Mike Campbell didn't know Lindsey was fired
 

SN goes solo for 18 months, MC goes on tour with Dirty Knobs and MF lied to MC (what a surprise).

I've also heard that NF is going to work with Crowded House.
Is this the end of Fleetwood Mac?

https://australianmusician.com.au/mi...oea2o_N6pT_HCg


MIKE CAMPBELL INTERVIEW: FLEETWOOD MAC, HEARTBREAKERS & DIRTY KNOBS


Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers guitarist and Petty songwriting partner Mike Campbell was recently on tour in Australasia with the new version of Fleetwood Mac, proving to the doubters that the Neil Finn/Mike Campbell combination works a treat as Lindsey Buckingham’s replacement. Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips had the pleasure of sitting down with the amiable Mike Campbell for a chat about the tour, his guitars, his other band The Dirty Knobs, and of course his time with Tom and The Heartbreakers. Photos by Jason Rosewarne.

It became apparent very early on in the interview as Mike peered out of the Park Hyatt window across the Melbourne skyline, that he is still well and truly in mourning at the loss of his long time friend and music collaborator Tom Petty. Even though it’s been two years since Tom left us, at times during the interview Mike still had to pause occasionally to compose himself. I had so many questions for Mike and wanted to cover as much territory as I could, while at the same time being respectful of his situation. I decided to go way back and start at the beginning.

Do you remember the moment that the music bug bit you?
Absolutely. There were two events in my life that did that really. My dad was in the airforce and he loved Elvis and Johnny Cash … and that’s all! So he would come home from work and put one of those records on and lay on the couch and just zone out. So I heard those records a lot and I loved the guitarists, Luther Perkins and Scotty Moore. That was the beginning of the journey but with my generation, The Beatles came on Ed Sullivan and it was like, boom, everything is different. The Beatles have changed the world and music is going to be different. Those were the two events which really led me down my path.

And was it your dad who bought you your first guitar?
My first guitar was almost unplayable but I didn’t know it. I saw The Beatles and I wanted a guitar but we couldn’t afford it. Eventually my mum got me a $15 pawn shop Harmony acoustic with the strings way high. I was like god, these guys are so good, how do they do that? Then I went over to a friend’s house and he had a Gibson SG and he said play this. So I did and I thought, oh it’s not so hard at all, then I was hooked. My mum bought me my first guitar and then my dad bought me my first electric guitar, which was a Guyatone. He was in Okinawa and he mailed me one, a sixty dollar guitar and I learned to play on that.

Was there a particular local music store that you frequented in the early days that looked after your guitar needs, strings etc, a store that you’d peer in the windows of?
I grew up in Jacksonville, there was a store, Jacksonville Music I think it was called. It was lined up with Strats and Gibsons but then when I went to Gainesville, to college there was a place called Lipham Music that Tom and I used to go to and they had all the new stuff. We’d go down there and goggle and wish that we could afford stuff.

How important have music stores been to you?
Well everyone buys online now but I just went down to a store here in Lygon Street, I think it was and it was great. There was this all old vintage guitar. It’s like … religious … like going into church, old vintage instruments. It was mostly vintage, they had some new stuff but you can go in there and pick up a guitar. They had a great ’66 Gretsch White Falcon. It’s not like online where you can just see a picture, you can pull it down and hold it, play it .. interact with the instruments, so yeah I think it is important.

Tell me about the first time that you met Tom Petty and what you thought of him.
We immediately became friends from the first time we met. (Mike pauses to gather himself). I was in Gainesville and I had seen Tom play with a group called Mudcrutch, a country band at the time. I was in this other band. I’d seen them around college and I thought they were pretty good. Tom was playing bass. I didn’t notice him so much as the overall band. Then I saw a thing on the bulletin board that Mudcrutch was looking for a drummer. I was living with Randall Marsh, who became the drummer in Mudcrutch. Our band had broken up and I said to him, you should check these guy out, they’re pretty good. He called them over to our house to audition. I was in the back room. It turns out that day they had lost a guitar player as well, so they were asking Randall if he knew any guitar players. He said well, there’s guy in the back room. I came out with my cut off jeans and short hair and Guya guitar and they were just thinking ****, no this is horrible. I said, well what do you guys like to play, do you know Johnny B Goode? (mimics the riff) By the end of that, me and Tom were joined for life! Something happened, we connected and we respected each other. He was playing bass … we took a break and he said, you know I wrote this song. He was the first guy I met who was really focussed on writing. I said, yeah I’m working on a song too, so we started talking about songwriting and he showed me some songs and I realised that this guy is going to be a great writer. We ended up, 50 years later … we followed the dream all the way.

