Stevie Nicks Became The First Woman to be Inducted Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Twice!

Stevie Nicks Enlists Harry Styles, Don Henley for Blazing Rock Hall Medley.
Nicks ran through some of her biggest hits from “Stand Back” to “Edge of Seventeen”

(Both Harry's intro and Stevie's acceptance speech are at the end of this post.)

By Brittany Spanos
Rollingstone

Stevie Nicks kicked off the 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony with her windblown classic, “Stand Back.” She paid tribute to its inspiration and co-writer Prince with purple lights bathing the audience. She twirled 11 times during the guitar solo with her (original!) gold and black shawl cascading around her.

She followed with “Leather and Lace,” with Henley slowly walking to the front of the stage from the back. They locked eyes as they harmonized through the duet.

After Henley exited, she introduced former One Direction star Harry Styles, who took over the Tom Petty part of “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” He played with guitar in hand, skillfully filling in for a rock legend.

“Edge of Seventeen” followed after Nicks explained that she didn’t realize it would be “the last song in my set for the rest of my life.” It was a raucous, tambourine-smashing end.

Styles returned to the stage to reverently induct his hero, whom he called “God.” He began with the incredible fact that said it all: “Stevie Nicks is the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the second time.” The crowd roared. And he said it again. The pair have performed together on two separate occasions: Nicks joined Styles on stage two years ago at the Troubadour for his album release show, and Styles later joined Fleetwood Mac at 2018’s MusiCares Benefit tribute to the band where he sang on “The Chain” with the whole group.

Henley and Nicks have had a long friendship. The pair initially dated in the late Seventies, and Henley later appeared on Nicks’ debut album Bella Donna in 1981. “Leather and Lace” was a Top 10 hit for the pair, though Nicks had originally written the song for Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter’s duet album of the same name.

“Don always treated me very special,” Nicks has said of Henley in the past. “He always treated me like we were married. He still does every time I see him. I think he found in me something he has not probably found since […] He found a very different girl in me than in most of the women he was used to hanging out with, and we had a very special relationship because of that.”

HARRY'S INTRODUCTION:

Hello. Just like the white winged dove sings a song sounds like she’s singing, Stevie Nicks is the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a second time. The first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a second time. First with Fleetwood Mac and now for her unforgettable solo work. With Stevie, you’re not celebrating music long ago from the mists of time. She was standing on stage, headlining a place this size, doing her best work just three nights ago.

She is forever current. She is forever Stevie. But what exactly does that mean? In my family, we listened at home, we listened in the car, we listened wherever we could. “Dreams” was the first song I knew all the words to before I knew what the words really meant. I thought it was a song about the weather, but I knew that it was a beautiful song about the weather. I always knew the words and I loved them all. “Thunder only happens when it’s raining. Players only love you when they’re playing.”

She’s so wise and serene. She sees all the romance and drama in the world and she celebrates it. She will stand on stage introducing song telling you how she wrote them honestly, like you’re the only other person in the world. You’re more than a fan. You are her friend, and her words say in so many ways, “I understand you and you are not alone.” And that is true Stevie.

She walked a path tread by Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell—visionary women who had to throw a couple of elbows to create their own space. Her early band Fritz opened for Jimi Hendrix and they helped her out. She was far ahead of her time, creating her own sound. It was bright. It was fresh. It was magical.

Next, she formed a duo with Fritz’s bassist, Lindsey Buckingham: Buckingham-Nicks. Then on New Years Eve, 1974, Mick Fleetwood invited Lindsey Buckingham and herself to join Fleetwood Mac, and everybody’s lives became brilliant and a lot crazier.

Stevie Nicks stepped onto the world’s stage with unforgettable ease. I remember it well. She began creating stories that flowed from her heart to her pen which ended up in our souls with characters we’ll always remember. Classic songs like “Silver Springs,” “Rihannon,” “Gypsy,” and “Sara.” In the 1980s, she released Bella Donna, the rare first solo album that was as powerful as the supergroup she was still in. With “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” she and Tom Petty took things to another level.

Then she did it again with albums like The Wild Path and Rock a Little. Whether on her own, in a duet, with her band, it’s probable at some point she found herself in a barbershop quartet. Stevie could do it all, and that is true Stevie.

You can’t take her eyes off her, as we’ve seen tonight. She’s the magical gypsy godmother who occupies the in-between. It’s a space that can only be hers. She’s a lot like a rock’n’roll Nina Simone, finding the notes only she can. And by being so unapologetically herself, she gives others permission to do the same, and that is true Stevie.

And if you’re lucky enough to know her, she’s always there for you. She knows what you need—advice, a little wisdom, a blouse or shawl, she’s got you covered. Her songs made you ache, feel on top of the world, make you want to dance, and usually all three at the same time. She’s responsible for more running mascara, including my own, than all the bad dates in history combined. And that is true Stevie.

