Mick Fleetwood Has Reconciled with Lindsey Buckingham and 'Really Enjoyed Being Reconnected'

Mick Fleetwood wants Fleetwood Mac to have one last hurrah.

The group's founding member, 73, recently opened up about his reconciliation with former bandmate Lindsey Buckingham, 71, who was released from the band in 2018 after a disagreement regarding their 2019 world tour, according to Rolling Stone. Buckingham filed a lawsuit against the band in October 2018 and accused Fleetwood Mac of seven offenses, including breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. In December 2018, he told CBS This Morning they had settled the lawsuit.

Buckingham was replaced by Neil Finn and Mike Campbell for the band's international live dates, which concluded in November 2019. "It was a massive, really lovely world tour that was beyond successful in every way and a happy tour," Fleetwood told Rolling Stone in a new interview.

But it was the death of founding guitarist Peter Green that caused Fleetwood and Buckingham to resolve their dispute after two years of estrangement. Green died in his sleep in July 2020 at the age of 73, months after Fleetwood Mac honored him in a tribute concert at London's Palladium in February 2020.

"I've really enjoyed being reconnected with Lindsey, which has been gracious and open," Fleetwood told Rolling Stone. "Both of us have been beautifully honest about who we are and how we got to where we were."

After rekindling their relationship, the drummer hopes to make new music with his longtime collaborator.

"I know for a fact that I intend to make music and play again with Lindsey," he told the outlet. "I would love that. It doesn't have to be in Fleetwood Mac."

"Fleetwood Mac is such a strange story," he continued. "All the players in the play are able to talk and speak for themselves. Somehow, I would love the elements that are not healed to be healed. I love the fantasy that we could cross that bridge and everyone could leave with creative, holistic energy and everyone could be healed with grace and dignity."

Ideally, Fleetwood wants the band to host an official farewell tour. "I'm very aware that we've never played that card," he said. "I think the vision for me, and I think it would be hugely appropriate ... That has always been my vision and I'm a flatly confident that we can do that. We owe it to the fans."

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It is unclear whether the remaining members of Fleetwood Mac would be interested in the endeavor. Co-lead vocalist Christine McVie told the BBC earlier this month that her ex-husband and Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie was "a little bit frail" and did not have "the heart for it."

Christine, 77, added, "If we do it, it'll be without John and without Stevie [Nicks], I think … I'm getting a bit old for it now. I don't know if I can get myself back into it. The singer added, "[Fleetwood] would do it in a lightning strike."

Buckingham and Nicks, 72 — his ex-girlfriend and former Fleetwood Mac bandmate — would have to reach an agreement in order for the band to reunite for a goodbye tour. The two were in a relationship when they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974. They have reportedly been at odds for decades, after splitting in 1976.

Fleetwood told Rolling Stone, "I can't speak for the dynamic with Stevie and [Buckingham]. I don't even need to protect it. It's so known that they are chalk and cheese in so many ways, and yet not."

In December 2018, Buckingham alleged he was fired from the band partly because Nicks had "given the band an ultimatum, and either I had to go or she was going to go."