Lindsey Buckingham is breaking his silence on the matter of his exit from Fleetwood Mac.
Buckingham confirmed on stage that leaving the band of 43 years was not his "choice" just over one month after Rolling Stone reported that the rocker had been "fired" due to a disagreement over an upcoming tour and replaced by Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House.
While the band has done some talking on the subject, Lindsey has kept mum—until now.
"It's been an interesting time on a lot of levels for me personally. Probably some of you know, that for the last three months I have taken leave of my band of 43 years, Fleetwood Mac. This was not something that was my doing or my choice," said the guitarist and singer.
He continued, "I think what you would say there were factions that were in the band that had lost their perspective."
An audience member yelled out, "Stevie Nicks!"
Buckingham responded, "It doesn't really matter. The point is that they lost their perspective...and what that did was to harm—and this is the one thing I am really sad about because the rest of it becomes an opportunity—it harmed the 43-year legacy that we worked so hard to build. And that legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill someone's higher truth and one's higher destiny."
Drummer and co-founder Mick Fleetwood told Rolling Stone last month, "Words like 'fired' are ugly references as far as I'm concerned."
He continued, "Not to hedge around, but we arrived at the impasse of hitting a brick wall. This was not a happy situation for us in terms of the logistics of a functioning band. To that purpose, we made a decision that we could not go on with him. Majority rules in term of what we need to do as a band and go forward."
Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974 at the same time with then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks.
In 1987, he left before the Tango in the Night tour. He rejoined the group in 1996 and had been active with the supergroup since then.