There are few people who hold the stage like her. I was lucky enough to play with her at the Troubadour a few years ago, and all I could do was watch. The show is no longer yours, it’s hers, and that is true Stevie.

She has many, many solo hits—“If Anyone Falls,” “Edge of Seventeen,” “Talk to Me”—but there are so many gems hidden within the albums. Songs like “Belle Fleur” and “Garbo,” “Annabel Lee” and “Ooh My Love.” However you feel or want to feel, there is a Stevie Nicks song that will meet you there. Each song is a dance, it’s an emotional ballet, it’s a letter to a lover or friend, and every single year she gathers more momentum.

Somewhere around 2005, 2006, this woman became God, I think we can all agree on that. On Halloween, 1 in 7 people dress as Stevie Nicks. She is both an adjective and a verb. To quote my father, “that was rather Stevie Nicks,” and to quote my mother, “I Stevie Nicks that shit so hard!” Mick Fleetwood calls her the fearless leader. She is mama lion to her friends. She is the family member you can always count on.

I hope she knows what she means to us—what she means to yet another generation of artists who look to her for inspiration and trailblazing courage. That is true Stevie. She is so much more than a role model. She is a beacon to all of us. Whenever you hear her voice, life gets just a little bit better. When she sings, the world is hers, and it is yours. She’s everything you’ve ever wanted in a lady, in a lover, and in a friend. Stephanie Nicks, I love you, we all do, and that is true Stevie.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been an honor to be with you. Please join me in welcoming to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for the second time, Stevie Nicks.

STEVIE'S SPEECH:

This speech thing that I was supposed to give now has been following me down — the sound of its voice will haunt me for the [next] two weeks. It’s not hard for me to go and play for you, but it’s very hard for me to try to tell you — thank you for for this, for being the first girl in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — twice!

Sometimes I just couldn’t tell great stories. Because it’s like easy — if I’m telling a story about Prince, I can say, ‘He picked me up in his purple Camaro. And we went out to his purple house in a suburb outside Minneapolis, nobody knew where I was. And we wrote a song called, “It’ll Take You Days to Find Her”? And I can actually tell you a great story about that because it is what it is. But for me to tell you a story from my heart, about what this means to me, is very hard … because this has never happened to me before. [It’s only happened for] 22 men and four — zero women, and now one woman.

[Now] I’m like, ‘Hey man, I can do it!’ Now I’m telling all my friends. The girls in Haim? I’m like, “Okay you guys, you gotta really get it together now. One of you needs to step away. And don’t break up your band, just do an album so you have it. Because it’s gonna take 20 years before you get recognized, again! So you’ll already be like, 60. Again, this is the problem of getting in. I started Bella Donna in 1979. I had been in Fleetwood Mac for not even four years, more like three-and-a-half years… This is a hard thing to do. Because you have to — the times are different. It’s like — it’s going to be hard, But I know there’s somebody out there that will be able to do it because I’m going to give you all the directions and I’ll do enough interviews and say what to do.

I wanna tell you that everybody in my life gave me ideas of what I could say to you — I have to just say this because I don’t have my glasses on, I can’t even read it — but I’ve read it so many times in the middle of the night, crying going like ‘Shit I don’t even know what I’m gonna say up there.’ This morning at 4:30 my assistant came in and I’m laying there, and my little Chinese Crested [dog] lays right on my stomach and she’s looking at me like… ‘It’s so late.’ And she goes, “Are you done?” and I’m going “No I can’t do it. I have to go to bed. I don’t know what I’m going to say. I’m just gonna have go out there and… six minutes is not very long. So let me move right on — six minutes for me! I majored in Speech Communication in San Jose State!

The second I called my mom and said, “I have to quit because me and Lindsey have to move to L.A., because the music is in San Francisco, and record deals are in L.A.. We have to go tomorrow.” My mom said, “Okay, that’s fine, but we will be withdrawing all financial support.” I said, flat out, “I know mom. I know, and I’m up to the challenge. Three waitress jobs, two cleaning lady jobs, it was cool.” Lindsey worked on the music, I worked on food and carrying glasses. I rather enjoyed it because I could get out of the house and go into the real world instead of being in the cave with all the guys who were just laying around smoking pot and messing up my house.

It’s like I go, “Excuse me? Excuse me? Can I just step over your feet and your pot and everything so I can straighten this place up?” I don’t get paid for doing this at my own house, but I will do it for you because I know you guys work hard. That’s just a little bit of a moment of how we got before Fleetwood Mac. I want to tell you that this solo album thing, I started thinking about this. I only know this because my friend Paul Fishkin, in 1976 who then became my boyfriend after we went to this convention at the Acapulco Princess, which I like to call the Tequila Convention because the first night, everybody had the little necklaces. One of you may have been there, the little necklace around your neck, and they come and they fill it with tequila. Who is going to waste tequila?