In general what was the process of you and Tom working out guitar parts together?
It was very democratic. He was really open that way, he respected me a lot and Benmont on the keyboards. The process was … if it was a song I wrote with him … which we wrote quite a few songs together … it would usually be that I would present some music. I would record a little demo or something and say this is what I think the record would sound like. If he liked it, he would sing over it. Then he would arrange it a bit and we would then go in and make a record. If it was a song that he wrote, he would usually write it on an acoustic guitar, or electric but mostly acoustic. He’d come in and sing a bit (Mike sings American Girl as an example). I’d listen and then start to play along. Stream of consciousness .. and he almost always liked it. We just had an affinity and he just seemed to know what he wanted to hear and what would make the song better. As the years went on, we’d get in the studio and occasionally he’d say well you know I like what you are doing but maybe you could play it more like The Kinks. It would be vague, it wouldn’t be play that note or that note, it was more … can you do it more like House of The Rising Sun sound? He might communicate that way and I would go, I know exactly what you mean. It was a very harmonic, cooperative working relationship. We rarely argued about arrangements or anything.

You said in an interview that I read that you thought that the song American Girl created The Heartbreakers’ sound…
That’s what I felt. I think we found our sound with that song because we found the harmonic and the vibe. There’s a character about it that was ours. Nobody can do this type of thing better than us, in my opinion.

Some guitarists just see their instruments as tools and others have an emotional attachment to their guitars. Would I be right in saying you belong to the latter category?
Oh yeah, I am a guitar disciple. I love guitars, they have changed my life … made my life. I have emotional connections to them but also they are pieces of art. I was just telling my friend, it’s a win win for me. It’s a great investment. I love the vintage guitars, I get to use them as tools. I enjoy them and if my kids ever want to sell them, they are going to get more money back out of them, so it is a perfect world.

You’ve had some pretty great deals along the way too…
Along the way I used to get a lot of great deals. I just got a good deal on this tour. It rarely happens anymore because of ebay, the internet, the word is out on vintage guitars but I found a guitar for $500, a Gibson Firebird. It was mid 70, not that old but old enough. My wife, god bless her. Her name is Marcie, she supports my guitar habit. We were in Philadelphia earlier in the tour and we saw a pawn shop. She said you should go in there and I said nah, I’ve got enough guitars. We walk in and the first thing I see up on the wall is this white Firebird. I used to have a red Firebird when I first met Tom but he actually broke the neck, he sat on it one day and it was never the same. I have always liked Firebirds and I said to the guy behind the counter, could I see that and he said oh you wouldn’t want it. I said why and he said, well the neck has been broken and it has been repaired. I said well did they do a good job and he said I guess but you wouldn’t want it. It was like 900 bucks and I said let me see it anyway. I saw that the repair job was really solid. I played it and could tell that it was fine. By then he kinda figured out who I was and he said we’ll let you have it for $600 because it’s you. I gave him my credit card and it didn’t go through. He comes back and says your card is not working. I said I have $500 pretty on me, will you take that and he said ok. I go to the sound check the next day, plug that thing in and the sound guy goes, what is that? I said I just got it for $500 and he said it sounds better than your Les Paul, you should put it in the show. It turns out it has a signature from Johnny Winter on it, I guess he had signed it at some point along the way. I love Johnny Winter but that’s not why I bought the guitar, it sounds great. Now I use it for almost the whole show. It’s a $500 Gibson guitar. I have all these hundreds of thousands of dollars, vintage things sitting at home in lockers but the one I am really using is the workman.



