Quote:
Originally Posted by sodascouts
People keep bringing up that comment he made about the Classics as if it were typical, but it was a one-time thing done only at Christine's prodding; indeed, he was reluctant to say it! Lindsey hardly went around undermining the Classics at every opportunity and I daresay he did not intend to go around trashing the Mac at every opportunity while they toured either. When has it ever been his practice to complain about the band publicly? That's more Stevie's thing, honestly. Meanwhile, Lindsey sings "I will stand with my band."
While his ONE comment about the Classic may have annoyed Azoff, in the end, what Azoff cares about is making money, and I am confident that Lindsey's comment deterred absolutely ZERO people from going to that show. As long as keeping LB on board was profitable, Azoff would not work behind the scenes to get him fired.
As for not wanting FM to do another GH tour... why wouldn't he? That's what the casual fan wants! Do you really think the casual fan is more interested in hearing FM dig out "Station Man" because they're sick of "The Chain"? "Oh, I heard all the hits in 2014. I'm not interested in hearing them play my favorites anymore!" (Not to mention not everyone saw that tour.) You have "Oh Well" and "Black Magic Woman" and you've exhausted the pre-BN stuff the casual fan knows. No, the casual fan wants a song they can sing along to, one that reminds them of their youth, not a little-known track from an iteration of the band they probably don't give a hoot about.
Again, I don't buy that Azoff thought a tour without Lindsey would be more appealing to casual fans. Casual fans don't want a "shakeup." They want their Rumours 5.
Would a concurrent LB solo tour have undermined FM's tour? Well, I suppose that's possible, but the point is moot if he backed down from that request.
This guy in the video's theory is that Lindsey wanted too much money and that's why this "conspiracy" took place to replace him with cheaper sidemen. However, wasn't Azoff Lindsey's manager? It's his job to get Lindsey as much money as possible! He's probably the one that negotiated Lindsey's cut!
The more I think about it, the less this is holding together for me. I think I need more to go on before I buy into this conspiracy theory.
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Don’t kid yourself, it mattered. I knew he was in trouble when I heard him say that and subsequently put on subpar (for him) shows, which were mentioned on here and in some reviews.
I don’t disagree that whatever Lindsey said had any influence on anyone’s decision as to whether or not to go to those shows. That said, if I’m putting up big money for a big show and talent is doing something that could be remotely construed as talking down that show, I would certainly have an issue. Apparently Azoff had an issue. Apparently Fleetwood Mac had an issue.
Doing a solo tour in the midst of a Fleetwood Mac tour was never going to fly. You can’t have a situation where everyone else is focused almost exclusively on the big tour, except for one guy, who is also touring with the backing musicians and focusing on his new album. It might have been different if he had limited his promotion to TV appearances and a few one-offs, but not a whole mini-tour within a tour. That wouldn’t fly in almost any band.
Don’t let your loyalty to Lindsey lead to naivety about the actual business side of the music business. I suspect beyond the various personalities that we know and love that there were numerous factors, probably business related, that lead to the split. By the time of whatever blowout there was, everyone was likely worn down by all of the external pressures that follow the band.