That Sound: Lindsey Buckingham On Fleetwood Mac's 'Rhiannon'

02-11-2025

How did they get that sound? That is the question we attempt to answer as we celebrate National Guitar Day with the launch of our new series That Sound. For this kick off edition we revisit our classic conversation with Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham where he discussed his guitar sound on the classic hit "Rhiannon".

Our interview editor Morley Seaver had the opportunity to speak with Lindsey back in 2008 about his new album at the time "Gift of Screws". During the interview they touched on his sound in the classic song as well as "going his own way" with his music, especially with the "Tusk" album.

Here is an excerpt of the interview. antiMusic: Your guitar sound is very distinctive and you use a lot of subtle coloring, How did you get the tone you did on material like "Rhiannon"?

Lindsey: On "Rhiannon"...well I think that was Les Paul of all things, as I recall, that's a long time ago. If I were to guess, I would say it was heavily compressed. That was Keith Olsen that was engineering that. I think it is a combination of that and what I would guess is a kind of scooping out of certain frequencies that were usually identified with a Les Paul, you know some of the mids, the ugly mids, the 1 k kind of area in there, I'm guess. And then of course, you've got to look at the part itself, you know, because whatever you play it on, or however someone records it you have to look at what is being recorded as having a lot to do with what it sounds like.

And you know that was a case where Stevie had this little two finger thing she'd done on the piano. This is one of the odd things about how Stevie and I can interface; she can come up with really real basic things, which are inherently full of substance but are not necessarily articulated. I think the way she wrote that was on the piano and she was just with two fingers going dee dee dee diee, dee dee dee you know. And so to take it from that to something where you're applying an eighth note thumb pattern, you know, like a first and third interval up and down the neck, from her great idea. It was just the application of that idea into my style and I think that has a lot to do with it too.

antiMusic: You've managed to achieve greater commercial success than a good percentage of the music industry put together. You've also "Gone On your Own Way" and allowed yourself to indulge and investigate music that did not take the easy middle road. Are you happy with the way your career has turned out or are there some things that would you do differently, if you could start it all again?

Lindsey: If you go back to right after Rumors, I think we were kind of in a position of having many expectations from the outside and to some degree from people in the band, to make a Rumors 2, and obviously we didn't do that. That was sort of the beginning of the line in the sand that I drew, you know, where you come to realize that that kind of success is a double edged sword.

It gives you freedom and it gives you choices, but you have to use those choices, and you know, there is a tendency, once you've had that kind of success to have people kind of encourage you to not take any more risks or to go to places where you haven't already gone. And that's the beginning of painting yourself in a corner.

The Tusk album in a way, was a line in the sand that I drew that has continued to define how I think and what I think is important and the irony is that it has been all made possible by the larger machine that is Fleetwood Mac. I see that as a luxury but you know, it takes a certain amount of constant vigilance and sort of self-monitoring to make sure that you're still thinking that way. Because you know, people sometimes drift and they don't know they're drifting.

But I guess, the freedom that I have and the way that I think about it is that on the one hand you've got this big machine, on the other hand you've this smaller machine and what's great about it is I can go in and do the work for the work, and hopefully it will advance my growth as an artist, hopefully, and as someone who wants to keep going on whatever I learned from the last one.

And without having any particular expectation as to its outcome on a selling level. Because that's not what it's about, really. You have to assume that the people who appreciate it and are interested in seeking it out will hear it and appreciate it. If the broad number of listeners tend to fall away in that context, then that's just part and parcel with the game. I'm completely happy with that. I mean I think in a way I'm probably in the best place I've ever been, creatively. I think I'm doing the best work I've ever done. I think one of the reasons for that is because I've managed to kind of walk that line. So I am. I'm very happy with the way things have gone so far.

Listen to the song below and read the full interview here