Regardless of how their relationship started- spending months together writing, recording, promoting, and then touring- it is expected that feelings are bound to creep up. Sometimes it is warm, fuzzy feelings at the beginning that make couples venture into music together, or the feelings that make them let their guards down, and sometimes fall in love and get married to their bandmates.
However, these warm feelings can sometimes turn a little sour when the pressure comes, and just as spending time together made sense at the beginning of the relationship, it becomes a double-edged sword that challenges their relationship.
From ABBA to Fleetwood Mac, see some of the band couples whose breakups gave us some of the world’s greatest breakup songs.
Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham – Fleetwood Mac’s Silver Springs
Fleetwood Mac is an iconic rock band with the classic lineup of Mick Fleetwood alongside couples Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine & John McVie. Clearly, someone should have sat the band down and informed them about the billions of eligible suitors on the planet to avoid the love pentagon they created within the band. Regardless, this dynamic led to one of the biggest breakup anthems in history, thanks to the affairs, betrayal, and sourness that constantly plagued their relationship.
High school sweethearts Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were in the throes of an off-and-on relationship that started when they were teens. The emotions from one of these breakups reflected some of their work on the 1977 album, Rumours, inspiring songs like “Silver Springs” and “Go Your Own Way.”
With lyrics like “I follow you down until the sound of my voice will haunt you… You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loved you,” Nicks’ Silver Springs was also a deeply profound song inspired by her breakup with Lindsey. Although Silver Springs was left out of the Rumours album, Nicks had her moment 20 years later live at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, in May 1997. Stevie Nicks delivered a stare that was “heard” across the world as she sang those haunting lyrics, staring directly at Lindsey Buckingham, the man who inspired them all those years ago. Largely thanks to this moment, the performance became one of the most unforgettable moments in rock history.
Following this, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham never rekindled their romantic relationship. Still, they maintained a cordial working relationship as they performed together in the band until Buckingham was fired from Fleetwood Mac in 2018. During this period, the Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks 1973 Album Buckingham Nicks was reissued in 2025, and the pair had a brief exchange on their social media.
Agnetha & Björn – ABBA’s Winner Takes It All
ABBA was formed in the early 1970s with already married couples: Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The Swedish quartet started as a pair of couples in love, making the perfect dream team. One could easily imagine how fun and filled with love their studio was in the first year. In fact, even when it suddenly seemed like the love was dwindling, they kept on going until they couldn’t anymore.
Agnetha and Björn tied the knot in 1971, just one year before ABBA was formed. After 7 years as one of the biggest musical couples at the time, the couple split with the caveat that their divorce would not affect their commitment to ABBA. However, as creatives, it’s not far-fetched to draw inspiration from personal experiences and emotions when writing. Hence, the 1979 hit song “The Winner Takes It All” was written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Ulvaeus once stated that his divorce from Agnetha was “an amicable one,” noting that they “grew apart” and decided to split up. Although this coincided with the time he was amid the divorce, he also clarified that “The Winner Takes It All” is not about his divorce from Agnetha Fältskog, but about the experience of a divorce, and admitted the heartache from the divorce, also adding that, “there wasn’t a winner or a loser in our case. A lot of people think it’s straight out of reality, but it’s not.”
Gwen Stefani & Tony Kanal – No Doubt’s Don’t Speak
Long before there was Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, there was Gwen and Tony in the 1980s. Tony Kanal joined No Doubt in 1987 as the bass guitarist, with Stefani as the lead singer. Within one year of being in the band, Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal began a romantic relationship.
After a seven-year relationship, Gwen and Tony were teenage sweethearts who shared a passion for music, with Gwen Stefani admitting that while she was “tragically obsessed,” it was love at first sight; for Tony, however, let’s say he needed a few more sights. The couple split in 1994, and a 25-year-old Gwen Stefani definitely sounded like she went through all stages of grief, and at the end of the tunnel was the band’s most successful album, Tragic Kingdom, with Don’t Speak, Just a Girl, and Spider Webs.
Gwen Stefani channeled all the emotions into writing the song Don’t Speak. She reflected how incredibly hurtful the season was for her. Ultimately, this shot Gwen Stefani to stardom, which fans continue to appreciate today, and it earned the band their most successful album.
Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal never made it as a couple and had since moved on to start separate families. No Doubt, on the other hand, stayed together but took several hiatuses over the last two decades without technically disbanding. The band took a nine-year hiatus, got back together to perform at Coachella 2024, and also performed at the FireAid benefit concert in January 2025; in October 2025, it announced a six-date residency at the Las Vegas Sphere.
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