How long did it take exploring guitar and amp combinations before you were happy with a tone, the first tone you settled upon?
The first time? I think on the first album, the song Breakdown. It was a Fender Broadcaster and a little Tweed Fender amp but I just found the tone on that guitar and that amp and I really liked that. That’s worth it, it helps the song. From then on I would just search for tones for each song, whatever key it was in. You know, this should be a Rickenbacker, that should be a Gibson or a Fender. Or I don’t know what this should be, let me try one of these and see which one rings best. I am always looking for the right tone that harmonises with whatever Tom is playing.

You mentioned the song Breakdown and I believe that started out as a slide riff?
The story is, Tom wrote this song, it was our first album. We cut the track to about six minutes long and he said could you put some guitar on it? A lot of times I don’t know what I am going to play. I said just run the track and I will listen and make stuff up. I started playing along with it and nothing was really very good. At the end I guess I got bored and I grabbed a slide because I am running out of ideas. (Hums the Breakdown riff to me). So I put that down, went home and went to bed. Then the phone rang about an hour later. Tom was still at the studio with our friend Dwight Twilley. He said we are listening to this track and there’s a lick you played at the end that we have to play at the beginning of the song because it is really good. I didn’t even remember it. So I got out of bed, went back down to the studio at like three in the morning. We went to the top of the song, I said I think this will be better without the slide but I will play the same lines. I just slide with my finger, probably emulating what the slide was doing but trying to make it a little bluesier and that’s the story.



Duesenberg created a signature guitar for you to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Heartbreakers and then they did a 40th anniversary edition. What were the elements that they had to get right for you to be happy to put your name on it?
Well, like you said you have to have an emotional connection to it. It has to be engineered well. It has to tune good and have good sound. It has to look cool. If it’s got those elements then you are probably going to win me over



Tell me about the Mick Fleetwood phone call that started this new journey with Fleetwood Mac.
It was about four months after Tom had passed away and I have my own band (The Dirty Knobs) and I have a record coming out and I was planning on just addressing that, doing that full time. I didn’t really have any other plans. I was sitting in my backyard and my phone rang and I had met Mick once or twice at sessions or whatever but we weren’t like friends or anything. He said hi, how you doing, Lindsey has left the band … it’s what he told me, I didn’t know that he was asked to leave … so he says would you be interested in joining Fleetwood Mac? He said this is not coming from Stevie, it’s coming from me and I have been listening to your catalogue and this is not an audition, if you want it, we would love to have you. I said give me a day to think about it. I thought over the whole Lindsey aspect of it and thought, this is a good thing. So I called back and said yeah and it has been a wonderful experience. It’s the best rhythm section, longest lasting rhythm section of all time. No one else has lasted that long in rock ’n’ roll and they are beautiful. It’s a magical feel that they have and I get to play with them every night. What a joy for a guitar player! The songs are great and Stevie and I have a great history together. We’ve written songs, we get along. Of course we then bring Neil Finn in to help with the vocals and he’s just a charming dude, we get along great. Christine, John, they are just wonderful people and we have a blast every night. I know it is hard for them losing a member, I have lost a member. It’s sad but you have to carry on and I think we are doing a good job.

What was the inspiration behind forming your other band The Dirty Knobs initially?
The Dirty Knobs is just some friends that we were messing around with in the studio between Heartbreakers tours. We have been doing this for 12-15 years now. We started having so much fun, playing little clubs around LA and it turned into a great little band. I have had it in the back of my mind, if The Heartbreakers ever take a break or whatever, I am going to do this. I really want to do it and I believe in it. Now things have worked out the way they have, it is the time to do it. We did a record. We did it really fast, it’s mostly live with a lot of guitar. I love the songs, I love the playing. It’s a little edgier than The Heartbreakers, kind of Yardbirds, Kinks, sort of blues but rock ’n’ roll and a little humour. I just love playing with those guys, so when this tour ends I’m going to do that. We’ve got a record deal ready to go with BMG, which came to me, I didn’t even look for it. They came to me in Boston and asked if I wanted to do anything and I said I’ve got a record, so they are behind us. I know Fleetwood Mac is going to take quite a hiatus cos Stevie wants to do a solo tour and that will take a year and a half. I don’t know what their plans are in the future. My phone is always on if they want to do something else. If not I gotta do The Knobs, that’s been my mission for a long time and this is the time to do it, while I still can. We’re going to go out and play next year. We have William Morris (agency) who are going to help us put a tour together. I want to start out small and do a few festivals. Actually my friend Chris Stapleton, a great artist and we wrote some songs together and he plays arenas and he said we could come out and open for him on a couple of shows, so we’ll start small and get a little bit bigger. My goal is to build up to theatres. If we can get to filling out theatres, then we’re happy, we can pay our bills and have fun.

