Mick's "Big Picture" Interview

[OldTimer]

This interview with Mick was posted in the Stevie Forum a few days ago, leading to several pages of wailing & gnashing of teeth, gasps and finger-pointings, some pouty petulance and some lukewarm hopefulness, a witch-burning or two, and, inexplicably, a bout of Bekka-bashing.

While everyone else is trying to deal with Stevie's Country Rumours album , I'm more interested in Mick's other ideas (the MFBB is far more interesting to me these days than the Unleashed Rumours-Rehash Band). Trying to get all of this......

Mick's ideas for 2010, summarized:
More MFBB dates -- now maybe with MEATLOAF?!?! (a little wailing and teeth-gnashing of my own here...)

Mick with Joe Walsh. "What a great bill, two guys, one from Fleetwood Mac and one from the Eagles, getting together." Fleetwood Walsh? Rock-n-Roll with a hot side of raunchy Stevie stories? (Mick's clearly mad at Stevie for nixing the Eagles/Mac arena tour.)

Another FM album. Outside producers, please apply. Mick, Lindsey, & John want this, but Stevie has her own plans, see below. (Mick's mad at Stevie about this as well.)

Stevie's Country Rumours. Mick doesn't sound thrilled about this either.

Mick, Lindsey, and John as "The Men of Mac." Booking now for corporate gigs and Bar Mitzvahs. (She's missing out on something incredible here -- that'll teach that blonde witch! )

Mick's considering working with Jeremy Spencer. Unknown if Jeremy has been consulted about this, or has any interest. (This is possibly Stevie's fault too.)

Mick's also considering working with Paul Rodgers. Matter of fact, a lot of "fairly well-known people". Throw 'em all together in some sort of 'Traveling Wilburys'-type show, and hit the road. (Probably not including Stevie.)

Did I miss anything?


From the actual article:
Following the Mac shows, Mick recently completed a tour of Australia and New Zealand, opening some concerts for Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald with his Maui-based Mick Fleetwood Blues Band.

"It was fantastic," he reports. "Boz used to tour with us in the old days. I met Michael here and spent some time before we went on the road. He's absolutely the sweetest, totally not a rock 'n' roll star. It was a fun tour - they remember the old Fleetwood Mac stuff, because of the English thing. When you play 'Albatross' in the States, no one knows what it is; there we played it as an encore."

With a live CD and DVD (shot in England) out, various Blues Band gigs are in the works, including some European festivals and, "maybe opening up for Meatloaf," he says. And later in the year, they are booked to play some dates with Texas rockers ZZ Top.

"That's totally great," he enthuses. "Billy (Gibbons) is a huge Fleetwood Mac/Peter Green fan. He's itching to get out and play. He's aware of Rick (Vito) and loves his playing."

Then there's the possibility of hooking up with Joe Walsh in between his Eagles' dates.

"I'm thinking about people to do it with, and it struck me that Joe Walsh has played religiously, and I thought it would be a great combo because he's a real rock 'n' roller," he says. "What a great bill, two guys, one from Fleetwood Mac and one from the Eagles, getting together."

In December the concert website Pollstar reported plans were brewing for the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac to join forces this year for a historic, massive stadium tour.

"We were supposed to be doing it now," Mick explains. "We were open to doing it, but there were some timing and lighting issues. Stevie (Nicks) didn't want to go on for the whole thing in daylight. Sadly it fell apart. I think it should happen."

From all reports the Mac's 2009 "Unleashed Tour" was a resounding success, which has whetted appetites for a new album.

"John's game, I am and Lindsey (Buckingham) is. Stevie was not so keen to make the commitment," he says. "I really feel we will do another album. I plan to spend some time with Lindsey in L.A. and explore some producers."

Nicks, he reports, is currently teamed with Grammy- winning producer Don Was, compiling a country version of Mac's epic "Rumours" album. "There will be another version of 'Rumous,' with some fairly well-known country artists," he adds.

And he's talked with Buckingham about doing something. "I asked if he ever wanted to get together and play, and do a corporate gig or something. He said, 'I will,' which is sort of unusual. I pitched him, what about you, me and John, without Stevie, we could do some great old rock 'n' roll stuff. I said we could call it the Men of Mac. So the Men of Mac are available to play your bar mitzvah."

Among other musical projects, Mick might get together with one of the Mac's early members - guitarist Jeremy Spencer - for some show dates.

"Jeremy has a new album out, and he's said he would really like to do something," Mick reveals. "There's some tasty stuff on it. Jeremy likes floaty instrumentals and the album has several. His voice has totally come back and he's playing great. If I knew I was going to do a productive tour in Europe, the Jeremy Spencer Band could open up."

Heading out with the Blues Band reminds Mick of his early days with Fleetwood Mac, long before their transformation into global rock stars packing arenas and stadiums.

"We're not at all plugged into a production, we don't even have a lighting guy," he explains, chuckling. "It's all about playing, and it's freer."

In a recent interview he reported that at the age of 62, he was playing louder and harder than ever.

"It means I'm more desperate the older I get," he says breaking up laughing. "I've put some weight on and that's got something to do with it, and I keep pretty fit. I'm really enjoying playing and it's still there. My Fleetwood Mac drum tech is going. 'What the **** are you doing?' I have aluminum sticks and I've never done stuff to them, but on the last Mac tour, every other song (he indicates he had to keep replacing them). Something happened, I'm taking Hulk pills or something," he jokes. "The whole downtime from Fleetwood Mac I got away from playing because of my lifestyle. Then before I moved here, I was on the track to playing again because I was not completely out of my gourd all the time. The whole ethic of getting back and playing has really been a good thing."

The allure of Maui has helped Mick attract some heavyweight musical friends to join him at his island home. Neighbors of his Kula estate may have heard the distinctive vocals of Paul Rodgers, the legendary singer of Free (of "All Right Now" fame) and Bad Company, and most recently touring as Queen's front man.

"I had a great time playing with Paul Rodgers and Rick and John at the farm," he explains. "I was in London in the same hotel. I love his singing, he's one of the greatest English singers; there's Rod, Joe Cocker and him. So I phoned him up and invited him to Maui, and he came for two weeks. Something quite interesting might come out of it. We're looking at trying to put some kind of bluesy/rock 'n roll, Traveling Wilburys thing together. It could be on a small level or quite a grand level with Fleetwood Mac's rhythm section and some fairly well-known people all getting together."

http://www.mauinews.com/page/content....html?nav=5014

I had some scrambled thoughts about all this, but I'm getting a monster headache just trying to follow it all. Back later.....