On this day (October 3) in 1949, Lindsey Adams Buckingham was born in Palo Alto, California. Widely considered one of the greatest guitarists of his generation, he gained international fame as co-lead singer of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham wrote and sang on some of the band’s most enduring singles, including “Go Your Own Way” and “Tusk”.
Additionally, his stormy romantic relationship with singer Stevie Nicks served as the backdrop to much of Fleetwood Mac’s lyricism. After near-constant interpersonal strife broke up the band mostly for good in the late 1980s, Buckingham continued on his own, scoring the Top Ten hit “Trouble”.
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Today, we’re exploring the remarkable career of Lindsey Buckingham in honor of the rock icon’s 77th birthday.
Why Lindsey Buckingham Doesn’t Use a Pick
Growing up in Atherton, California, Lindsey Buckingham often practiced guitar while listening to records by The Kingston Trio or The Beach Boys. This is when he developed his distinct finger picking style, continuing to shun actual picks up until this very day.
“I started playing very young and from early on, the people I was listening to had some element of finger style,” Buckingham told Guitar World in 2012. “It’s just the way I came up… I just sort of figured things out on my own terms. I guess that was one of the ways that I became comfortable and it just kind of set in.”
In high school, Buckingham played psychedelic and folk rock with a band he started called Fritz. He invited his friend Stevie Nicks to join as a backing vocalist. By the time the two future Fleetwood Mac members left Fritz in 1971, they were a romantic couple.
Buckingham Nicks
After their exit from Fritz, they formed the folk-rock duo Buckingham Nicks. They released just one self-titled album in 1973, which did not perform well commercially.
To make ends meet, Lindsey Buckingham toured with Don Everly’s backing band, singing Phil Everly’s parts.
However, one song, “Frozen Love”, caught the attention of Mick Fleetwood, drummer for a band called Fleetwood Mac. He was so impressed with the guitar riffs that he called Buckingham and offered him the guitar slot recently vacated by Bob Welch. When he told Fleetwood that he wouldn’t join without Nicks, the drummer extended the offer to her as well.
Fleetwood Mac: The Rise and Fall
After contributing two Buckingham Nicks tracks to the band’s 1975 self-titled album, Lindsey Buckingham penned and sang lead on “Go Your Own Way”, the lead single from 1977’s earth-shattering Rumours.
Buckingham also wrote the tracks “Second Hand News” and “Never Going Back Again”, in addition to sharing lead vocals on “The Chain” and “Don’t Stop”.
Rumours represented a commercial peak, topping the charts in both the UK and the U.S. and yielding four top 10 singles — “Go Your Own Way”, the number-one “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun”. It also won Album of the Year at the 1978 Grammy Awards.
In the meantime, however, the band was in a state of near-constant interpersonal disarray, with Buckingham and Nicks calling off their romance during the making of Rumours.
Post-‘Rumours’ and Fleetwood Mac Breakup
Afterwards, Buckingham insisted that Fleetwood Mac’s next album bear no sonic resemblance whatsoever to its multi-platinum predecessor.
The result was the 1979’s experimental, new-wave Tusk. Although considered a commercial failure in comparison to Rumours, the album’s lead single and title track reached the top 10 in the U.S.
“We really were poised to make Rumours 2, and that could’ve been the beginning of kind of painting yourself into a corner in terms of living up to the labels that were being placed on you as a band,” Buckingham told Billboard in 2015. “You know, there have been several occasions during the course of Fleetwood Mac over the years where we’ve had to undermine whatever the business axioms might be to sort of keep aspiring as an artist in the long term, and the Tusk album was one of those times.”
Going Solo
While working on Tusk, Lindsey Buckingham produced albums for other artists in addition to crafting his own solo album. He released the finished product, Law and Order, in 1981, playing nearly every instrument and building on the more experimental vibes of Tusk. The album yielded the top 10 single “Trouble”.
[RELATED: Lindsey Buckingham Gives Fans New Hope for Fleetwood Mac Reunion]
In 1983, Buckingham wrote and performed the infectious “Holiday Road” from the cult classic film National Lampoon’s Vacation. He has since released multiple solo albums and reunited with Fleetwood Mac on several occasions, officially leaving the band in 2018.
Lindsey Buckingham is currently working on his eighth studio album, which he hopes to release sometime in 2026.
Featured image by Michael Putland/Getty Images
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