Quote:
Originally Posted by John Run
Further, for the prior 21 years he was the band's driving force and frankly why it came back to life and then thrived during its revenue making heyday, post Stevie's temporary career crater, Mick's bankruptcy(s), Christine's departure. The Dance does not happen. Say You Will and its 130 date tour does not happen. 2009, 2013, 2014-2015 tours don't happen and the band becomes so irrelevant, there is no chance the financially successful revamped 2018-2019 tour takes place. In his mind, Fleetwood Mac had become his band and I am sure he at times became overbearing and controlling, but he was also essentially given the power. As Stevie, famously said, Fleetwood Mac is a democracy, we all get a vote, except Lindsey, he get's two. They empowered him, he became the big (well really skinny) daddy. Then the family left him.
He had a heart attack, he had open heart surgery, his children are getting older. The youngest will graduate high school in 2022. In my opinion he sees his mortality and he may prioritize his need to reconnect with his estranged band family and he needs to be part of the final incarnation of Fleetwood Mac for his posterity, legacy and peaceful closure.
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I agree it must have been a shock to his system. He realized since they wouldn't make new music that they didn't need him any longer in the studio. Even if they did agree to make another album, Stevie probably wouldn't want him to play the producing role that he had in the past.
But it seemed that they would still need him on stage. I certainly thought so. I felt he was such a powerhouse, so energetic still. Mick would comment on how he never left the floor. I couldn't envision their show without him. I felt that Stevie has been miffed that he upstaged her ever since the SYW tour, but on the other hand, I thought she liked the fact that she had a lot of time backstage and could change her clothes, sip some tea and then return and dazzle her fans without straining herself too much physically. It gave her so much more money and exposure than her solo shows, but for less work. That's why I thought the live shows still gave him leverage. With Christine's return, I didn't think that would suggest to Mick and Stevie that they could tour with two songwriters. I could not have foreseen that she would kick him out and I guess Lindsey didn't either. He didn't know that he was expendable.
Willy Loman, Death of a Salesman.