“The only person I ever, ever slapped”: The night Lindsey Buckingham crossed a line with Christine McVie

Lindsey Buckingham’s public confrontation with Stevie Nicks during a 1980 Fleetwood Mac tour prompted Christine McVie to slap him, an unusual response from someone who said he was the only person she had ever slapped. The episode matters because it showed how tensions between bandmates spilled onto the stage and crossed a line for McVie, who objected to both Nicks’s treatment and the disrespect shown to the audience.

According to McVie’s recollection, Buckingham mocked Nicks in front of the crowd, threw his guitar at her and reportedly kicked her. McVie said she may also have thrown a glass of wine, and called Buckingham’s behaviour unprofessional and over the top; she recalled that Nicks cried afterwards. The article places the incident amid the strain that followed *Rumours* and intensified during the making of *Tusk* and its tour.