Everybody was so drunk that nobody served us for three solid days, and then it was over. So everybody went to the airport and left, but not me. I stayed, because I’m going like, “I’m already down here. Somebody else paid for it, so I’m going to enjoy this vacation.” Paul and me, I said to him, after playing Rumours, which is not even finished, but still really cool the night before, I didn’t even hear it because I passed out as soon as I pushed play, but some people must have heard it because they spoke about it later.

I said, “No no, it’s other songs, more demos,” and he goes like, “Okay.” We go out on the beach and I plan for 15 or 20 songs, and he goes, “Wow, that’s a lot of songs. Okay.” He’s a record man, so we go back to L.A. and New York. We start going out, and I find out because Paul tells me, a year later when I said to him, [whispers] “Do you think there’s any way that I could do a discreet solo album, that would not break up Fleetwood Mac?” I’m going like, “It’s a secret.” He’s like, “I think so. I think if you’re kind and loving, and you tell them that you will always put them first, and they will always be at the top of your priority list, they will understand and they will stay. Go do what you want to do and have fun. We’ll see you later.”

That’s what we eventually did. Yes, my amazing band is still together and very strong today. Last but not least, which probably won’t be last but not least, they can’t get me off this stage. I want to thank, first of all, very quickly, Paul Fishkin because he was the wise man who said, “You can do both, and you can have both. You just have to do it with love. That’s all.” Then I was introduced to his partner Danny Goldberg who became our group guru and our calm coach who kept us calm. I was gone all the time, so they were talking about this and trying to put it together calmly and serenely.

I’m off in the world doing Rumours and Tusk. They’re working behind the scenes to see if they can make this happen. Then it happened. We formed a record company called Modern. We went to Mr. Doug Morris at Atlantic, my hero. I said, “So Doug, what I want to do is I want to make a Tom Petty album, straight up rock and roll. I have two great girl singers, Laurie and Sharon that are amazing, and we’re going to be Crosby, Stills & Nash. I’m going to be Stills and they’re going to be Nash and Crosby.

“So it’s going to be straight up rock ‘n’ roll, but we’re going to sound like Crosby, Stills & Nash. And Doug’s like — “Fan-fucking-tastic.” Sorry, didn’t mean to swear. So then I said, “Who produces Tom Petty?” He goes, “Jimmy Iovine.” I say, “Can you set me up with Jimmy Iovine?” And he goes, “Yeah, I can. I’ll give him a call.” He calls Jimmy and he sets us up to go and have dinner. We go and have dinner and I tell him the same thing. Tom Petty, straight-up rock album, but we want to sound like Crosby, Stills & Nash. He goes, “Okay, I can do it. I haven’t done a girl album in a while.” We go, “Okay, good.”

We both went back to L.A. because he was there finishing Tom’s record. We get there, and 10 days later — I moved in with Jimmy. It’s just how it was… I moved in with Jimmy. I learned to make tiny pizzas, and waited for him to finish Tom’s album. Meanwhile, me and Laurie and Sharon are practicing all our three-part harmonies, which Jimmy and nobody else really wanted to hear. We were going to be damned if we weren’t gonna be on that album, being Crosby, Stills & Nash. We got so good during that next six weeks, that when he was done and we started Bella Donna, we were ready.

We walked in and we made an album in three months — which is unheard of, especially in those days. We were focused. We were together. We were organized, and we made a great album. Then Jimmy came to me and said, “We have a problem Stevie. We made a great album, but you don’t have a single.”

I’m like, “Seriously? We don’t have a single, and you didn’t tell me until now?” He goes, “Well I though it would work out. I thought one would come to my head and it didn’t, but I have a plan. Tom Petty says you can have “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” It’s already recorded. He’ll sing it with you. And… Problem solved!”

I finally got to meet Tom Petty — who Jimmy had kept me a secret from, because he didn’t want Tom to get pissed off — and think that his attention was going to be taken away because he had a new girlfriend. I liked it in the basement. It was fine. I got to hear everything, eavesdrop all through it. Anyway, Jimmy, Doug, Paul, Danny — also Irving Azoff — I had to hire him in 1976 because my mother said, “You better get some help here, because you don’t have anybody taking care of your money.” So I hired Irving, who gladly said, “Sure I’ll do it!” Not having any idea that he’d still be sitting here tonight, going like, “Sure, I’ll do it!”

My press agent, Liz Rosenberg who I met in 1976, who is still present, and press agenting for me. She’s the best. She’s the Rona Barrett of today. I adore her. She’s elegant and incredible. Talk to her if you can. She’ll get you in the newspaper. Then there was Howard Kaufman who passed away a little while ago — he then became my manager when Irving had to go become the president of a record company. That was okay, because all have to branch out!

