Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham 'Still Recovering' After Concerning COVID-19 Diagnosis

By Daniel S. Levine

Former Fleetwood Mac member Lindsey Buckingham was forced to postpone his first solo European tour after he contracted COVID-19. Buckingham, 72, contracted the virus towards the end of the North American tour to support the self-titled solo album he released last year. The guitarist had to cancel the final dates of the North American tour in April.

"It is with great sadness that we are announcing the postponement of Lindsey's European tour which had been due to begin next week," Buckingham's team announced on May 12. "Along with other members of his band and crew, Lindsey contracted COVID-19 at the end of his latest North American tour, forcing that to end prematurely."

Buckingham is "still recovering" and had "no choice" to delay the European tour, which was set to be his first as a solo artist. His team is "currently working on rescheduling" the tour and will announce the new dates soon. The European tour was scheduled to start in Dublin on May 17, with dates for Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Gent, Paris, Utrecht, Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen planned through June 2.

Back on April 30, Buckingham's team announced they would have to cancel the last dates of his North American tour. At the time, they only said "members of the touring party" tested positive for COVID. Fans received refunds for the canceled shows.

Buckingham had been touring to support his new album, Lindsey Buckingham, this year. The album was released in September 2021 and included the singles "I Don't Mind" and "On the Wrong Side." It is his first solo album since releasing Seeds We Sow in 2011. In 2017, he collaborated with former Fleetwood Mac band member Christine McVie for the studio album Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie.

Buckingham was a member of Fleetwood Mac's most popular line-up, alongside McVie, bassist John McVie, drummer Mick Fleetwood, and singer Stevie Nicks. He was fired from the band in 2018 and replaced by Neil Finn and Mike Campbell. In an August 2020 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Buckingham claimed Nicks was responsible for him still being excluded from the group, even though Fleetwood has made attempts to bring him back.

"It's really going to take Stevie coming to that point of view, and I haven't spoken to Stevie in a long, long time, so I don't know where that's at," he told EW. "It's certainly something that more than one person who is close to the situation has brought to me." Buckingham also told Marc Maron in July 2021 that he has not heard from Nicks since she sent him a letter in 2019 after he suffered a heart attack. 

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