I’ve heard four songs and they sound very punchy … I know it wasn’t final mix …
Those are close to what it’s going to be like. We’re not going to polish it up much. It’s mostly live, solos and whatever… ninety five percent, it’s just on the floor.

How many songs do you have to play with?
We’ve got too many. We’re trying to narrow it down to 11 or 12. We cut over 20 songs. They are all really good it is just trying to get a package that says what we are. We have Klaus Voormann, who is going to help us with a cover and I’m just really excited to do it. It will be like starting over for me, Start at the bottom and work up again. I’m down for that.



How fussy are you with your guitar takes? Do you agonise over them or like to get them early and fresh?
I like to do it quick, I’ve always been that way. I don’t like to dick around. The Dirty Knobs stuff that you’ve heard, if you listen to it, the guitar parts … we learn the song … here’s how it goes … there’s a bridge, ok I get to the guitar solo, make something up. Three takes, ok I like take number two … NEXT! Once you get a basic sound and sounds aren’t that hard to get if you have good equipment … good guitar, amp, good mic, you get a good sound. It’s all how you play it. I don’t get into gadgets or nit-pick little bits, never have.

What are you most proud of in your music career Mike?
The songs that I wrote with Tom. I really like them, you know. I was going through them the other day and we wrote a lot of songs. I’d forgotten how many but that’s my greatest pride … and the band of course, the records of course. We made some great records. The Heartbreakers was 50 years of my life, it’s my dream that came true … that’s the whole thing for me.

Is there any future in The Heartbreakers doing something one day?
Good question. As you can see emotionally I’m not ready but I am open to it down the line. If I do anything with The Heartbreakers, the first thing and maybe only thing I would do … was to do what Tom wanted to do, which was to do a tour around the Wildflowers album and have different artists come in and sing the songs. He was going to be part of that. He said, we’ll have Jeff Lynne, you know whoever, Regina Spektor, Emmy Lou Harris … we’ll have different singers come in, they’ll come out and do the songs and we’ll back them up. We had been making rough plans to do that with him, so I know that is something that he would want. Whatever I do with the Heartbreakers, it’s got to maintain the integrity that we worked to build with him. I won’t do anything … I mean I am not going to bring in another singer to be Tom, ‘aint gonna happen. I could sing the songs but I ain’t going to do that, you know I am not him. I got to respect his memory. Also I just need more time to process what I am going through but that’s the way it would look, that would be the first project. Anything is open in the future but right now the idea of having them all in a room and going 1,2, 3, 4 and looking around … I can’t deal with even thinking about that right now, I’m just not ready.

https://www.thedirtyknobs.com/

"Christine, John, they are just wonderful people and we have a blast every night. I know it is hard for them losing a member, I have lost a member. It’s sad but you have to carry on and I think we are doing a good job."

they say this stuff and you gotta wonder whether they are stupid or just so incredibly blasé and callous about stuff like other people's lives.

Christine and John didn't lose a band member like Mike did. they contributed to him being ousted by standing by and watching Mick and Stevie do it. and then getting on with a program of advertising the happy happy happy times. if they both put their foot down, they could have stopped it. instead they are all "oh loss" and "had to happen" - no, it did not. are they all really that dense?

i like how Mike is trying to wash his hands - oh i didn't know! but how about asking Lindsey, Mike? you know, guy who is your friend and a fellow musician? ask him what's going on? and now when you do know? you say how great it all is, and how you will be waiting by the phone to maybe be called again? interesting that he speaks of FM as they, not "us" - completely ruining Mick's narrative that they are all FM now.

