I rewatched
Destiny Rules the other night. Very instructive to rewatch it in light of these 2017-2018 events.
As evidenced in that documentary, the FM machine these days is ruled by Stevie, Mick and the various managers and promoters etc.
When Lindsey saw that his attempts to make the 2018 FM tour more than just a Classic East/West rehash was failing, and that Stevie insisted on three days between each date, he must have made his own demand that he at least be able to do some 'small machine' shows between each FM date, to balance out the sour taste of dedicating countless months of his life to the static FM machine. And because MusiCares was the deadline for the band's negotiations in terms of the promoters etc., Stevie and Mick opted to use Lindsey's bargaining ultimatum as an excuse to just drop him altogether, thereby making Stevie "happy" to enjoy her own, Lindsey-free world for the next ten years. And then the misguided 'strategy' on the part of the managers etc. was to impose a radio silence against Lindsey (so that the likes of Christine would not start having second thoughts), and to let their biggest bullsh#tter, Mick, do the bulk of the band's gaslighty PR.
Edit: What is clear from
Destiny Rules is that they can be wavering about a difficult decision for years and only "resolve" it (through fights, ultimatums, and threats of breakup) at the eleventh hour. Since this current tour was supposedly planned years in advance, that dysfunctional MO is the reason why everything came right down to the wire around MusiCares. Basically, everyone placates Lindsey's preferences with vague assurances until the last minute, at which point Stevie spits the dummy and the corporate FM machine puts its foot down.
As for John being talked into the 'drop Lindsey' scheme--John would agree to anything to shut Mick up.