Let’s see, and Sheryl [Louis], who when Howard passed away, then took on the mantle of being my manager — which is no easy thing, because I don’t agree with anything anybody says — especially when it’s a girl! Thank you Sheryl for giving it your all. Anyway, you all have been a fantastic, fantastic audience … Thank you! If you ever need a keynote speaker, somebody to talk to, someone to talk to a group of people — I am your girl.

TUNE IN APRIL 27th ON HBO WHEN THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME WILL BE BROADCAST.

STAND BACK
LEATHER AND LACE

STOP DRAGGIN MY HEART AROUND
EDGE OF SEVENTEEN
INTROS AND MOST OF STEVIE'S SPEECH

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac at Wells Fargo, Philadelphia March 22, 2019

Concert Review: Fleetwood Mac at Wells Fargo Center
The three-song encore featured a cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” and as the band performed the song, a montage of Petty photographs appeared on the big screen behind the stage.

By Tom Beck
South Philly Review

It was just last year when Fleetwood Mac announced the firing of longtime guitarist and songwriter Lindsey Buckingham, leading all members of the classic rock universe to collectively roll their eyes. It was just one more chapter in the band’s history, which has been marred by inner turmoil for more than 40 years. For many longtime Fleetwood Mac fans, the idea of seeing the band perform in 2019 sans-Buckingham was a dealbreaker. It simply wouldn’t be the same. These people may be right – perhaps it wouldn’t be exactly the same. But as the band performed at the Wells Fargo Center Friday night – their first performance at the venue in five years – it became clear that the dismissive attitude toward Buckingham’s departure was shortsighted. 

The 2019 incarnation of Fleetwood still features the criminally underrated drumming of Mick Fleetwood, the soulful croon and keyboard talents of Christine McVie and her bass-playing former husband John McVie, and of course, the ultimate rock goddess herself: Stephanie Lynn “Stevie” Nicks. After all, Buckingham’s replacements, Neil Finn (formerly of Crowded House) and Mike Campbell (formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), are no slouches. Campbell is the better known of the two, and widely celebrated for being Tom Petty’s sidekick for many years. Neil Finn isn’t quite a household name, yet he still proved his worth to Philly Fleetwood Mac fans at various points throughout the night. Chief among those moments was Finn and Nicks’s rendition of the somber “Landslide,” which was easily the show’s climax despite a setlist otherwise filled with Fleetwood’s catchier more upbeat work. 

Among the other hits played were “The Chain,” “Go Your Own Way,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” “Little Lies,” and “Don’t Stop.” The three-song encore featured a cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” and as the band performed the song, a montage of Petty photographs appeared on the big screen behind the stage. Many of the photos were of Petty with Fleetwood Mac together, revealing that the two bands were close friends for many decades.

A second focal point of the night was Fleetwood and percussionist Taku Hirano’s drum duet in the middle of “World Turning,” which featured the two drummers slugging it out together for nearly 10 minutes.

For the whole night, the band was entertaining, synergistic, on-key and gripping, proving that Fleetwood Mac hasn’t in any way lost an edge despite its aging members. This summer is slated to be a big one for big-name classic rock acts coming to South Philly, with Billy Joel, The Rolling Stones and The Who all slated to make their way into various venues in the sports complex. It’s not a competition, but Fleetwood Mac set the bar pretty high.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Baltimore March 24, 2019

Fleetwood Mac gives spectacular farewell to Baltimore
BY JON GALLO | BALTIMORE POST EXAMINER

Fleetwod Mac, the timeless band that has spanned more than five decades, tried to make a statement as soon as it took the Royal Farms Arena stage on Sunday night by opening with “Chain,” one if its smash hits from its 1977 blockbuster album “Rumours.”

The problem, however, was that one the most integral links in the band’s chain wasn’t there – and won’t be coming back anytime soon. Lindsey Buckingham (singer/guitarist/songwriter) was let go by his bandmates for having irreconcilable issues about the farewell tour. He was replaced with Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and Mike Campbell, lead guitarist from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Make no mistake: Buckingham’s presence was missed throughout the 21-song, two-hour performance that took the sellout crowd through a stroll down memory lane.

But also make no mistake: Even without Buckingham Fleetwood Mac put on a tremendously entertaining show in likely its last performance in an arena in first played in May 1973.

Finn seized the spotlight from the outset by singing “Chain,” a song that originally featured Buckingham on the microphone. Meanwhile, Campbell played the guitar riffs that Buckingham had made famous. Both were very good, but not the same as Buckingham.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Philadelphia, PA March 22, 2019

Fleetwood Mac's farewell tour at Wells Fargo Center is great goodbye, bedeviled by details
By John J. Moser
Mcall.com | Photos by Brian Hineline

First the distant view of Fleetwood Mac’s performance at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on Friday, on what the group says is its farewell tour.

The show was a two-hour-and-five-minute evening of 21 songs that included 13 of Fleetwood Mac’s Top 20 hits – virtually all of which held up as timeless music. It also played, as would be expected on a farewell tour, tunes from throughout its 52 years as a band and some interesting additions.

