Les
05-08-2004, 11:12 PM
Los Angeles Times
Sunday, December 2, 1979
Fleetwood Mac’s Mammoth Gamble with ‘Tusk’
by Robert Hilburn
New York-The man from Channel 7 asked Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood the inevitable question backstage during a sound check at Madison Square Garden: Had the band felt the pressure, during the recording of the “Tusk" album, of living up to the expectations of 1976 superseller “Rumours”?
Such questions invite wisecrack response: “Do birds fly?”....”Do church bells ring?”
But Fleetwood answered with a straight face. No, he said into the camera, the band didn’t worry about matching the 20 million sales of “Rumours.” The band’s concern, he continued, was just the quality of “Tusk.”
Maybe the band tried to ignore the pressures, but the record industry didn’t. Caught in a sales slump this year, retailers waited for “Tusk” the way a battlefield medic waits for plasma.
Along with Led Zeppelin’s “In Through the Out Door” and the Eagles’ “The Long Run,” the Fleetwood Mac LP was supposed to bring customers back into the store.
The early optimism gave way to nervousness when Fleetwood Mac released the title track of the “Tusk” LP as a single in October. Critics generally admired the record’s daring, eccentric rhythm pattern, but industry pros--including disc jockeys and merchants--scratched their heads in amazement. What had happened to the smooth, altraaccessible Fleetwood Mac of such old hits as “You Make Loving Fun”? The most heated detractors decried the single as indulgent.
Discovering extraneous surface noise on some of the “Tusk” singles, the band’s label (Warner Bros.) recalled the entire initial shipment of the single. Still, grumbling over the “new” Mac sound in “Tusk,” some wiseguys argued that even the corrected copies of the singles were defective. You could sense retail account executive writing off their Christmas bonuses this year.
By the time Fleetwood Mac reached New York on a tour that includes five nights (beginning Tuesday) at the Inglewood Forum, the “Tusk” LP was selling well, but not spectacularly. It was lodged at No. 4 on the Billboard charts, behind the Eagles, Donna Summer, and Led Zeppelin.
But Fleetwood didn’t seem unnerved by the early sales performance of “Tusk.” After the band’s Garden concert, he stuck by the TV interview remarks. The L.A.-based quintet, he insisted, hadn’t been caught up in the industry tension over matching “Rumours.” But he acknowledged he was aware of those tensions.
The tall, bearded drummer explained:
“We couldn’t help but know what was going on out there, outside the studio...but that was their problem, not ours. We tried to isolate ourselves from those matters as much as possible.
The record company did point out the state of the economy and tell us how much more difficult it would be to sell a double album than a single album. But they didn’t try to get us to change our mind about doing a double album. They just wanted to make sure we were aware of the situation, which was proper.
“I’m sure what they said was true. We might have hurt ourselves commercially by sticking with the decision to do a double album. ‘Tusk’ may not sell as many copies as ‘Rumours,’ but we’re prepared to accept that. The important thing to us was that we be pleased with the album, and we are.”
The “Tusk” single did make it into the national Top 10, but it has not received near the amount of AM airplay of earlier Fleetwood Mac hits. Many stations seem to spend more time playing old Fleetwood Mac tunes, especially “Go Your Own Way” and “Say You Love Me,” than songs from the new album.
The point isn’t lost on guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who wrote the controversial title track.
Sitting on a wooden bench in the visiting team’s dressing room after the Garden concert, the clean-shaven Buckingham said:
“In a way, this is a difficult time for us as a band. People are still making up their minds about the album. That goes for radio stations, too. It has only been out a few weeks and most people just haven’t heard a lot of it on the radio. I think that when we put out another single or two, they will respond to what we’ve done.” (“Sara,” the second single from “Tusk,” is due this week.)
“I’m sure we’ve alienated a certain segment of the ‘old‘ Fleetwood Mac audience with some of the tracks on ‘Tusk,’ but you can’t be afraid of that as a band,” Buckingham continued.
If moving from the smooth, seductive style of “Rumours” to the harder, competing rhythms of “Tusk” was one gamble, Fleetwood Mac is taking another chance in including nine songs from the new album in its live show.
Because fans respond best to the familiar, it can often hurt the momentum of a show by including more than two or three new songs in a set. Buckingham admits that large number of new tunes has cut into audience response on early tour dates, but he defends the practice.