Bull****. Probably he didn't know about Lindsey being fired, because WHY would FM be honest with ANYONE?? But, come on man, once you found out and realized they almost killed Lindsey, could you not have reached out? You are part of the sh*t show, so be a better person than they are.

And all this happy happy crap, that is so sickening. Toting the company line are we Mike??

To be fair, I'd take some positivity from this. The way he says 'I know its hard for them losing a member', would suggest John and Chris aren't necessarily happy bunnies. Of course people can go on and argue about how neither of them stepped in and stopped it happening. But at least it seems there's some upset in the camp.

He seems devoid of any commitment to FM at all. DK and the legacy of TPH seem first and foremost for him, and if Mick calls up in 2025 should any/all still be on this side of the dirt, sounds like he'd consider playing guitar on songs someone else wrote, but clearly not a priority. Wreaks that he and NF are hired guns and FM is just another back up band for Stevie. If they were full blown members of the band, Stevie could twirl away around the world on her solo tour, but would think the rest of them would be doing their "FM thing" It's all hinging on her being there, when she deems to be.

:nod: :mad:

Then he should have no trouble understanding a Machead fan base that felt the same way about the Rumours five in the final years of the band. He should have submitted that as evidentiary item A to the others when this reconfiguration was brewing.

Or is he implying—obliquely—that he thinks Fleetwood Mac didn't act with any integrity?

I guess the implication is Lindsey is fungible and Tom is not.

I know Fleetwood Mac is going to take quite a hiatus cos Stevie wants to do a solo tour and that will take a year and a half. I don’t know what their plans are in the future. My phone is always on if they want to do something else. If not I gotta do The Knobs, that’s been my mission for a long time and this is the time to do it, while I still can. We’re going to go out and play next year.

His language is very clear: Fleetwood Mac is "they" not "we". He doesn't think of himself as one of them.

"if THEY want to do something else" they can call me.

Otherwise, The Knobs is my band, "that's been my mission for a long time and this is the time to do it" . And he's already got agents etc putting that tour together.

He's also open to the Heartbreakers doing something possibly.

And wtf is Stevie going to tour solo? The same old sh&t again? Didn't she just do that with Chrissie Hynde? Lather, rinse, repeat.

And Neil- seems like he's going back to his real gig with CH and will cash in on his new, higher visibility to probably work in some gigs in the US and elsewhere they might not otherwise have played. He can put "Fleetwood Mac" in a splash across their tour ads. Nauseating.

In 1983 Stevie told Entertainment Tonight that if Fleetwood Mac wanted her, she'd "probably be there."

It’s tragic that when all of their peers are facing their own mortality and at a point when they have to wonder if it’s disloyal to continue a band after a key member DIES, Fleetwood Mac chucked its most instrumental player because Stevie threw a fit of ego.

I don't get it either what is she going to tour??? Is it that Stand Back gh album she will support??? Unless the set list is drastically different then the last one what is the point?

She's an oldies act, with or without FM.

right? I mean in just the last month two more artists from the 1970s died-- Eddie Money (age 70) and Ric Ocasek (age 75).

The average age of the remaining Rumours4 is 73. (they range from Stevie 71- Chris 76)

Mike and Neil don't really count because they aren't fully committed to continuing on anyway; they are replacement players who can just be replaced again; and they have other careers that don't end if FM ends. The only one who can still have a real career (sell tickets) if FM ends is Stevie.

Maybe the Rumours 4 don't care-- maybe they see everyone else in the Rumours4 as replaceable until the last one standing. (Or until Stevie finally kicks.)

Stevie's perspective surely is, "I can tour no matter how many of them drop." (or until she decides to pull the plug, which really is only an option if she can't
physically get onstage anymore or doesn't like how she looks anymore. But then again, she'd probably be like post-stroke Bette Davis and go out anyway).

Mick can play his little restaurant if all the others drop until he drops as well, but even then he still will need someone to sing and play other instruments for people to come see him. (And will the restaurant alone support his spending addiction?)

John also needs others to play with, but one can imagine him being fine with hanging it up for good sometime soon.