And it put each band member in the spotlight.

But the devil was in the details, as they say.

Up closer, singer/guitarist/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham, who was fired from the band for resisting plans for the tour (and who was since incapacitated by open-heart surgery) was badly missed multiple times, especially on some signature songs. It showed how much Buckingham meant to the band.

Despite that, there was no mention of Buckingham at all through the entire night.

Replacement guitarist Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers was a fine player, but never quite captured what Buckingham added to his songs, and was badly under-used for half the show.

Much the same could be said for vocal replacement Neil Finn of Crowded House, who in some instances clearly tried to replicate Buckingham but fell short.

The democratization of the spotlight also occasionally gave the show a stilted, trying-too-hard feel.

The show opened with “The Chain” – among seven songs from the band’s most successful album, 1977’s “Rumours,” and the only tune credited to all its members. It was as if the band was making the statement that, despite Buckingham’s absence, it was still an unbroken chain.

Christine McVie talks Glastonbury, rock 'n' roll and retirement

Christine McVie: inside the world of Fleetwood Mac, then and now

As the band prepares for its UK return in June, Christine McVie talks Glastonbury, rock 'n' roll and retirement

By Ella Alexander | Harpers Bazaar
Mar 21, 2019

June 2019 will be a big month for music fans for two reasons – an under-the-radar, little-known festival called Glastonbury and the return of Fleetwood Mac, the band’s first UK dates in six years. Sadly, this year at least, the two aren’t linked, but lead vocalist and songwriter Christine McVie says any decision to perform at Glastonbury isn’t down to the band itself.

“It isn’t up to me, it’s up to the management,” said McVie. “It’s their decision and down to logistics. I can’t say yes or no to Glastonbury, but I’d like to – so long as I don’t have to wear wellington boots on stage. Or maybe I’d just have to roll with it – wellie boots with mud.”

For now, fans will have to make do with two UK gigs at Wembley (the first time that McVie has performed in the UK with the group since officially rejoining), one of which sold out so fast that the band added a further date. Over 50 years after the band were first formed, appetite for Fleetwood Mac shows no signs of waning.

“Maybe people are just wondering when the first one of us is going to pop off because we’re not youngsters anymore,” laughs McVie. “Maybe people want to see us because they think it’s the last chance. We’re a young band at heart; you’d never think we are the age we are. We’re never static. It’s going to be fantastic.”

Fleetwood Mac's North American Tour On Track to Sell 1 Million Tickets

by Dave Brooks | Billboard

The absence of Lindsey Buckingham has not hurt the band's latest tour, which has at least 10 shows with grosses over $2 million.

Fleetwood Mac is on track to gross more than $100 million on the North American leg of their 2018/2019 tour with venues across the country reporting grosses between $1.5 to $2 million per show powered by a new generation of fans who have embraced the legendary group and its deep catalog of No. 1 hits.

Couple their success in North America with a fall international run for the band in the U.K., Germany, Australia and New Zealand, and the Mac's 75-plus date tour is shaping up to be one of the top tours on Billboard's year-end Boxscore chart. Not bad for a group that is touring without key member Lindsey Buckingham, who left the band (he told Rolling Stone he was "fired") last year over disagreements about its touring plans -- Buckingham reportedly wanted to spend most of 2019 on a solo tour, while the band wanted to get back on the road together sooner).

After a brief impasse, the group announced they were going on tour without Buckingham, but with Mike Campbell of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Crowded House‘s Neil Finn standing in for the guitarist and singer.

"When Lindsey left the band, none of us had any expectations good or bad -- it was more about continuing Fleetwood Mac," the group's co-manager Carl Stubner tells Billboard. "We had about a month to put the tour together and get it on sale, without any assets or pictures of the new lineup. Thankfully, it started doing well from the beginning."

Positive press from the band's first show on the tour at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma followed by a monster show at the United Center in Chicago that grossed more than $2.2 million, giving the tour the momentum it needed. More than ten dates on the tour have passed the $2 million mark in ticket sales, including the band's Dallas show at American Airlines Center (Feb. 7) and their Tacoma Dome (Nov. 17) concert, which each grossed $2.34 million in sales in front of 18,828 fans in Washington and 14,357 fans in Dallas.

The band's tour stops at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Nov. 30), Capitol One Arena in Washington (March 5), Amalie Arena in Tampa (Feb 18) and Golden 1 Center in Sacramento (Nov. 23) all grossed more than $2 million in ticket sales, as did shows in Toronto, Nashville and Charlotte.

"The tour is playing to sold out arenas every night and I love walking thru the crowds, seeing generations of longtime fans dancing and singing along to their favorite songs," the band's co-manager Sheryl Louis told Billboard in a statement. "What I’ve noticed on this tour specifically is so many younger fans, who are equally as enthusiastic, seeing the band live for the first time and loving it," adding that Campbell and Finn's work in the band has "brought tremendous energy to the shows that both the band and the audience can feel. In the long history of Fleetwood Mac, these are honestly some of their best shows yet."