“It’d be easier for us to get a quick audience response,” Buckingham said. “If we wanted more ‘mania’ out there, we could stick in ‘Never Going Back’ instead of ‘Save Me a Place’ or ‘Don’t Stop’ instead of ‘Over and Over.’ We could also make the show more uptempo. But I think audiences will appreciate the freshness of what we’re doing.
“We can’t allow ourselves to stay in the ‘Rumours’ framework on stage any more than we could in the studio. it has been three years since then. We’ve all gone through a lot of new experiences and influences.
“I liked ‘Rumours’ but it wasn’t as good as 20-million sales as far as I was concerned. It’s great to have that kind of success and recognition, but it didn’t particularly correspond to what I felt I had accomplished at all. I don’t think we’ve even reached any kind of zenith with ‘Tusk.’”
The big change in Fleetwood Mac these days is the emergence of Buckingham. Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie co-founded the band a dozen years ago in London. Originally a blues group, it went through numerous stylistic and personnel shifts before making a dent on the U.S. charts.
One key point was the arrival eight years ago of Christine McVie. Another crucial move was when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came aboard in 1975. The pair had been in a San Francisco rock group (Fritz), but were working as a duo before joining Fleetwood Mac. They recorded one album for Polydor and got a few gigs at the Troubadour.
Before Buckingham and Nicks, Fleetwood Mac was not a superpower on record. But the group’s “Heroes Are Hard to Find” LP in 1974 did reach the Top 40.
“Fleetwood Mac,” the first album with the new lineup, soared to No. 3 and stayed on the charts for 75 weeks. Buckingham wrote three of that album’s 12 songs, but Christine McVie and Nicks wrote and sang the hits, thereby causing the media to focus on the band’s female component.
Though Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way” was a Top 10 single on “Rumours,” the other three Top 10 singles were by McVie and Nicks, who again attracted the most media attention. In “Tusk,” however, Buckingham wrote nine of the 20 songs. He’s also the one most associated with the harsher Mac textures.
Where the lovely McVie songs and sultry Nicks ones could have been at home on earlier Mac compilations, most of Buckingham’s tunes have a freshness that could only have fit on this LP. While Nicks’ seductive swirling remains a visual lure on stage, Buckingham is also a far more energetic performer this trip.
“I guess I’m moving around more because the music on the new album makes me move more,” Buckingham said, obviously welcoming, rather than feeling pressured, by the new attention to him.
“For a while, I felt like an outsider looking in. that’s only natural when you join an existing band. But I think this album has done a lot to make me feel at home. I welcome the added pressure, if that’s what you call the changes on ‘Tusk.’ I think it’s very healthy. I feel great.”
Buckingham feels the album also reflects his enthusiasm for the energy of rock’s new-wave movement. Enthusiasm for new wave? That’ll be a surprise to the punk contingent, most of which attacks Fleetwood Mac as part of the tired pop establishment.
“I love what’s happening now,” Buckingham said. “The music of the last years could very well be the fabric of the ‘80s. A lot of things that are coming out are very, very valid--Talking Heads, Elvis Costello. I’m not sure anyone has yet nailed it down, but what we’re hearing is so much better than what we had a few years ago.”
What about Fleetwood Mac’s mellow image?
“I don’t think ‘Go Your Own Way’ was a really mellow song,” he replied. “It’s just that people have tended to pick up on the softer things. It’s easier with this album to see where I’m really at.”
“Tusk” is one of the best pop albums of 1979, but it has a weakness. The separate songwriting styles of Buckingham, McVie and Nicks makes the LP seem at times like a random collection of tunes rather than a unified work. That three-way artistic pull also poses a larger threat.
Fleetwood Mac has already survived a lot of inner tensions: the divorce of John and Christine McVie, plus the breakup of ex-lovers Buckingham and Nicks. The problem now is how to keep all three writers satisfied. The issue hasn’t surfaced yet, according to Fleetwood, but the potential is there. The Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival are among the bands whose demise was hastened by friction over whose materials would get on the album.
Christine McVie doesn’t see a problem in satisfying artistic needs and egos, but she does feel “Tusk” was a double album, in part, to provide room for everyone’s material. She also says she might like to do a solo LP someday. Nicks already has committed herself to doing a sound-track album on her own. Fleetwood (see separate article), who manages the band isn’t worried about possible solo ventures. “It’s all a matter of priorities,” he said. “The only thing that would interfere is if someone wanted to make a solo album at the same time the band was supposed to go into the studio. It’s a matter of fitting in those projects. The Who and lots of bands have survived solo albums. It’s no reason for a band to breakup.”
