Being in a band together and then, having a tumultuous relationship can be very draining. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are an example of such a relationship. Nicks joined the band, Fleetwood Mac in 1974 and was followed by Buckingham who joined the band in 1975.
Fleetwood Mac was one of the most successful bands back in the day. It had everything needed in a top band. And, it also had problems. While both Nicks and Lindsey were part of the band, they split and it was a chaotic end for them. They both wrote songs about each other again and again. That’s when Buckingham threw everything he had in his hands in his song, ‘Go Your Own Way’.
Both of them were high school sweethearts. Nicks revealed that she loved him before they were big names in the music industry. She once said, “I loved him before he was a millionaire. We were two kids out of Menlo-Atherton High School. I loved him for all the right reasons. We did have a great relationship at first. I loved taking care of him and the house.”
‘Go Your Own Way’ was written as a message to Steve Nicks. The song described their breakup and the lyrics sang, “Packing up, shacking up is all you want to do“. She even requested to take the line out as she never cheated on him, but Lindsey refused to do so.
Nicks revealed that she really dislikes the lyrics. While talking with Rolling Stone in 2015, she said, “From the very beginning, Lindsey was very controlling and very possessive. And after hearing all of the stories from my mother and how independent she was and how independent she made me, I was never very good with possessive people or with controlling people.”
The lyrics of the song showed Stevie in a different light. It greatly upset Nick as shacking up with different men was not true and even Lindsey knew about it. However, he wrote such lyrics and hurt Stevie. She said, “I very much resented him telling the world that ‘packing up, shacking up’ with different men was all I wanted to do. He knew it wasn’t true. It was just an angry thing that he said.”
“Every time those words would come onstage, I wanted to go over and kill him. He knew it, so he really pushed my buttons through that. It was like, ‘I’ll make you suffer for leaving me.’ And I did.”
There was quite a tension in the studio during the recording of the song. The two couples broke up during the session. They were also dependent on drugs back then. The bitterness of the song was very overpowering and got over Stevie’s head. The founder of the band and the drummer, Mick Fleetwood recalled the tension in the studio. He recalls how Nicks was uneasy with the line. While talking with Q, he explained, “I’m ashamed to say, from capitalizing on my own ineptness. There was some conflict about the ‘crackin’ up, shackin’ up’ line, which Stevie felt was unfair, but Lindsey felt strongly about. It was basically, On your bike, girl!”
It’s quite sad how Buckingham didn’t remove the line. However, it did give rise to their battle of songs. Stevie Nicks also, later on, wrote a song to haunt Lindsey Buckingham. It was ‘Silver Springs’. We can only imagine if it broke and haunt Lindsey or not.
