Musicians in love. Fleetwood Mac is perhaps the most famous example of bandmates dating each other — and the ensuing complications that come with it.
“I broke up with Lindsey [Buckingham] in 1976. We’d only been in Fleetwood Mac for a year and a half, and we were breaking up when we joined Fleetwood Mac,” Stevie Nicks recalled in a February 2022 conversation with The New Yorker. “So, we just put our relationship kind of back together, because I was smart enough to know that, if we had broken up the second month of being in Fleetwood Mac, it would have blown the whole thing.”
The Arizona native continued: “I just bided my time, and tried to make everything as easy as possible, tried to be as sweet and nice to Lindsey as I could be. He wasn’t happy, either. Then something happened that was, you know, ‘We’re done.’ And he knew it. It was time. And the band was solid, by that time, so I could walk away knowing that he was safe. And that the band was safe. And that we could work it out.”
The duo’s breakup provided inspiration for the group’s critically acclaimed 1977 album, Rumours. Nicks and Buckingham penned “Dreams” and “Go Your Own Way” about each other for the LP, respectively.
“Both songs kind of mean the same thing — it’s really about our breakup,” Nicks said. “He’s looking at it from a very unpleasant, angry way, and I’m saying, in my more airy-fairy way, we’re gonna be all right. We’ll get through this.”
Other bandmates’ relationships have stood the test of time. When Bruce Springsteen invited Patti Scialfa to join his E Street Band on tour as a backup singer in 1984, the “Born in the USA” musician was still married to Julianne Phillips. Springsteen and Phillips separated in 1998 and the Grammy Award winner began living with Scialfa soon afterward.
In a 1996 interview with The Advocate, the “Thunder Road” singer opened up about receiving backlash for starting a new relationship before his divorce was finalized.
“It’s a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn’t. But the truth is, I basically ignored the entire thing as much as I could. I said, ‘Well, all I know is this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going [on] here in some fashion, but that’s life,’” he told the outlet at the time.
The New Jersey native married Scialfa in 1991. They share three children: Jessica, Evan and Sam.
Scroll through for a guide to which musicians have dated their bandmates over the years:
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A Guide to Band Members Who Have Dated Each Other Over the Years: Paramore, Fleetwood Mac and More
Musicians in love. Fleetwood Mac is perhaps the most famous example of bandmates dating each other — and the ensuing complications that come with it.
“I broke up with Lindsey [Buckingham] in 1976. We’d only been in Fleetwood Mac for a year and a half, and we were breaking up when we joined Fleetwood Mac,” Stevie Nicks recalled in a February 2022 conversation with The New Yorker. “So, we just put our relationship kind of back together, because I was smart enough to know that, if we had broken up the second month of being in Fleetwood Mac, it would have blown the whole thing.”
The Arizona native continued: “I just bided my time, and tried to make everything as easy as possible, tried to be as sweet and nice to Lindsey as I could be. He wasn’t happy, either. Then something happened that was, you know, ‘We’re done.’ And he knew it. It was time. And the band was solid, by that time, so I could walk away knowing that he was safe. And that the band was safe. And that we could work it out.”
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The duo’s breakup provided inspiration for the group’s critically acclaimed 1977 album, Rumours. Nicks and Buckingham penned “Dreams” and “Go Your Own Way” about each other for the LP, respectively.
“Both songs kind of mean the same thing — it’s really about our breakup,” Nicks said. “He’s looking at it from a very unpleasant, angry way, and I’m saying, in my more airy-fairy way, we’re gonna be all right. We’ll get through this.”
Other bandmates’ relationships have stood the test of time. When Bruce Springsteen invited Patti Scialfa to join his E Street Band on tour as a backup singer in 1984, the “Born in the USA” musician was still married to Julianne Phillips. Springsteen and Phillips separated in 1998 and the Grammy Award winner began living with Scialfa soon afterward.
In a 1996 interview with The Advocate, the “Thunder Road” singer opened up about receiving backlash for starting a new relationship before his divorce was finalized.
“It’s a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn’t. But the truth is, I basically ignored the entire thing as much as I could. I said, ‘Well, all I know is this feels real, and maybe I have got a mess going [on] here in some fashion, but that’s life,’” he told the outlet at the time.
The New Jersey native married Scialfa in 1991. They share three children: Jessica, Evan and Sam.
Scroll through for a guide to which musicians have dated their bandmates over the years:
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Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal
The Sweet Escape singer began dating her No Doubt bandmate shortly after he joined the group in 1987. Although the duo split in 1994, they remained friends and bandmates. The breakup inspired Stefani to write several of the songs on the 1995 album Tragic Kingdom, including “Don’t Speak.”
“We were on tour for Tragic Kingdom for 28 months. We were going through the breakup, and in every interview we were talking about it, so we were opening this wound on an hourly basis. It was so brutal, but I don’t know how we made it through,” the “Hollaback Girl” musician told The Guardian in September 2012.
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Jack White and Meg White
The White Stripes musicians were married from 1996 to 2000. Following their split, the rock duo went on to release five studio albums together before officially disbanding in 2011.
Early in the band’s tenure, Jack — who took Meg’s last name when they tied the knot — said that he and his bandmate were siblings rather than exes.
“If we had presented ourselves in another fashion … how would we have been perceived, right off the bat? When you see a band that is two pieces, husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, you think, ‘Oh, I see.’ … When they’re brother and sister, you go, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ You care more about the music, not the relationship,” the guitarist told Rolling Stone in September 2005.
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Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckinham
Nicks and Buckingham were already an item when they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. Their split served as inspiration for the group’s 1977 album Rumours.
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Christine McVie and John McVie
The other Fleetwood Mac couple, Christine and John, were married from 1968 to 1976.
“I dare say, if I hadn’t joined Fleetwood Mac, we might still be together,” Christine told Rolling Stone in 1997. “I just think it’s impossible to work in the band with your spouse. Imagine the tension of living with someone 24 hours a day, on the road, in an already stressful situation, with the added negativity of too much alcohol.”
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Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill
Jean wrote about his love triangle with his Fugees bandmate Hill and his wife, Claudinette Jean, in his 2012 memoir, Purpose: An Immigrant’s Story.
“Lauryn and I were pursuing a dream together, and that goal, as well as our mutual love of music, was the language that brought us together. And there was an attraction there; I’m not going to lie and act as if it was just because we spent time together that we ended up together. Lauryn’s beautiful, and because of her looks and her talent and everything we shared with each other — from songs to books to lyrics — love was bound to grow,” he wrote of Hill.
He added: “I was with both of these incredible women at the same time, which isn’t something to be proud of but it was definitely unavoidable. I couldn’t say no to either of them and I mean it when I say I loved them both, because I did.”
Despite his fling with the “Killing Me Softly” singer, the Haiti native and Claudinette have been married since 1994. They adopted a daughter in 2005.
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Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa
The Long Walk Home author and Scialfa, who began touring with the E Street Band in 1984, have been married since 1991.
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Win Butler and Regine Chassagne
The Arcade Fire musicians met in college, becoming bandmates in 2001. They exchanged vows in 2003 and welcomed a son in 2013.
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Hayley Williams and Taylor York
The Paramore band members confirmed that they are dating during a September 2022 interview with The Guardian. The duo have worked together since York joined the group in 2007.