As Fleetwood spoke, John McVie wandered into the dressing room and the pair began clowning around for a photographer. The fact that the three newcomers get the most media attention doesn’t seem to bother them any more than the cries of “sell-out” from early Mac fans after the change from blues to a more commercial pop-rock sound in recent years.
Heading for the limousine and the ride back to the band’s hotel, Fleetwood said: “The funny thing is we’ve always done what we’ve wanted to do. The only reason we changed styles over the years is because we wanted to. That doesn’t mean everything we’ve done has always been everyone’s cup of tea.
“I think bands go through definite energy waves. This is a high energy period for us. The only drag is everyone keeps talking about sales. I wish they’d talk about the music rather than, ‘Do you think you’ll sell 20 million copies?’ It makes you wonder sometimes what business you’re really in. It seems like things have gotten all twisted around.”
********************************
Accompanying article:
Manager Mick Fleetwood: ‘I Don’t Trust Anybody’
by Patrick Goldstein
Most rock’n’roll band managers are not the kind of guys you’d want to meet in a dark alley--they’re tough, acerbic men who conduct business at a Ted Nugent decibel level. Though he’s better known as the anchor of the Fleetwood Mac rhythm section, Mick Fleetwood fits the mold perfectly.
Asked why he manages his own band, the lanky drummer admits, “It’s because I don’t really trust anybody. I just don’t assume that anyone will do anything right. Human beings are not fail-safe and I don’t want mistakes being made on my behalf. I’d rather make them myself.”
Fleetwood learned this lesson the hard way. In 1972, while he was tramping through an African jungle, his manager booked a fake Fleetwood Mac tour of the United States. Fleetwood hurriedly fired the manager, but the damage was done. “He ruined a lot of good faith we’d built up over the years,” Fleetwood recalls.. “It took us almost a year to persuade people we were still, in fact, a band.”
This now-infamous fiasco convinced Fleetwood that when it came to navigating the treacherous shoals of the record industry, he was just as capable a helmsman as anyone else. Nearly six years later, Fleetwood is at the controls of a thriving management empire. He runs Seedy Management, which handles his band’s affairs, as well as Ltd. Management, which oversees career moves for Bob Welch, Danny Douma and Turley Richards.
Success hasn’t spoiled--or mellowed--Mick Fleetwood. Despite a gentlemanly grace, he remains an outspoken critic of music moguls who package their artists as if they were kiddie breakfast cereals.
“It’s easy to get bamboozled by a lot of shoddy, bad-taste merchandising schemes,” he says. “Look at Peter Frampton. His manager, Dee Anthony, has totally screwed up his career. His albums began to look like a Walt Disney cartoon, peddling watches with Peter’s face on them.”
Fleetwood wags his head: “Peter didn’t have to let that happen. But artists just let control of these things slip out of their hands. Sometimes being successful allows you to drift into a lifestyle where you can be completely naive to what decisions are made for you. My band is concerned--maybe to a fault--about its integrity and credibility. If an ad for our album isn’t right, we cancel it.”
Sources at Warner describe Fleetwood as a “fearless” manager, who does his homework and freely offers blunt opinions. Fleetwood says he had this breezy self-confidence before he owned a stack of platinum albums.
“I don’t find it terrifying to walk into a roomful of 20 promo men,” he says. “It helps that these people know I’m not a go-between character. They remember that I’m in the band that we’re talking about at these meetings.”
One subject rarely debated in these sessions is money. In an era when most labels are cutting costs, the Big Mac spent more than a million dollars making “Tusk,” while Warners expects to spend even more promoting it.
“It’s necessary,” Fleetwood says, defending this enormous cash outlay. “We may spend an inordinate amount of time in the studio, but it’s how we work best.” Fleetwood chuckles. “You know, our accountants couldn’t believe all the money we spent. Before we started on ‘Tusk,’ I told the band we should just buy the bloody studio.”
Fleetwood laughs again. “And I was right. For the next record, we’re seriously considering building a studio or remodeling one. People shouldn’t be afraid to spend money. It’s not as if we’re going to invest it in some laundromat down the road. We’re spending it on the band because we want to make what we do better.”
Sunday, December 2, 1979
Fleetwood Mac’s Mammoth Gamble with ‘Tusk’
by Robert Hilburn
New York-The man from Channel 7 asked Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood the inevitable question backstage during a sound check at Madison Square Garden: Had the band felt the pressure, during the recording of the “Tusk" album, of living up to the expectations of 1976 superseller “Rumours”?
Such questions invite wisecrack response: “Do birds fly?”....”Do church bells ring?”
But Fleetwood answered with a straight face. No, he said into the camera, the band didn’t worry about matching the 20 million sales of “Rumours.” The band’s concern, he continued, was just the quality of “Tusk.”
Maybe the band tried to ignore the pressures, but the record industry didn’t. Caught in a sales slump this year, retailers waited for “Tusk” the way a battlefield medic waits for plasma.
Along with Led Zeppelin’s “In Through the Out Door” and the Eagles’ “The Long Run,” the Fleetwood Mac LP was supposed to bring customers back into the store.
The early optimism gave way to nervousness when Fleetwood Mac released the title track of the “Tusk” LP as a single in October. Critics generally admired the record’s daring, eccentric rhythm pattern, but industry pros--including disc jockeys and merchants--scratched their heads in amazement. What had happened to the smooth, altraaccessible Fleetwood Mac of such old hits as “You Make Loving Fun”? The most heated detractors decried the single as indulgent.
Discovering extraneous surface noise on some of the “Tusk” singles, the band’s label (Warner Bros.) recalled the entire initial shipment of the single. Still, grumbling over the “new” Mac sound in “Tusk,” some wiseguys argued that even the corrected copies of the singles were defective. You could sense retail account executive writing off their Christmas bonuses this year.
By the time Fleetwood Mac reached New York on a tour that includes five nights (beginning Tuesday) at the Inglewood Forum, the “Tusk” LP was selling well, but not spectacularly. It was lodged at No. 4 on the Billboard charts, behind the Eagles, Donna Summer, and Led Zeppelin.
But Fleetwood didn’t seem unnerved by the early sales performance of “Tusk.” After the band’s Garden concert, he stuck by the TV interview remarks. The L.A.-based quintet, he insisted, hadn’t been caught up in the industry tension over matching “Rumours.” But he acknowledged he was aware of those tensions.
The tall, bearded drummer explained:
“We couldn’t help but know what was going on out there, outside the studio...but that was their problem, not ours. We tried to isolate ourselves from those matters as much as possible.
The record company did point out the state of the economy and tell us how much more difficult it would be to sell a double album than a single album. But they didn’t try to get us to change our mind about doing a double album. They just wanted to make sure we were aware of the situation, which was proper.
“I’m sure what they said was true. We might have hurt ourselves commercially by sticking with the decision to do a double album. ‘Tusk’ may not sell as many copies as ‘Rumours,’ but we’re prepared to accept that. The important thing to us was that we be pleased with the album, and we are.”
The “Tusk” single did make it into the national Top 10, but it has not received near the amount of AM airplay of earlier Fleetwood Mac hits. Many stations seem to spend more time playing old Fleetwood Mac tunes, especially “Go Your Own Way” and “Say You Love Me,” than songs from the new album.
The point isn’t lost on guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who wrote the controversial title track.
Sitting on a wooden bench in the visiting team’s dressing room after the Garden concert, the clean-shaven Buckingham said:
“In a way, this is a difficult time for us as a band. People are still making up their minds about the album. That goes for radio stations, too. It has only been out a few weeks and most people just haven’t heard a lot of it on the radio. I think that when we put out another single or two, they will respond to what we’ve done.” (“Sara,” the second single from “Tusk,” is due this week.)
“I’m sure we’ve alienated a certain segment of the ‘old‘ Fleetwood Mac audience with some of the tracks on ‘Tusk,’ but you can’t be afraid of that as a band,” Buckingham continued.
If moving from the smooth, seductive style of “Rumours” to the harder, competing rhythms of “Tusk” was one gamble, Fleetwood Mac is taking another chance in including nine songs from the new album in its live show.
Because fans respond best to the familiar, it can often hurt the momentum of a show by including more than two or three new songs in a set. Buckingham admits that large number of new tunes has cut into audience response on early tour dates, but he defends the practice.
“It’d be easier for us to get a quick audience response,” Buckingham said. “If we wanted more ‘mania’ out there, we could stick in ‘Never Going Back’ instead of ‘Save Me a Place’ or ‘Don’t Stop’ instead of ‘Over and Over.’ We could also make the show more uptempo. But I think audiences will appreciate the freshness of what we’re doing.
“We can’t allow ourselves to stay in the ‘Rumours’ framework on stage any more than we could in the studio. it has been three years since then. We’ve all gone through a lot of new experiences and influences.
“I liked ‘Rumours’ but it wasn’t as good as 20-million sales as far as I was concerned. It’s great to have that kind of success and recognition, but it didn’t particularly correspond to what I felt I had accomplished at all. I don’t think we’ve even reached any kind of zenith with ‘Tusk.’”
The big change in Fleetwood Mac these days is the emergence of Buckingham. Drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie co-founded the band a dozen years ago in London. Originally a blues group, it went through numerous stylistic and personnel shifts before making a dent on the U.S. charts.
One key point was the arrival eight years ago of Christine McVie. Another crucial move was when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks came aboard in 1975. The pair had been in a San Francisco rock group (Fritz), but were working as a duo before joining Fleetwood Mac. They recorded one album for Polydor and got a few gigs at the Troubadour.
Before Buckingham and Nicks, Fleetwood Mac was not a superpower on record. But the group’s “Heroes Are Hard to Find” LP in 1974 did reach the Top 40.
“Fleetwood Mac,” the first album with the new lineup, soared to No. 3 and stayed on the charts for 75 weeks. Buckingham wrote three of that album’s 12 songs, but Christine McVie and Nicks wrote and sang the hits, thereby causing the media to focus on the band’s female component.
Though Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way” was a Top 10 single on “Rumours,” the other three Top 10 singles were by McVie and Nicks, who again attracted the most media attention. In “Tusk,” however, Buckingham wrote nine of the 20 songs. He’s also the one most associated with the harsher Mac textures.
Where the lovely McVie songs and sultry Nicks ones could have been at home on earlier Mac compilations, most of Buckingham’s tunes have a freshness that could only have fit on this LP. While Nicks’ seductive swirling remains a visual lure on stage, Buckingham is also a far more energetic performer this trip.
“I guess I’m moving around more because the music on the new album makes me move more,” Buckingham said, obviously welcoming, rather than feeling pressured, by the new attention to him.
“For a while, I felt like an outsider looking in. that’s only natural when you join an existing band. But I think this album has done a lot to make me feel at home. I welcome the added pressure, if that’s what you call the changes on ‘Tusk.’ I think it’s very healthy. I feel great.”
Buckingham feels the album also reflects his enthusiasm for the energy of rock’s new-wave movement. Enthusiasm for new wave? That’ll be a surprise to the punk contingent, most of which attacks Fleetwood Mac as part of the tired pop establishment.
“I love what’s happening now,” Buckingham said. “The music of the last years could very well be the fabric of the ‘80s. A lot of things that are coming out are very, very valid--Talking Heads, Elvis Costello. I’m not sure anyone has yet nailed it down, but what we’re hearing is so much better than what we had a few years ago.”
What about Fleetwood Mac’s mellow image?
“I don’t think ‘Go Your Own Way’ was a really mellow song,” he replied. “It’s just that people have tended to pick up on the softer things. It’s easier with this album to see where I’m really at.”
“Tusk” is one of the best pop albums of 1979, but it has a weakness. The separate songwriting styles of Buckingham, McVie and Nicks makes the LP seem at times like a random collection of tunes rather than a unified work. That three-way artistic pull also poses a larger threat.
Fleetwood Mac has already survived a lot of inner tensions: the divorce of John and Christine McVie, plus the breakup of ex-lovers Buckingham and Nicks. The problem now is how to keep all three writers satisfied. The issue hasn’t surfaced yet, according to Fleetwood, but the potential is there. The Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival are among the bands whose demise was hastened by friction over whose materials would get on the album.
Christine McVie doesn’t see a problem in satisfying artistic needs and egos, but she does feel “Tusk” was a double album, in part, to provide room for everyone’s material. She also says she might like to do a solo LP someday. Nicks already has committed herself to doing a sound-track album on her own. Fleetwood (see separate article), who manages the band isn’t worried about possible solo ventures. “It’s all a matter of priorities,” he said. “The only thing that would interfere is if someone wanted to make a solo album at the same time the band was supposed to go into the studio. It’s a matter of fitting in those projects. The Who and lots of bands have survived solo albums. It’s no reason for a band to breakup.”
As Fleetwood spoke, John McVie wandered into the dressing room and the pair began clowning around for a photographer. The fact that the three newcomers get the most media attention doesn’t seem to bother them any more than the cries of “sell-out” from early Mac fans after the change from blues to a more commercial pop-rock sound in recent years.
Heading for the limousine and the ride back to the band’s hotel, Fleetwood said: “The funny thing is we’ve always done what we’ve wanted to do. The only reason we changed styles over the years is because we wanted to. That doesn’t mean everything we’ve done has always been everyone’s cup of tea.
“I think bands go through definite energy waves. This is a high energy period for us. The only drag is everyone keeps talking about sales. I wish they’d talk about the music rather than, ‘Do you think you’ll sell 20 million copies?’ It makes you wonder sometimes what business you’re really in. It seems like things have gotten all twisted around.”
********************************
Accompanying article:
Manager Mick Fleetwood: ‘I Don’t Trust Anybody’
by Patrick Goldstein
Most rock’n’roll band managers are not the kind of guys you’d want to meet in a dark alley--they’re tough, acerbic men who conduct business at a Ted Nugent decibel level. Though he’s better known as the anchor of the Fleetwood Mac rhythm section, Mick Fleetwood fits the mold perfectly.
Asked why he manages his own band, the lanky drummer admits, “It’s because I don’t really trust anybody. I just don’t assume that anyone will do anything right. Human beings are not fail-safe and I don’t want mistakes being made on my behalf. I’d rather make them myself.”
Fleetwood learned this lesson the hard way. In 1972, while he was tramping through an African jungle, his manager booked a fake Fleetwood Mac tour of the United States. Fleetwood hurriedly fired the manager, but the damage was done. “He ruined a lot of good faith we’d built up over the years,” Fleetwood recalls.. “It took us almost a year to persuade people we were still, in fact, a band.”
This now-infamous fiasco convinced Fleetwood that when it came to navigating the treacherous shoals of the record industry, he was just as capable a helmsman as anyone else. Nearly six years later, Fleetwood is at the controls of a thriving management empire. He runs Seedy Management, which handles his band’s affairs, as well as Ltd. Management, which oversees career moves for Bob Welch, Danny Douma and Turley Richards.
Success hasn’t spoiled--or mellowed--Mick Fleetwood. Despite a gentlemanly grace, he remains an outspoken critic of music moguls who package their artists as if they were kiddie breakfast cereals.
“It’s easy to get bamboozled by a lot of shoddy, bad-taste merchandising schemes,” he says. “Look at Peter Frampton. His manager, Dee Anthony, has totally screwed up his career. His albums began to look like a Walt Disney cartoon, peddling watches with Peter’s face on them.”
Fleetwood wags his head: “Peter didn’t have to let that happen. But artists just let control of these things slip out of their hands. Sometimes being successful allows you to drift into a lifestyle where you can be completely naive to what decisions are made for you. My band is concerned--maybe to a fault--about its integrity and credibility. If an ad for our album isn’t right, we cancel it.”
Sources at Warner describe Fleetwood as a “fearless” manager, who does his homework and freely offers blunt opinions. Fleetwood says he had this breezy self-confidence before he owned a stack of platinum albums.
“I don’t find it terrifying to walk into a roomful of 20 promo men,” he says. “It helps that these people know I’m not a go-between character. They remember that I’m in the band that we’re talking about at these meetings.”
One subject rarely debated in these sessions is money. In an era when most labels are cutting costs, the Big Mac spent more than a million dollars making “Tusk,” while Warners expects to spend even more promoting it.
“It’s necessary,” Fleetwood says, defending this enormous cash outlay. “We may spend an inordinate amount of time in the studio, but it’s how we work best.” Fleetwood chuckles. “You know, our accountants couldn’t believe all the money we spent. Before we started on ‘Tusk,’ I told the band we should just buy the bloody studio.”
Fleetwood laughs again. “And I was right. For the next record, we’re seriously considering building a studio or remodeling one. People shouldn’t be afraid to spend money. It’s not as if we’re going to invest it in some laundromat down the road. We’re spending it on the band because we want to make what we do better.”