Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie Release Duet Album 40 Years After Fleetwood Mac ‘Rumours’ Made Them Stars

Lindsey Buckingham is back with his female Fleetwood Mac vocalist, but it’s not his ex-girlfriend, Stevie Nicks. Buckingham has teamed up with fellow Fleetwood Mac alum Christine McVie for a newly released album of duets titled Lindsey Buckingham/ Christine McVie. All 10 tracks are written by Lindsey and Christine, with the duo swapping lead vocals on most of the songs and doing a straight-up duet on “Too Far Gone.”

Both Buckingham and McVie’s real life romantic woes (him, with Nicks; her, with then-husband John McVie) played out as the band’s chart-topping album, Rumours, made them all famous 40 years ago. Now, it’s just Buckingham and McVie, with a little help from John McVie and Mick Fleetwood on the rhythm section. OK, so Stevie Nicks is really the only Fleetwood Mac alum not involved with the album at all.

In an interview with CBS News, Lindsey Buckingham denied that the project ever was ever intended as a Fleetwood Mac record, revealing that it started with the foursome just getting together to “have some fun” playing music.

“But it only took about a week for [Christine and I] to start to get a little territorial about it maybe being a duet album,” Buckingham said.

See Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie perform music from their newly released album tomorrow on @CBSThisMorning! #SaturdaySessions pic.twitter.com/tbgrgfCE5y

— Buckingham McVie (@BuckinghamMcvie) June 9, 2017

While Buckingham says Fleetwood Mac survived a lot of drama during their years together, surprisingly, Lindsey and Christine never had any personal drama with each other. In the CBS interview, McVie reminisced about the first time she sang with Lindsey Buckingham in the early 1970s.

“It was with Stevie and John, and it was a little studio somewhere,” Christine said.

“I was playing ‘Say You Love Me.’ And [Lindsey] and Stevie chirped in with fantastic background vocals. And we just all sat, I mean I sat there with goosebumps. I could not believe it.”

The classic lineup of Fleetwood Mac was soon formed. The group’s first album, known by fans as the White Album, went to No. 1, and it was followed up by 1977’s Rumours, which would sell more than 45 million copies thanks to the hits “Dreams,” “Don’t Stop” and “The Chain.” Rumours also won that year’s Grammy Award for best rock album. The band thrived, but the two couples in the group didn’t.

In an interview with ABC News, Stevie Nicks said the making of the album was almost like therapy for the broken couples.

“We were having a lot of fun recording those songs, even though we were falling apart,” Nicks said of her relationship with Buckingham.

“If anything was keeping us from falling apart, it was going into the studio every day.”

Of course, Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way” is a thought to be a jab at Nicks, while McVie’s “You Make Loving Fun” was reportedly written about her new boyfriend at the time, Curry Grant, who worked as a lighting director for the band.

Forty years later, Lindsey Buckingham still considers his Fleetwood Mac bandmates as family.

“There is nothing like this extended family that is Fleetwood Mac,” Lindsey told CBS.

“And I think you have to say, for all the perceived and real dysfunction that there has been, underneath that, there is and always has been a great deal of love. And that keeps pulling us back together.”

Fleetwood Mac’s last group effort, Say You Will, was recorded nearly 15 years ago. As for Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, with their self-titled studio album now released, the duo is currently rehearsing for a series of summer tour dates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB1TSmz6AsI&t=41s

The Buckingham-McVie tour opens June 21 in Atlanta and runs through July.

[Featured Image by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM]