Neil Finn on Fleetwood Mac: “It Doesn’t Currently Exist”
Fleetwood Mac “doesn’t currently exist.”
So says Neil Finn, the Crowded House frontman who was “gobsmacked” when Mick Fleetwood asked him to join a retooled version of the Mac for its 2018-’19 tour, which also featured former Heartbreaker Mike Campbell but no Lindsey Buckingham.
“The naysayers said, ‘No Lindsey Buckingham, no Fleetwood Mac,’ but I brought personality and the ability to sing with Stevie (Nicks) and Christine (McVie),” Finn told MOJO magazine.
“I could never be capable of sounding like Lindsey, but I put a similar intensity into his songs.”
Though the group “doesn’t currently exist,” Finn said when it did, it was led by Fleetwood, who “carried the flag,” and Nicks, who “wants it the way Stevie wants it and that’s the way it’ll be.
“She couldn’t bear to be in a band with Lindsey any more, but she still wanted to do it exactly the way he would have,” Finn said.
“It was more difficult for Mike Campbell: she … put a lot of pressure on Mike to be more like Lindsey. Sometimes Mike’s solos would go on and Stevie would get exhausted playing tambourine. She’d be, ‘Fucking hell, Lindsey only did 12 bars.’”