizona Republic.
“Only on Friday night did we let it go into something deeper. When we went on Friday, I knew we’d bring it out in case it was the last thing we’d ever do. I wanted people to stand back and really watch and understand what [the relationship with Lindsey] was.”
Though Nicks and Buckingham appeared to truly despise each other, the Rhiannon singer admitted that iconic live performance was quite cathartic. She described it as “closure” on their decades-long clash.
“It’s like a release,” Nicks told Miami Herald in 1997.
“Even now, we don’t talk much, so when those songs come around and are directly involved with our relationship it’s very therapeutic to work that stuff out. This way we get to have closure.”
For a daily dose of 9Honey, subscribe to our newsletter here