Most of the acrimony between the two sides has been settled, Stubner said, and the band wished Buckingham a speedy recovery following heart surgery in February.

"And it was a hard divorce and emotional because we love Lindsey, but we made the best out of a bad situation," Stubner tells Billboard. "The show has done well in the big markets and the smaller markets like Sacramento and Birmingham, Alabama. And not just selling tickets, but merchandise -- t-shirt sales have increased considerably from any other tour we've done."

Stubner said the uptick is being fueled by a younger demographic of fans, including teenagers attending the tour with their parents and older millennials enjoying a night out with friends. 

"They learned about the band from their parents, and then they dug a little deeper" Stubner says. "There's a hunger for bands with deep catalogs and I see a lot of young people coming to the shows in search of this music they've built a deep connection with. And maybe that's why we have been able to do so well without Lindsey, because it's really about the collective and the show itself. They're coming out for the band."

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Albany, NY March 20, 2019

Review: No Buckingham, no problem for Fleetwood Mac at Times Union Center
By Jim Shahen Jr. | Times Union
Photos: Lori Van Buren - Gallery

ALBANY –Typically, when a classic rock band has reformed and is in its twilight years, the members put aside their differences and egos for one or two last big money-earning tours. They certainly don't fire the person responsible for some of their most beloved and iconic fare. But that's exactly what Fleetwood Mac did last year when it fired singer and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, replacing him with Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and Mike Campbell, lead guitarist from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

For those steeped in the band's tempestuous history, it seemed like another dramatic continuation of the oft-contentious relationship of Buckingham and his ex-flame, co-lead singer and tambourine player Stevie Nicks. But it also begged the question: how would Fleetwood Mac proceed without one of its essential voices?

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Newark, NJ March 13, 2019

Here’s how Fleetwood Mac survived without Lindsey Buckingham at N.J. concert: Review
By Bobby Olivier | NJ.com
Photos: Aristide Economopoulos

Quick, before the band switches lineups again, let’s cut right to the chase: Fleetwood Mac’s latest concert tour is significant not only because it’s loosely celebrating the band’s 50th anniversary but because it’s the first full roadshow without vocalist/guitarist/partial face of the band, Lindsey Buckingham, in 25 years.

Yes, the man who sings lead for the band’s smash hits “Go Your Own Way,” “Don’t Stop” and “Second Hand News” and has historically ripped the guitar solos for “The Chain,” “Little Lies” and many more was “fired” by the band in 2018, apparently over arguments surrounding exactly when and how to put on this “An Evening With Fleetwood Mac” tour.

Buckingham has been replaced — at least for the time being, Fleetwood Mac will always be a volatile, shape-shifting entity — with two venerable rock players in Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers) on guitar and former Crowded House and Split Enz singer Neil Finn to handle Buck’s mammoth choruses.

This new iteration landed in Newark Wednesday night before a sold-out crowd as the sprawling, 11-piece outfit — complete with an extra guitarist, keyboardist, percussionist and two background singers — worked hard to prove it could, in fact, soldier on without Buckingham and properly honor one of the greatest pop-rock catalogs ever penned.

REVIEW AND PHOTOS Fleetwood Mac Live in NYC March 11, 2019

Fleetwood Mac began NYC - area run at Madison Square Garden
By Brooklynvegan Staff | Photos by Toby Tenenbaum - View More Pics

Fleetwood Mac‘s tour hit NYC on Monday night for their first of two shows at Madison Square Garden since 2015. It’s a slightly different lineup than it was then, since the band ousted Lindsey Buckingham and replaced him with Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell. Like they’ve been doing on this tour, Monday’s MSG show opened with the trifecta of “The Chain” (with Finn taking Buckingham’s vocal part), “Little Lies” and “Dreams.”  Their set also included such Mac classics as “Rhiannon,” “Gypsy,” “Everywhere,” “Landslide,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Go Your Own Way,” “Don’t Stop” and more.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac New York City Night 1 March 11, 2019

Fleetwood Mac’s MSG concert needed Lindsey Buckingham
By Chuck Arnold | NEW YORK POST | Photo Madison Square Garden

The emotional highlight of Monday night’s sold-out Fleetwood Mac concert at Madison Square Garden — their first New York show of the post-Lindsey Buckingham era — wasn’t even a Fleetwood Mac song.

It was “Free Fallin’,” the 1989 Tommy Petty solo hit that Stevie Nicks led as the first song of the encore in tribute to her late friend and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” collaborator. The cover was also a nod to Mike Campbell, the new Fleetwood Mac-ster and former guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Photos of Petty — some with Nicks — flashed on the video screen behind Fleetwood Mac as they all melted into one generation of rock royalty that came up together and became legends of the same era. At that moment, whatever drama that led Buckingham to be booted from Fleetwood in April 2018 didn’t seem to matter.