Probably the same would be true for Christine (hanging it up) IF she hadn't already done that for 15 years in the English countryside. Now, if she wants to keep touring and working (as Mick says she does in the UK tv program) and if she doesn't want to be out front as a solo performer (as she herself says in same program) she's gonna have to either:

a. go along with whatever Stevie wants until either Stevie kicks the bucket or pulls the plug OR

b. play in Mick's restaurant and just substitute Maui for Kent. :shrug:

Why would it be a surprise that Mike would not know this. Mick lied for months after Mike was hired so why would it be different when he first made the call.

The much bigger lie in this article is the joke that Mick was calling him "not" because of Stevie but how much he admired his work. Mike admitted he only met Mick once before lol. Mike was not even auditioned. Stevie clearly told Mick what to do with firing Lindsey (if she was going to tour with them) and hire Mike without auditions.

I love the idea that John, Mick and Chris will be the house band at Fleetwood's on Front Street.

I have to say, the Mike-didn't-know narrative really surprises me. My theory had been all along that Stevie would never have kicked Lindsey out unless she had already secured her "Heartbreaker" replacement.

Lindsey's guitar skills can't be replaced with just any player (I'd argue he can't be replaced, period, but at any rate) - Stevie at least would realize she would need someone special, and in her mind, no one is more special than a Heartbreaker. It has always been her fantasy to be a Heartbreaker. So what would they have done if Mike had said no and her little fantasy hadn't worked out? Auditioned a bunch of guitarists? I suppose so, but it just seems like something Stevie would have been reluctant to do right before a huge tour.

I guess it was just really convenient and lucky that Mike didn't have any other commitments....

This is what I have always thought................how did Mike NOT know????

I actually don't think he's as close to Stevie as Stevie thinks he is.

re: "I actually don't think he's as close to Stevie as Stevie thinks he is."

Ding! I was wondering the same thing. The timing is certainly interesting.

Oh dear, there goes Mick being a bit disingenuous telling Mike that the offer was coming from him, not from Stevie. Ok, maybe technically that's actually true-- it was indeed Mick who picked up the phone and contacted Mike. But there's no way in hell the idea did not get put in Mick's head from Stevie, directly or indirectly (and I'm betting directly, but let's not forget they're managed by Azoff who would also have understood how well Stevie would respond to Mike and who could have planted the seed). At a very minimum when thinking who to approach Mick had to think about who would make Stevie happy since that was the reason he fired Lindsey. What would make Stevie happier than one of her fellow Heartbreakers, and one who wrote songs with her, and even toured with her for a bit doing her single FWIW? Even if the idea was magically all Mick's, there's no way he wouldn't have run it by HMQ before taking any action on it.

Yeah, the guy who brought in Danny Kirwan, Bob Weston, Lindsey Buckingham, Billy Burnette, Rick Vito, and Dave Mason wouldn’t have thought to bring someone like Mike Campbell in on his own. What does the former brother-in-law of George Harrison and Eric Clapton AND who founded Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green, possibly know about guitarists?

Tom Petty died in October and tour negotiations hit a snag in November. Isn’t it possible that in that span of time Mick revisited the TPATH catalogue, connected with Mike’s playing, and suggested to Stevie that Mike was a way to move forward without Lindsey? He liked Mike’s playing, knew she’d go along with it, and knew the Petty connections would help make up the difference with Lindsey out in terms of ticket sales.

sure, anything is possible.

But the idea that his goal first and foremost wasn't to keep his mealticket from leaving and that that drove his choice of guitarists is naive. Just my opinion.

We could always just ask Mick and see what he says. :laugh:

Those guys didn't audition either to enter Fleetwood Mac, or so I read. I don't know if Stevie indicated Mick about hiring Mike, or not. Probably she did. But the no audition wouldn't be a clue.

I would entirely agree with you and do not think yours is an overreaction. To say FM "lost" a member (= fired) and equate that with The Heartbreakers losing a member (= death) is either lazy, stupid, or uncaring. I believe it's the latter, since Mike strikes me as a smart guy. I do doubt his honesty. Whether Mick told him the truth at the outset or not is beside the point: Mike certainly knew by the time the band did the on-air interview. If he didn't want to associate himself with the band and their collective decision to oust their most important MUSICAL member, then his choice to stay is on him--and he's just as culpable as the rest. Granted, there are degrees of culpability. But no one's hands are clean here.

