Fleetwood Mac sees things in a different way: without Lindsey Buckingham

Fleetwood Mac has told Lindsey Buckingham to go his own way.

The band said in a statement Monday that Buckingham is out for its upcoming tour.

The 68-year-old Buckingham, who joined the band with then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks in 1974, has been its guitarist, frequent frontman and sometime songwriter for most of the years since. He wrote and sang hits including “Go Your Own Way” and “Tusk.”

A long statement about the tour mentions Buckingham only briefly, saying he won’t be performing with the group, but they wish him the best.

Buckingham left the band once before, from 1987 to 1996. He released an album and played a series of dates with the band’s Christine McVie last year.

He’ll be jointly replaced by Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers. They’ll join longtime members Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

“We jammed with Mike and Neil and the chemistry really worked and let the band realize that this is the right combination to go forward with in Fleetwood Mac style,” Mick Fleetwood, the drummer who co-founded the band in 1967, said in Monday’s official statement. “We know we have something new, yet it’s got the unmistakable Mac sound.”

Finn said the group contacted him only very recently, and he was stunned to suddenly find himself a member.

“Two weeks ago I received a wonderful invitation to be a part of a truly great band,” Finn said in a statement. “A few days later I was standing in a room playing music with Fleetwood Mac. It felt fresh and exciting, so many great songs, a spectacular rhythm section and two of the greatest voices ever. Best of all, we sounded good together. It was a natural fit. I can’t wait to play.”

The two voices Finn refers to are those of Nicks and McVie, who will be on the tour along with fellow longtime members Fleetwood and John McVie.

For Campbell, the new venture will be his first return to touring since the death in October of Petty, his musical partner of 42 years. Campbell was a founding member of the Heartbreakers in 1975, and played with them until just days before Petty died. The pair already had ties to Fleetwood Mac. They wrote and played on Nicks’ 1981 hit “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

ANDREW DALTON, AP Entertainment Writer