Kiwi singer Neil Finn has made his debut with Fleetwood Mac – but he had to let down his son.
Neil Finn has made his public debut with his new band, Fleetwood Mac, on Ellen this week.
At the same time, the 60-year-old Kiwi musician has launched a new album with another sidekick – his first as a member of “The Finns”, a duo with his 34-year-old son, Liam.
Niel Finn joined fellow newcomer Mike Campbell, formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and the remaining members of Fleetwood Mac to perform two of their classics – The Chain and Gypsy – on the talk show.
Neil and Campbell were drafted into the band in April after Lindsey Buckingham was fired.
On The Chain, where Neil took over Buckingham’s role to duet on vocals with Stevie Nicks.
Ellen thought they sounded amazing. “I can’t believe how good you all sound. It’s so exciting to hear you.”
Next up for the ever-changing, more-than-50-year-old band is a performance at the iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas later this month. They begin a six-month 52-date tour of North America in October.
The Finns’ album, Lightsleeper, was released this week. Liam has revealed he was happy for his dad to step aside from the project and join Fleetwood Mac, even though it meant shelving plans to tour as a family.
Liam said his dad was “a bit spun out by the proposition” of playing with Fleetwood Mac at first, but he encouraged him to go for it.
“We were in the middle of doing one of his shows in New Zealand, but we were all like, ‘You’ve got to go and do that’,” Liam said.
Niel added: “[Liam said] ‘You can stand in a room and play great songs with Fleetwood Mac and have a sing with Stevie and Christine. You’ve got to do that’.
“It makes a different trajectory for our project, which we are pretty excited to finally put out there, because we put a lot of work into it.
“It’s been a couple of years in the making, as well as almost a lifespan of playing together.
“We’d never decided that writing together was what we wanted to try before now.”
