Fleetwood Mac made a great comeback album in 2003 with Say You Will – but it's turned out to be the last album of the band’s career, even though guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham had hoped for more.
In the creation of Say You Will, the band was a quartet, with Buckingham and lead singer Stevie Nicks alongside the group’s founding members – Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass.
In a minor supporting role, providing backing vocals and keyboards on two tracks, was Christine McVie, the other member of the classic line-up that recorded the band’s biggest-selling album Rumours and other multi-platinum hits.
Say You Will had actually started out as a Buckingham solo project, and in an interview with MOJO in 2006 he talked about the difficulties in keeping the other members of the band focused on making new music.
“We may make another record,” Buckingham said. “But at this point it’s difficult to tell. What’s certain is that we’re not gonna be touring behind a new album.”
In reference to Say You Will, he explained: “We toured the hell out of the last one, and it went platinum… eventually. Maybe it didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. But it wasn’t just about numbers for me.
“I’d hoped that us getting through that project might have fuelled the idea of making another record and maintaining the valid creative process. I didn’t want the band to simply rest on its laurels and keep on touring without more new music. I wanted it to move forward, to continue being creative.”
When MOJO suggested that nothing was ever simple with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham replied: “That’s true. We really have no business being in a band together! We’ve never all been on the same page, taste-wise. But hey, that’s what makes it so interesting!”
In the same interview, Buckingham admitted that his obsessive creative drive had affected some areas of his family life.
"I’ve seen my kids look disappointed,” he said. “There are times when they’ve looked at me when I’ve been focused on my music, as if I thought that music was more important than them. So you question the validity of what you’re doing.
“I’ve gotten to a place with my work, a new level of maturity and authenticity. But when I think of the road I took to get there, the very narrow focus in one’s life – some of the motives were very noble, some not so.
“Even now, the kids don’t always understand my work. They were with me on the Fleetwood Mac tour [in 2003/4], and my youngest son said something about daddy showing off in front of all these people. I guess he had a point.
“Without Christine in the band, I was playing a lot more rock guitar, and there was definitely more testosterone going on – well, what little I have left!”
Buckingham also spoke to MOJO about his 2006 solo album Under The Skin – and explained why he referred to himself as “a visionary” in the album's opening track Not Too Late.
“That was inspired by a review in Rolling Stone of the first three Fleetwood Mac albums that myself and Stevie were on,” he said. “It referred to me as the undervalued, misunderstood visionary.
“I don’t think of myself as a visionary so much as someone who has learned to be his own biggest fan. Sometimes it’s hard to find the support you need, but you get over that in time.”
Was Buckingham setting himself up for a fall by singing about this stuff?
“Some people have said it’s somewhat self-aggrandizing,” he said, “but I feel it’s the opposite. Either way, you’re always leaving yourself open to interpretation.
"That lyric is honest. We all have some sort of ego to be able to do what we do. But it doesn’t have to be disproportionate.”
He concluded: “So many successful people in this business get into difficulty after buying into the image that people have of them. You’re trashing yourself if you do that.”
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