Late last week, Lindsey Buckingham dropped a very promising hint in an Instagram video to his followers. “I think on a more general level, the energy around what ‘Buckingham Nicks’ did – this rekindling of the connection between Stevie [Nicks] and me – set something in motion that is bigger and palpable in the air,” he said, alluding to the re-release of their joint album from 1973 last year. “I don’t want to speculate yet what that means in concrete terms. But I believe from the bottom of my heart that it will translate into something good, into something wonderful, something necessary and something absolutely right.”
For context, Nicks and Buckingham haven’t appeared on stage together since a Fleetwood Mac MusiCares tribute concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in January 2018. Nicks was so upset by his behavior that night that she reportedly made it clear to the band that she would not agree to the upcoming tour if he was there. The band sided with Nicks and brought in Mike Campbell and Neil Finn to replace Buckingham. He sued her for wrongful termination, a settlement was settled out of court, and a reconciliation seemed a long way off – although Nicks and Buckingham spoke briefly at a private memorial evening for Christine McVie.
“The only time I spoke to Lindsey was there – for about three minutes,” Nicks told Rolling Stone in October 2024, where she also ruled out any kind of future Fleetwood Mac activity. “I put up with Lindsey as long as I could. No one can say I didn’t give him 300 million chances.”
The turning point in July 2025
That seemed to be the final end of the Stevie and Lindsey saga – until the two announced the re-release of “Buckingham Nicks” together on social media in July 2025. It wasn’t until October 2025 that it was proven that they had actually spoken to each other, when Nicks spoke on the “Song Exploder” podcast about the evening they met in 1966. “Lindsey and I were talking about it last night,” Nicks said. “This all feels like it was yesterday for us.”
This was proof: she had given him one last chance. And now Buckingham speaks in very vague terms of a “revival of the connection” between them, which will turn into “something good, something wonderful.” He says he doesn’t want to speculate yet on what that might be – but that doesn’t stop us. Here are five scenarios.
A Fleetwood Mac reunion tour
The most lucrative and high-profile project Nicks and Buckingham could embark on would be a Fleetwood Mac reunion tour. Nicks has stated that this would be unthinkable without Christine McVie – but the band toured extensively without her between 2003 and 2014. The same lineup of Nicks, Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie could fill arenas and even stadiums around the globe, commanding ticket prices in excess of $5,000. Declared as a farewell tour, the prices would be even higher.
However, it is unclear whether John McVie would even take part. He has largely disappeared from the scene for several years, and Christine McVie spoke of “health problems” when we spoke in June 2022. “The death of John’s wife earlier this year hit him very, very hard,” Nicks told Rolling Stone in October 2024. “I actually haven’t spoken to him since Julie’s death because he’s made it very clear that he really doesn’t want to talk to anyone until he gets a lot of distance from it.”
A Fleetwood Mac tour without Mac himself would be unfortunate, but would have little impact on ticket demand. As long as Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are on stage, the fans will come in droves.
A Buckingham/Nicks tour
In 2012, Nicks told Rolling Stone about her dream of bringing Buckingham Nicks back on tour for the first time since 1975. “That would be a situation where we would actually go on stage and play the entire Buckingham Nicks album,” she said. “It would be a trip to revisit that with Waddy Wachtel and some other people from San Francisco. It would be strangely nice for Lindsey and I to revisit those songs.”
Fleetwood Mac were preparing their own tour at the time, and when we told Buckingham what she had said, he was speechless. “Oh, the old band with Waddy Wachtel,” he said. “Wow. Well, I would love to do a tour with Stevie. I think that would be absolutely right. She was talking about doing it between legs of a Fleetwood Mac tour, but that’s not going to happen. Logistically that’s impossible. Economically it’s suicidal because you can’t tour enough to make it profitable.”
A lot has happened since then – 14 years to be exact. The original Buckingham Nicks album was finally re-released last year, bringing these extraordinary songs to a whole new generation of fans. Currently, Nicks has just three solo concerts on the books, all in April. This means there is enough scope to organize a Buckingham Nicks tour with Wachtel and other veterans.
It could be limited to a few theater concerts in major markets where they play the old album cover to cover. Or they could switch arenas by incorporating a series of Fleetwood Mac songs, creating their own version of Page and Plant. (In this scenario, Mick Fleetwood would be left out, as was Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones in the ’90s.) They wouldn’t be able to charge Fleetwood Mac prices, but it would still be a hugely profitable venture for both of them. And it would bring their story full circle in a deeply satisfying way.
A “Rumours” 50 celebration
This year marks the 50th anniversary of “Rumours” – one of the most important albums in rock history that only seems to get more popular as the years go by. Director Frank Marshall has been working on an official documentary about the band for several years, which may be released around the anniversary. The band is expected to appear at the premiere, perhaps also at other promotional events. Could this also include a one-off live event? That seems more realistic today than it did a year ago.
One could imagine a large Fleetwood Mac tribute concert at a venue like the LA Forum, ending with the surviving members playing a few songs together. If Nicks and/or Buckingham don’t want to commit to a tour, that would be a nice compromise – and a better ending than that tour where Neil Finn sang “Second Hand News” night after night.
A second Buckingham/Nicks album
For reasons that are not entirely clear, Lindsey Buckingham has not gone on a solo concert tour for almost four years. But in 2019, he had open-heart bypass surgery after a heart attack. “There’s so much heart disease in his family that it’s really no surprise,” Nicks told Rolling Stone in 2024. “I wish him the best. I hope he lives a long life and keeps going to the studio and working with other people. He’s also an icon and has something to teach others. He’s not out of the running. And he can still make music and have fun.”
If he is unable to tour for health or other reasons, a second Buckingham/Nicks album would be a great gift to fans. Despite all the bitterness of the past few years, the two develop extraordinary chemistry as soon as they make music together. There is simply no doubt that they bring out the best in each other – and always have. So why not go into the studio one last time and see what comes out?
Nothing that ever becomes public
Chances are very good that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel will never appear together again. But after a decades-long falling out, the old friends buried the battle ax a few years ago and met for lunch at New York’s Pierre Hotel. The final chapter of their story will likely take place far from the public eye.
It’s quite possible that Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s story will end similarly. She could continue to fill arenas on her own and play a solo program full of Fleetwood Mac classics – carrying the torch alone now. But some evenings she might call her old friend Lindsey and chat about old times. Maybe they even meet up for dinner every now and then. It’s nowhere near as dramatic (or lucrative) as a string of Fleetwood Mac shows at Wembley Stadium – but maybe they don’t need that at this stage of their lives. Maybe they just need to forgive each other for the past and find a way to be friends again. For the true fans that would be enough.