Yeah, Mick sat up one day (probably in an orange grove) and said, “I’m going to revisit the TPATH catalogue.”

Hahahaha, awesome!!:laugh::laugh::laugh:

love it!

and then, after listening to that catalogue, Mick suggested to Stevie to oust that big bad Lindsey and replace him with poor unemployed Mike Campbell. maybe they can wait through Musicares, but then it's by-bye Linds!

the only unclear thing - why would Mick want to oust Lindsey? oh and why would Azoff say that ultimatum was from Stevie?

heh. so maybe not after all. ;)

:angel:

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

I can not stop laughing at this. Remember when Mick is on his death bed and sits up. I think it's "I Want You Back" video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=438NnNAonmc

go to 2:04

I'd forgotten about this great example of how LB saved Mick's a$$ by making a hook-y catchy song for him off otherwise crappy solo work. When did Stevie ever contribute anything to any solo effort Mick attempted?? :shrug:

Also LB stated directly on his Twitter when he was still taking questions that producing Bob's solo version of Sentimental Lady and giving him a hit was done as a favor to Mick who'd asked him to help Bob out.

Seems like Lindsey's been the one helping Mick out in all sorts of ways over the years, including putting him Mick on a path to making money-- think about all that income that still keeps rolling in year after year off the albums.... Compared to tour money which is there and then it's done and gone.

Yet Mick still sees Stevie as his path to money. Explains a lot about why he's always going bankrupt.:eek:

Run around in circles
Like a dog without a home
Since you went and left me
I'm lonely to the bone.
I want you back!

He has certainly done many, many favors for Fleetwood. Makes me wonder why. Did he see Mick as some sort of big brother? The pattern was always: Lindsey does Mick a favor. Mick kicks Lindsey in the teeth. Lindsey, after picking himself up, does Mick another favor.

Well, I despise Mick, but Tusk was his favor to Lindsey. Mick made that happen. He convinced the others to let Lindsey do it. He told them Lindsey might leave the band if he couldn’t. He soothed ruffled feathers and buffered Lindsey. You know that album was one man’s vision out of the five band members and Mick used his authoritative position to level things so it wasn’t one against 4.

Also, I love Lindsey and I am content (thrilled) for him to have the personality he has but he’s, um... well, especially back then more than today, he was arrogant, bossy, demanding and difficult. Mick indulged him (because he thought Lindsey was largely responsible for the band’s success) and was a conduit. He was also in the studio with Lindsey all night long. He may have been drunk and coked out, but he was there.

Mick did things to warrant Lindsey’s gratitude, loyalty and his love, once upon a time.

I guess you're right. I'll give this some thought. It just feels as if Mick kicked Lindsey in the teeth a lot over the years. The puzzling thing is why Lindsey continually opened up and let Mick in. I'm sure that Lindsey adored Mick's energy and charisma and even aspects of his personality. Mick is the kind of person that would hang out with Lindsey and jam with him and they would both explode with enthusiasm for the music - but then Mick would be a completely different person back at the office Monday morning and refuse to put anything equally combustible on the actual product. I think there was a certain level of cowardice in Mick with regard to the business of the band that Lindsey found distasteful. There is also Mick's fundamental lack of professionalism that Lindsey finds abhorrent, whether it's a ghostwritten book of tawdry "he said, she said," or a pickle-barrel concert video produced with none of the band's usual sophistication, or even the cockamamie business ventures that degrade the band name. Lindsey has probably always felt a strong attraction to Mick's musical artistry but a repulsion to his crassness and stupidity. (Much like me, come to think of it!)

Yep. Lindsey gave Mick that huge hit the album needed, because Lindsey was a massive hitmaker in 1983.

Aside from the video tie-in, occasionally making cameos at Zoo shows, or having him play percussion on her solo tour? Not much.

Only a favor to Mick. He didn’t get a paid, get exposure as a producer, or have any direct benefit from having Christine McVie’s voice prominently featured on three songs in the top-40 in the autumn of 1977. Please. Anyway, it’s not like the band played any of Bob’s songs after he was a successful solo artist.

