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Originally Posted by BombaySapphire3
Albums were still selling millions then and Fleetwood Mac were still having hit singles so that is where the money was more so than touring.If Stevie had left in 1981 the sales would have suffered even though Christine was writing most of the hits .
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I disagree. The Fleetwood Mac brand still had a lot of weight beyond Stevie in 1981. Furthermore, if they had been so inclined, they could have replaced her with someone like Juice Newton (who I bring up because she sang on the album version of Ebony Eyes, had just had two huge hits with Queen of Hearts and Angel of the Morning, and kind of had a Stevie vibe). That would have given them a curiosity factor.
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Fleetwood Mac also needed Lindsey..it is no coincidence that after he left the big hits stopped just as suddenly as they had started when he joined the band.
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I can just as easily blame that on Stevie. Not to sound like a Neanderthal, just being realistic about how pop culture works, but Stevie was entering middle age and lost most of her sex appeal. She was bloated, nasal, wore god awful makeup, had ridiculously large hair even by the standards of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, her writing was suffering, and she was giving sluggish performances. Granted, we now know a lot of that was Klonopin, it was still hard to watch, especially just six years after Bella Donna. Stevie had become the stereotypical washed up has been. That trickled down towards everyone else.
“Behind the Mask” was a mostly subpar album. Stevie’s songs were forgettable, Rick had better songs than what made the album, Billy had one of the best songs and a couple of forgettable songs, and Christine was consistently great. Given Stevie’s decline, Christine was the only constant, which wasn’t enough to carry the band in a new era of music.
The era of classic rockers making new music that charted was ending. There was a new generation coming to prominence, and Fleetwood Mac, especially a new lineup, and other artists were getting placed on the back burner. OOTC was a critically acclaimed masterpiece and it completely tanked. To suggest he could have saved them somehow ignores a much bigger reality.
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That it is why it was so easy to toss him aside in 2018. By then it was the tours that made all of the money.
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That and the fact he only had three big hits with Fleetwood Mac.