Lindsey Buckingham, the 76-year-old rock guitarist best known for his decades with Fleetwood Mac, was attacked while arriving for an appointment in Santa Monica on Wednesday. A woman hurled an unidentified substance at Buckingham as he entered the building, then fled the scene.
Buckingham is said not to have been injured in the attack. The LAPD's Threat Management Unit confirmed it is investigating, and law enforcement sources indicate an arrest is expected soon, with a suspect already identified.
The incident is alarming on its own. It becomes something else entirely when you learn what Buckingham has been dealing with for years.
More than a year before Wednesday's attack, Buckingham was granted a five-year permanent restraining order against a 53-year-old woman identified only as Michelle. A judge extended a previous temporary order, requiring Michelle to remain at least 100 yards away from Buckingham, his wife Kristen, and their son William, and to refrain from threatening, harassing, or contacting the musician in any way.
According to Buckingham's court testimony, the harassment began around 2021, when Michelle allegedly acquired the business phone number of his wife, Kristen, and began calling her. The messages escalated. Buckingham told the court Michelle was "leaving long drawn-out messages that included the claim that she was my child and threats to kill my family and me."
Buckingham insisted in his testimony that he was not Michelle's father and that she was not known to him personally at all. He said Michelle blamed him for facial deformities she apparently suffered as a child and demanded money.
Police instructed Michelle to cease contacting the Buckingham family in 2022. She reportedly returned in 2024, leaving a collage outside his house. At a hearing in December 2024, Buckingham showed the judge a picture Michelle had taken outside his home and played an unmarked audio clip.
The stalking campaign allegedly included a fabricated emergency. Buckingham testified that police arrived at his home, woke him, and handcuffed him after a 911 call warned that his son William "was at the house intending to hurt himself." Officers reportedly searched the property for 20 minutes before uncuffing Buckingham.
Buckingham told the court the call was a weapon aimed at his family:
"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 court apparently agreed. The permanent restraining order was granted. And yet, here we are.
There has been no public indication from authorities that Michelle was the woman who assaulted Buckingham on Wednesday. The LAPD stated it "is working with the Santa Monica Police Department to investigate this incident" and declined further comment to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
But the broader picture is hard to ignore. A man obtained a restraining order. A court set clear boundaries. Law enforcement was involved at multiple stages. And someone still walked up to Buckingham and doused him with an unknown substance in broad daylight.
This is the reality that restraining orders, by their nature, cannot fully solve. They are pieces of paper that rely on compliance from people who have already demonstrated they will not comply. Courts issue them. Judges sign them. And the person on the receiving end is left hoping the document carries more weight than obsession.
Celebrity stalking cases get attention. Buckingham does because of his stature as one of rock's most recognizable guitarists, the man who joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and enlisted his then-lover Stevie Nicks to the band, helping propel them into one of the best-selling acts in music history. But the dynamic he describes, escalating contact, false claims of kinship, threats against family members, weaponized emergency calls, plays out in courtrooms across the country for people who will never make a headline.
Law enforcement sources say an arrest is expected soon. That would be welcome, and overdue if the suspect turns out to be someone already bound by a court order to stay away.
Buckingham, born in California's Bay Area in 1949, has navigated a career defined by turbulence: his split with Nicks in 1976, his departure from Fleetwood Mac in 1987, his return a decade later, and his firing in 2018. He has survived all of it. He survived Wednesday, too, physically unharmed.
But no one should have to survive an appointment in Santa Monica.
