Lindsey Buckingham is giving fans a little insight into what inspires him to continue to create new music. The rocker broached the subject in a video posted to Instagram, captioned, “Remember, you always have choices.”
“The thing about new music or about continuing to make any music at all is that you are again presented with a choice,” he says. “Do you follow your instincts? Do you following your gut? Do follow your vision? Do you take risks? Or do you find yourself somewhat caught in repeating formulas or concepts of yourself that have been defined externally for you?”
Buckingham goes on to mention an unnamed artist who told him, “I just don’t get excited about making my albums anymore. I don’t get excited about writing,” to which Buckingham told him, without judgement, “Well, you know, you have taken that road of fulfilling expectations that are foisted on you to some degree.”
“I had the luxury to be in a hugely successful band that could have swallowed me alive,” he says, referring to Fleetwood Mac. “But I somehow was able to use the opportunity from that to reject some of what that was about on a commercial level, on a monetary level, even on an artistic level.”
He compared the decision to making a Steven Spielberg film versus an indie film, noting an artist is more likely to grow with an indie film.
“I’m just saying, if you’re going to follow the commerce, you’re not necessarily going to find the religion in what you do,” he concludes. “And so when I contemplate the idea of continuing to write new music and to make new albums, it’s in pursuit of and because of the religion, for sure.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.