After Fleetwood Mac announced they would part company with Lindsey Buckingham for their upcoming tour a question mark hung over the band’s setlist.
What would take the place of the songs written by Buckingham for their live shows? In a new interview, Mick Fleetwood seemed to suggest that the band will incorporate highlights from the careers of the two men drafted in to replace Buckingham.
That’s Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House. Speaking to Yahoo!, the band’s drummer said that Fleetwood Mac’s ‘heritage and their background is going to be appropriately part of the show,’ Fleetwood added that nothing is set in stone: “We’re all exchanging lists, emailing madly backwards and forwards.”
Stevie Nicks had stated that Buckingham’s departure gave Fleetwood Mac an opportunity to play songs from before she and Buckingham joined in 1974. Nicks expressed a desire to perform earlier songs like ‘Rattlesnake Shake,’ ‘Station Man’ and ‘Oh Well.’ Fleetwood discussed Nicks and the new additions to the band’s intentions to broaden their repertoire, ‘I think Stevie’s even threatening to sing ‘Black Magic Woman,’ which sounds more than exciting!’
“I think everything is just open, looking at what we’ve done since the beginning and no doubt touching on some of the blues stuff that Campbell, very specifically, is insisting that we do. And happily so. I was around Stevie’s house the other night with Campbell, and we quietly realized that we were heading towards a three-hour show!’ As well as the tour, Fleetwood also hinted that the songwriting talents of the two newcomers could result in an album by the band.”
“I don’t think you can keep the horse in the trap, so to speak, when it comes to Christine [McVie] and Stevie. They’re still connected to everything about writing and having a whole new approach to it. Mike is hugely conversant with production and has written way more than I ever, ever knew. And he’s worked with Stevie, writing and producing and a lot of stuff that Stevie did through the years with Tom and, of course, the Heartbreakers. And Neil is a given; he’s just a hugely connected songwriter that really covers a huge gamut.”
“I truly believe that [new music] will happen. I’m hoping that we can throw out a couple of calling cards before we go out on the road.”