Another memorable moment came when Neil Finn — the former Crowded House frontman who joined Fleetwood, along with Campbell, to replace Buckingham — did CH’s ’80s hit “Don’t Dream It’s Over” with a little help from Nicks. As he strummed on acoustic guitar, Finn had the crowd singing along “Hey now, hey now.”

But there were other moments when Buckingham was clearly missed, such as when the band confronted his departure headfirst by opening with Finn leading “The Chain.” It just didn’t feel the same with Finn fronting “Go Your Own Way,” and he needed help from Christine McVie and Nicks to bring home “Don’t Stop” in the encore.

Fleetwod Mac missed more than Buckingham’s voice and presence alongside Nicks — the band missed his energy. Campbell did his best to play the role of resident guitar god though.

The band — which will bring its “An Evening with Fleetwood Mac” tour to Prudential Center on Wednesday and back to the Garden on March 18 — tried to make up for that by dipping into their pre-Buckingham catalog: Nicks even reclaimed “Black Magic Woman,” a tune that original member Peter Green wrote for Fleetwood Mac before it became a signature hit for Santana.

Indeed, the concert was even more about Nicks — ever the mystical enchantress — who inspired the bohemian looks of some women in the audience. She had to carry the show, and she knew it.

In fact, one of the biggest roars of the night came when Nicks — who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist at Barclays Center on March 29, after already being enshrined with Fleetwood Mac — did one of her signature twirls at the end of “Gypsy.”

This gypsy remains magical.

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Love these! #Repost @kevinmazur ・・・ #FleetwoodMac at #MadisonSquareGarden brought back memories of the first time I snuck a camera in to shoot their show. Now look where I am lol . #NYC 3.11.19

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LANDSLIDE
EVERTWHERE
BLACK MAGIC WOMAN
LITTLE LIES
SAY YOU LOVE ME
RHIANNON
GO YOUR OWN WAY
ALL OVER AGAIN

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Atlantic City, NJ March 9, 2019

Review: Revamped Fleetwood Mac in Atlantic City
Dan Deluca | Philly.com | Photos Elizabeth Robertson

ATLANTIC CITY — The Fleetwood Mac concert at Boardwalk Hall on Saturday night began with “The Chain.”

That entrancing vamp from 1977’s Rumours, which started the two-hour, sold-out show, is the only song written together by all five members of the band’s classic lineup: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham.

Over the years, the song has become a signature of the enduring bond of the hit-making soft-rock act that’s been no stranger to drama, surviving multiple breakups of couples within the group and of the band itself, only to come back together to with a mantra of “never break the chain.”

This version of Fleetwood Mac, however, has one key link missing. That would be Buckingham, the guitarist, singer and arranger, who was tossed last year in a dispute that Nicks has said was simply about scheduling: The band was ready to begin rehearsals for a global tour last June, and Buckingham wanted to wait five months before getting started.

The solution was to replace, with not one but two guys, Buckingham, arguably the principal architect of the massive success the band achieved after he and Nicks joined on New Year’s Eve 1974. (It was founded in 1967 as a straightforward blues-rock band under the leadership of Peter Green.)

The substitutes in the already road-tested unit -- who have been touring since October and are scheduled to play the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on March 22 and April 5 -- are Neil Finn, the New Zealand guitarist known for leading Split Enz and Crowded House, and Mike Campbell, longtime guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Mick Fleetwood “It just wasn’t a happy situation anymore, really for everyone.”

Fleetwood Mac on booting Buckingham: ‘We weren’t happy’
By Chuck Arnold March 7, 2019 | NY Post

“It gets lonely in these hotels,” says Mick Fleetwood with a laugh when he gets on the line. So he’s more than happy to do a phone interview from Atlanta on a day off during Fleetwood Mac’s tour.

Co-founded by its namesake drummer in 1967, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band — which will bring its “An Evening With Fleetwood Mac” show to Madison Square Garden on Monday and March 18, and the Prudential Center on Wednesday — will take a rest day here and there, but after 52 years, there are absolutely no plans to retire from the road.

“This is what we do,” Fleetwood, 71, tells The Post. “That really is where we’re at … In the past, when we literally never stopped, we never even thought of smelling the roses and going on a holiday or something. It was always straight in the studio, straight on the road.”

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Washington, DC March 5, 2019

Fleetwood Mac reminds fans in D.C. that the chain can never be broken (even without Lindsey Buckingham)
By Rudi Greenberg | Washington Post | Photo Brent N. Clarke

Fleetwood Mac opened Tuesday’s show in D.C. with “The Chain,” a song about a relationship that’s imploding, and closed the main set with “Go Your Own Way,” about a relationship that’s imploded.

