“Go Your Own Way”

“Go Your Own Way”
Released 1977
British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac from album “Rumours”

“Go Your Own Way” – Ab Initio

Like most tracks on Rumours, the lyrical content of “Go Your Own Way” documents personal strain in relationships between other band members. Buckingham had written this as a response to his breakup with fellow Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks, who he knew since he was sixteen years old.

“I was completely devastated when she took off,” Buckingham noted “And yet I had to make hits for her. I had to do a lot of things for her that I really didn’t want to do. And yet I did them. So on one level I was a complete professional in rising above that, but there was a lot of pent-up frustration and anger towards Stevie in me for many years.” As he was crafting the lyrics, Buckingham came to the conclusion that while he was still bitter about his falling out with Nicks, the songwriting process helped him come to terms with reality.

Upon listening back to the song, Nicks demanded that Buckingham remove the lyrics “Packing up, shacking up is all you wanna do”.

I very much resented him telling the world that ‘packing up, shacking up’ with different men was all I wanted to do,” she told Rolling Stone. “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.” Buckingham ultimately decided to keep those lyrics in the final song.

“Go Your Own Way” – Ad Infinitum

In an interview with CBS News earlier this year, bandmates Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks blamed it on Buckingham’s reluctance to sign off on a new tour. “This team wanted to get out on the road. And one of the members did not want to get out on the road for a year,” Nicks said. 

Buckingham has a 43-year history with Fleetwood Mac. He helped shape their classic sound and wrote some of their biggest hits. In January, the band was honored at the MusiCares Benefit Grammy weekend, but it would be Buckingham’s last performance with Fleetwood Mac. Two days later, he heard from their manager. 

“Irving Azoff called me up and he was basically screaming at me,” Buckingham said. “He was screaming at me on the phone saying, ‘You’ve really done it this time.’ And I had no idea what he was talking about. He said, ‘Stevie never wants to be on stage with you again,’ and I’m going, ‘Why?'”

“Go Your Own Way” – Ad Nauseam

Buckingham insists he had agreed to postpone his own solo tour to join the band, but said Azoff told him Nicks didn’t like his behavior at the MusiCares event. She complained that he had smirked behind her when she gave her acceptance speech.