Q&A: Lindsey Buckingham on Fleetwood Mac's new fans and next album

Lindsey Buckingham, the Fleetwood Mac guitarist on why the band’s relationships are always a work in progress

I’ve noticed that the band seems to be connecting with a new, younger audience. True?

“We’ve gotten a multigenerational response. You’ve got people who were young adults when we first hit the market way back when, and then you’ve got young people who’ve just been introduced to our work. You can hear our approach in a lot of younger groups who are coming along now and have obviously listened to our music. Everyone seems to be appreciating the body of work.”

American Airlines Magazine - June, 2015

Fleetwood Mac is famous for how the relationships of the band members influenced the music. What is the dynamic now?

“When Stevie [Nicks] and I joined ­Fleetwood Mac, it didn’t look like we would all fit well together. But it ended up being this synergy created from the divergent sensibilities and different tastes and outlooks on how to approach creativity — how to approach life in general. It was greater than the sum of its parts. Now, you’d think all these years later that somehow we would have figured out our drill. That we know how to be on the same page or deal with a certain amount of chaos within the ranks. But on some strange level — and it’s kind of refreshing — the interaction between the members is still a work in progress.”

What does that stem from?

“A lot of it stems from the fact that there were these two couples that broke up. Things have settled down pretty well. But it is somehow reflective of the fact that we don’t all want the same things at the same time for the same reasons. So you’ve got elements of that, and it makes it that much more special when we do come together. And people do seem to buy into the subtext behind the scenes as much as they buy into the music.”

I’ve heard a new album may be on the horizon after this tour. Any truth to that?

“I think so. Christine [McVie] gave me some very rough stuff, of her just playing the piano and singing into a microphone. I took it home and, as I’ve always done, took some liberties with it. At some point, I sent it over to her before she came over to L.A. [before the tour]. Then we all spent about two months at ­Village Studios, which is where we cut Tusk, and we cut all these great new songs. It was really a transcendent experience.”

Fleetwood Mac’s worldwide tour includes a trip through the U.K. this month, with four nights in London.

June 16 - SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Scotland

June 20, July 10-11 - 3 Arena, Dublin

June 22, 24, 26, 27 - O2 Arena, London