One way to interpret those setlist choices: as an expert-level troll of ex-bandmate Lindsey Buckingham, the singer and guitarist who was fired last year and replaced by Crowded House singer Neil Finn and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell.

It could also just be business as usual: The last time Fleetwood Mac played D.C. in 2015, when Buckingham was still in the band, the set began and ended with the same two songs.

Either way, it was hard not to feel Buckingham’s absence at times on Tuesday, even if his name was never uttered by anyone onstage at Capital One Arena.

Fleetwood Mac is currently on the second leg of its first tour of the century without Buckingham, who previously left in 1987 before returning a decade later. (The tour returns to the area at Baltimore’s Royal Farms Arena on March 23.) Of course, this is a band that has weathered numerous lineup and stylistic changes over the decades, with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie the only constants throughout the majority of the group’s 50-plus year run.

With Buckingham out of the picture, singer Stevie Nicks took an even more prominent role than usual, singing lead on most songs and drawing the largest ovations from the audience, especially on such hits as “Dreams” and “Rhiannon.”

Fleetwood Mac hasn't stopped thinking about tomorrow

With two new members, the band brings its 50th anniversary tour to Madison Square Garden for two shows.

By Glenn Gamboa | Newsday
Photograph by Randee St Nicholas

Mick Fleetwood remembers sitting backstage with Elton John, hearing about his plans for retiring from touring.

“He said, ‘No one believes me — not even my band,’ but as soon as my children are old enough to go to a proper school, I’m going to hang it up and be that parent that’s available for them,’ ” recalls Fleetwood Mac’s drummer and co-founder. “He’s keeping to his promise.”

It’s a question that a lot of Fleetwood’s contemporaries wrestle with. “For a while, the question was always: ‘Is this the Stones' last tour?’ But here they are going out again in grand style,” he says. “We have our own version of that in this band.”

And Fleetwood, 71, says there was a point last year when the members of Fleetwood Mac were battling about a tour that coincided with its 50th anniversary and wondering if it was time to hang it up as well.

“It was a huge deal that the band should change its dynamic this far down the road,” Fleetwood says. “We thought long and hard — though not too, too long because we knew we had to make our minds up. But we did some serious thinking about whether this was going to be end of the band really. We decided, the four of us, that was not going to be the case.”

Instead, Fleetwood, singer Stevie Nicks, singer-keyboardist Christine McVie and bassist John McVie decided to fire longtime guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who joined the band in 1974 with Nicks, and replace him with Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell.

Even that surprising announcement last April didn’t end the band’s worries. “Then the joyride and the not-knowing ride of ‘this has to be the right decision’ begins,” Fleetwood says. “And it only becomes the right decision with the right chemistry and the right players.”

INTERVIEW Stevie Nicks Rollingstone Magazine

Stevie Nicks on Tom Petty, Drag Queens, ‘Game of Thrones’ and Missing Prince
Wisdom from the first woman to make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice

By ROB SHEFFIELD | ROLLINGSTONE
Photograph by Randee St Nicholas

Stevie Nicks has the only kind of BDE that matters: Bella Donna Energy. The Fleetwood Mac gold dust woman is adding yet another sequin to her top hat by going into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, years after she got enshrined with the Mac. She’s the first woman inducted twice — as she puts it, “at the ripe and totally young age of 70.” She’s also hitting the road with Fleetwood Mac for the 2019 leg of their world tour, in their surprising new incarnation after a sudden split with Lindsey Buckingham.

As eloquent and witty as ever, Stevie went deep with Rolling Stone for an epic late-night chat about her 50 years as a rock goddess, discussing love, loss, female music heroes, her poetry about Game of Thrones, how “Stand Back” makes her miss Prince, drag queens, sexist hecklers, loving Tom Petty, why she wears platform boots and the joys of having two female rock stars in the same band. And also why the story of her life would be titled, There’s Enough Shawls to Go Around. Rock on, queen.

Congratulations on the Hall of Fame. How is it different going in the second time?

It’s 22 to zero. It’s 22 guys that have gone in twice to zero women — Eric Clapton is probably in there 22 times already! So maybe this will open the doors for women to fight to make their own music.

You’re one of the few rock stars with both a band and a solo career.

My solo career is much more girlie. It’s still a hard rock band — but it’s much more girlie-girl than Fleetwood Mac is. I never wanted a solo career — I always wanted to be just in a band. But I just had so many songs! Because when you’re in a band with three prolific writers, you get two or three songs per album — maybe four. But I was writing all the time, so they just went into my Gothic trunk of lost songs.

Christine would walk by me — my totally sarcastic best friend. She’d say [imitation of Christine McVie’s English accent] “Soooo. Writing another song, are we?” To this day, I write all the time. I have a poem that I’ve written about Game of Thrones, and I have a really beautiful poem that I’m writing about Anthony Bourdain.