After Rumours became the best-selling single album of all-time,
Fleetwood Mac asked Warner Brothers Records to buy them a studio (the
label refused, costing both Warner Brothers and the band significant
cash in the long run) and then handed the reins to their guitarist and
resident perfectionist Lindsey Buckingham. "You know," Buckingham said,
"we had this ridiculous success with Rumours. We were poised to do
another album, and I guess because the axiom 'If it works, run it into
the ground' was prevalent then, we were probably poised to do Rumours
II. I don't know how you do that, but somehow my light bulb that went
off was, 'Let's just not do that. Let's very pointedly not do that.' "
Here, Rob Trucks talks to Lindsey Buckingham, as well as members of
Animal Collective, Camper Van Beethoven, the New Pornographers, Wolf
Parade, and the USC Trojan marching band in order to chart both the
story and the impact of an album born of personal obsession and a
stubborn unwillingness to compromise.