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Old 11-02-2018, 05:47 PM
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Originally Posted by dreamsunwind View Post
Well Karen probably does have a lot of power. She's not a typical 'assistant'...she does practically everything for Stevie, goes just about everywhere with her. Anywhere Stevie is, Karen is always within an arms reach.
Then that would probably be a mistake within Fleetwood Mac. I think back to my years in a tribute band. We were set up more or less the way we've heard Fleetwood Mac is set up: every member was politically the equal of every other member. Nobody was "the boss."

Being in a band plays all sorts of nasty behavioral mojo on the individuals; it's a swamp of psychological hoodoo. Fragile egos are amplified fifty fold. The mildest comments can trigger volcanic responses. I don't know why this happens in band settings, but it does. I guess it's something to do with playing and singing and trying to sound better than you are when you know deep down you don't. The rock band environment is fraught with disillusion, self-consciousness, and rage. And that's on a good day—like a decent rehearsal or a successful show where people danced.

There were occasions in my band experience when someone's wife continually attended rehearsals (closed rehearsals). That was bad enough for everyone's nerves. But the wife also started offering unsolicited "advice"—in other words, started behaving as if she were a member of the band, a political equal. The rest of us, being disillusioned, self-conscious, and angry introverts in a hypersensitive state, took it and stewed for several weeks. But it all finally blew up when one or two of us reached their limit.

If Karen's not in the band, she has no business intruding on band space offering her "advice" or carrying out her boss's dictates. In fact, if Fleetwood Mac didn't have a "close" policy (where they regulate the activity and presence of non-members), they should have. It's one thing to have someone like Judy Wong around for band discussions—she was a band employee. But Karen Johnston is not a band employee. She's a Stevie Nicks employee.
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