Think of how Fleetwood Mac had a contract and Buckingham Nicks got dropped after an album. Think of how Stevie and the McVies didn’t dig Tusk but Mick did. Mick helped Lindsey whether Lindsey realized it or not.

Lindsey’s biggest solo album charted at #32. HAHTF hit #34. Of course he’s going to take the side of the one whose solo career was HOF worthy. That’s probably the smartest move he could make from a financial standpoint.

He wouldn’t have a career without Mick, and (as mentioned) he wouldn’t have his equivalent of “Pet Sounds.” Mick stood by Lindsey until he couldn’t.

I’m sure he had assistance. Mick’s creative heart seems to in one place (“The Visitor”), but knows it has to sell (“Mirage”). Lindsey isn’t that different. “Trouble” and “Down On Rodeo” were kept for solo projects, instead of Fleetwood Mac, for a reason.

As an artist, Lindsey is markedly different from Mick, which I thought I made clear. You have a statistical (rather than an aesthetic) bent to your thinking, which is why you are often blind to my context and subtext. Both Lindsey and Mick love trying something new—they are both explorative pioneering spirits, drawn to the idiosyncratic—but Lindsey is clearly a far more conscientious artist than Mick, and imbues his experimentation with a moral fervor for artistic (and business) integrity and sophistication. Mick engages repeatedly in artistic or business moves (or acts that combine both, such as overseeing production of a concert video or a marketing campaign) that sometimes skirt tastelessness or crassness. Mick forays into shlock in ways that Lindsey has no respect for, and Lindsey's reactions are almost always justifiable and reasonable. Mick's 1990 book, for example, degraded the name of Fleetwood Mac; it was shoddily compiled, executed for the crassest salacious reasons, and riddled with uncraftsmanlike errors and faults of judgment and taste. Mick has done countless things like that book in both musical and business terms. Unlike Lindsey, Mick doesn't even partially separate his bean-counter side from his creative side, whereas Lindsey has almost always separated the two, and when he couldn't, he always prioritized the creative side. Your reference to Trouble as a solo track instead of a Fleetwood Mac track (presumably because you think it's an obvious single) is inaccurate and largely irrelevant. There's no indication anywhere that Lindsey sat down deliberately to write a single with Trouble, first of all, and the track he ultimately crafted has enough sonic and lyrical merit that it would be idiotic to categorize it as a crass appeal to the mass audience. It's a quirky personal statement that is nonetheless pop. Yes, I realize that Lindsey called it the obvious single, but that's in the context of that particular album.

I love Trouble and it's placement on the album.

The first four tracks of Bwana, Trouble, Mary Lee Jones, and Tell You are such a wonderful concise start of the album. In that context, Trouble feels like a sharp and terse interlude into the stylings of Mary Lee Jones.

As much as I love some of the tracks on Mick's albums. Lindsey actually understands his own concepts/visions and even has a grasp of the "avant Gard" elements in his pop. Whereas, Mick sort of throws a Hail Mary and hopes it lands into something that gives him funds, artistic accolades, or popularity. AND...needs other writers to help him formulate that end result.

I often wonder if he let Tusk happen just to keep the Rumors 5 together (anticipating another selling album afterward). vs. I see Lindsey's vision and I am going to back him up to let this compelling art make it's birth.

Back to the topic of the thread, my suspicion is that it may not have been purely a case of Mike not knowing. There may have also another element at play:

Fleetwood Mac - I Don't Want to Know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwHHCn4sDec

I don't buy he didn't know. If Lindsey left of his own free will, what "Whole Lindsey aspect" would he need to think about before deciding?:confused:

I also don't buy for a minute Stevie hadn't likely already been at Mike, hence Mick saying, this isn't Stevie, this is me asking. :nod:

That's just my take on it, TPATH was a brotherhood, & it's pretty anti rock n roll "bro-code" :cool: to take the lifelong gig of your supposed friend whom you respect, if he just got ****-canned :laugh:
(for no good reason that I can see at this late stage in the game).

Doesn't make you look like the solidly cool dude you have always seemed to be, does it? Now THAT would be something to think about, IMO. :nod:

As far as the rest, I don't think Neil or Mike EVER considered themselves continuing FM members.:rolleyes: