Lindsey Buckingham's Real Name: Lindsey Buckingham

Quick answer: Lindsey Buckingham is known in standard reference works as Lindsey Buckingham. Encyclopaedia Britannica's Fleetwood Mac entry records that he was born October 3, 1947, in Palo Alto, California, and that he joined the band with Stevie Nicks in the mid-1970s (Encyclopaedia Britannica; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame).

Real name and early life

This page uses the independently documented public name Lindsey Buckingham. Britannica gives the Palo Alto birth date above. Before joining Fleetwood Mac, he and Nicks recorded as a duo; the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's inductee material lists the Buckingham Nicks album among related recordings, and Britannica describes them as a singer-songwriter pair added to the group after it moved to the United States in 1974.

Career highlights

Britannica says the addition of Nicks and Buckingham, the latter an accomplished guitarist and singer, infused Fleetwood Mac with a pop sensibility that produced the multimillion-selling albums Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Rumours (1977). Rumours won the Grammy Award for album of the year and, Britannica says, reflected the breakups of the McVies' marriage and of Buckingham and Nicks's relationship. The Rock Hall, which inducted the band in 1998, likewise points to Rumours as an iconic, top-selling album. Later group albums in Britannica's account include Tusk (1979), Mirage (1982), and Tango in the Night (1987). After Tusk, members pursued solo work; Buckingham reached the Billboard Top Ten in the United States with the single "Trouble." The classic lineup reunited to perform at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993, using "Don't Stop" from Rumours as a campaign theme, and later released the live album The Dance. Say You Will (2003) was their first studio album in 16 years without Christine McVie, who later rejoined; a 2017 duo album with her followed, and Buckingham's departure from the band was announced the following year. Britannica notes that in 2018–19 Fleetwood Mac toured with Mike Campbell, formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn among the guitarists who filled that role. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame also highlights the 1997 live album The Dance as documenting the return of the Rumours-era lineup, and points to that campaign-theme song from Rumours.

Name notes for searchers

Lindsey Buckingham is the documented public name. Searchers looking for Fleetwood Mac's guitarist and singer, or for the performer of "Trouble," are usually aiming at the same person.