Legendary rock guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, best known for his longtime tenure in Fleetwood Mac, was attacked in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Multiple law enforcement sources said the 76-year-old was set upon by a woman while arriving for an appointment in Santa Monica.
She hurled an unidentified substance at Buckingham when he entered the building and then fled the scene, according to NBC 4 Los Angeles.
The woman has been described as a stalking suspect, and law enforcement insiders say Buckingham was aware of her from prior incidents.
Buckingham is said not to have been injured in this week’s attack, and an arrest is expected to be made before long, with a suspect identified and both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Santa Monica Police Department on the case.
The Daily Mail has contacted Buckingham’s representatives and the police for comment.
The woman supposedly ascertained the time and location of Buckingham’s appointment this Wednesday and made her way to the site.
Born in California’s Bay Area in 1949, Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and enlisted his then-lover Stevie Nicks to the band.
Their tempestuous personal and professional relationship emblemized the band’s belle epoque, which produced such albums as their iconic Rumours.
Buckingham and Nicks ended their romance in 1976, and personal conflicts within the band led to his explosive departure in 1987.
He returned to the fold a decade later and toured with Fleetwood Mac around the world until another breakdown in his professional bond with Nicks led him to be fired in 2018 from the group that had made him a global icon.
This week’s attack comes over a year after Buckingham was granted a permanent restraining order against a stalker who was identified as a 53-year-old called Michelle.
There has been no public indication from the authorities that Michelle was the woman who assaulted Buckingham this Wednesday.
At a hearing in December 2024, Buckingham showed the judge a picture Michelle had taken outside his house and played an ‘unmarked audio clip,’ per court documents.
As a result, the judge extended a previous temporary restraining order and afforded Buckingham five years of protection from Michelle, In Touch reported.
According to Buckingham, Michelle allegedly acquired the business phone number of his wife Kristen, 56, and began calling her in 2021.
Speaking to the court, he accused Michelle of ‘leaving long drawn-out messages that included the claim that she was my child and threats to kill me and my family.’
Buckingham insisted in his testimony that he was not Michelle’s father and that she was not in fact known to him personally at all.
He made the further allegation that the stalker ‘blamed me for facial deformities she apparently suffered as a child and demanded money.’
In his version of events, Michelle was instructed by police to cease contacting the Buckingham family in 2022, so he let the matter drop.
However in 2024 she is said to have returned to the fray and left a collage outside his house of photos of her face mingled with pictures of his.
At one point in the ensuing weeks, the police allegedly arrived at Buckingham’s house, woke him, handcuffed him and brought him outside on the basis of a 911 call.
The emergency services had reportedly been warned that Buckingham’s son William, 27, was at the house intending to hurt himself, and ‘that the caller had heard gunshots,’ according to Buckingham’s testimony in court.
Police allegedly searched the property for 20 minutes, discovered that they had received a false alarm and uncuffed Buckingham, he testified.
‘I now know that the 911 call was traced to [Michelle’s] phone and was the latest in an unabated pattern of harassment and threatening acts against my family and me,’ the rock star maintained in his hearing of December 20, 2024.
The five-year permanent restraining order stipulated that Michelle remain 100 yards away from Buckingham, his wife and William, and that she refrain from threatening or harassing the musician or contacting him at all.
