Stevie Nicks Details Moment She Decided to Cut Ties with Lindsey Buckingham — And It Involves Harry Styles

In a new wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone, the 76-year-old music icon recalled what led to her ending her professional relationship with Buckingham, saying it all went down at Fleetwood Mac’s MusicCares Person of the Year concert in 2018.

When asked if she regrets not cutting ties with Buckingham earlier, Nicks said, “No, I think that all just happened the way it should have.”

“It happened one night, not planned, at a MusiCares [benefit concert]. I didn’t even tell anybody it had happened in my head until the whole ceremony was over,” she continued. “I took with me that night a song that I had done with LeAnn Rimes called ‘Borrowed.’ I took it with me to play for him because I thought we could do this song beautifully.”

“That’s when he wasn’t very nice to anybody,” she said, claiming that Buckingham “wasn’t very nice” to Harry Styles, who introduced the group’s performance at the event.

The singer told the outlet that she heard her parents’ words at that moment.

“I could hear my mom saying, ‘Are you really going to spend the next 15 years of your life with this man?'” she said. “I could hear my very pragmatic father — and by the way, my mom and dad liked Lindsey a lot — saying, ‘It’s time for you guys to get a divorce.’ Between those two, I said, ‘I’m done.'”

Buckingham was axed from Fleetwood Mac in April 2018, with Buckingham later claiming Nicks was the ringleader in getting him fired, which Nicks denied. He was replaced by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Neil Finn of Crowded House.

Nicks told Rolling Stone she last saw Buckingham at the funeral of their former bandmate Christine McVie in 2013. The singer and keyboardist died at 79 in November 2022.

“Christine threw down a hurricane on top of Nobu, which is where we had it. Almost blew the whole place away, honest to God,” she told the outlet. “Tore down the entire deck that was all decorated and everything. So it was kind of crazy. We all felt like she was there, because it was really intense.”

“The only time I’ve spoken to Lindsey was there, for about three minutes. I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could,” Nicks said. “You could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances.”

Despite this, the “Dreams” singer shared that she does wish Buckingham “the best.”

When asked if there have been “any other developments” aside from Buckingham’s 2019 heart attack, Nicks said, “I’m sure that if there was, I would know. There’s so much heart disease in his family that it’s really not a surprise.”

“So, I wish him the best,” she added. “I hope he lives a long life and continues to go into a studio and work with other people. He’s also an icon, and he can teach people. He’s not stopped in his tracks. He can still make music and have fun.”

When the Rolling Stone reporter noted that she believes Nicks is the “much larger icon,” Nicks said, “Well, that was one of the problems, wasn’t it?”

The Grammy winner’s interview went viral on social media, particularly over comments she made about Katy Perry.

At one point during the interview, Nicks shared that she doesn’t use the internet on her phone, saying that “it isn’t connected, it’s just a camera.”

The Rolling Stone reporter wrote that they were “envious” of the musician, to which Nicks said, “I hate it,” before she recalled an apparent encounter she once had with Perry.

“About 10 years ago, Katy Perry was talking to me about the internet armies of all the girl singers, and how cruel and rancid they were,” Nicks told the magazine. “I said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t know because I’m not on the internet.”

“She said, ‘So, who are your rivals?’ I just looked at her,” she continued. “It was my steely look. I said, ‘Katy, I don’t have rivals. I have friends. All the other women singers that I know are friends. Nobody’s competing. Get off the internet and you won’t have rivals either.'”

Fans online had a field day over Nicks’ story about Perry, with many taking to X to react to the hilarious interview moment.

“there are so many incredible tidbits in this stevie nicks interview, but this katy perry story killed me,” a user wrote.

“if stevie nicks clocked me this bad i’d die,” a second person joked, while another said the moment was “everything I needed today.”

“Stevie Nicks told Katy Perry to get off the internet and go touch grass. Obsessed,” another wrote.

Read more from Nicks’ interview with Rolling Stone, here.