Fleetwood Mac says Lindsey Buckingham split over tour dispute

[April 26, 2018]   LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The members of Fleetwood Mac on Wednesday said they parted ways with longtime guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, one of the rock group's most influential members, due to conflicts over their upcoming North American tour.

"It became just a huge impasse," the band's drummer and co-founder Mick Fleetwood said on "CBS This Morning." "We hit a brick wall where we decided we had to part company."

The British-American band behind 1970s hits "Go Your Own Way" and "Don't Stop," said two weeks ago they would tour without the 68-year-old songwriter and guitarist, but declined to give a reason.

Fleetwood, 70, refused to say whether Buckingham had been fired.

"We don't use that word because I think it's ugly and it's not a question of that," Fleetwood said.

"But it's like a marriage that came to an end and there are reasons why and as a band, we needed to move on and we have," he added.

Buckingham has not commented on the split.

Fleetwood Mac, which first formed in 1967, has been plagued by behind-the-scenes romantic and creative tensions among its members as well as a shifting lineup over the years. But Buckingham joined Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and John McVie for a 2014 reunion tour and a MusicCares ceremony in New York in January.

Nicks said Buckingham did not want to commit to the 52-date, six-month-long tour the band announced on Wednesday.

"When you're in a band, it's a team. I have a solo career and I love my solo career and I'm the boss," Nicks said. "But I'm not the boss in this band."

Fleetwood Mac's tour of the United States and Canada begins on Oct. 3, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and ends in Philadelphia in April 2019. The band also said it had added former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Crowded House guitarist and singer Neil Finn to the tour.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by G Crosse)

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