Lindsey discusses his firing (Rolling Stone)

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by cbBen

Here's what I think happened:

1. In November 2017 Lindsey and the rest of the band reach an impasse as Lindsey requests that they delay their tour to Nov. 2018
2. With Petty having passed away and Mike Campbell now available, Stevie and Mick plan to fire Lindsey, but with Musicares scheduled must wait for the moment

I don’t believe Tom’s death and Mike’s subsequent availability was a significant factor in Lindsey getting fired. At most, it may have caused Stevie to have a moment of clarity about wanting to be happy, but there were underlying issues that had nothing to do with Tom. It was pretty clear, at least to me, that there was a battle brewing with this tour last summer, months before Tom’s death, when Mick and Stevie started getting into the deep cuts while Lindsey couldn’t fake enthusiasm for taking a break from LBCM (new music) to play a festival show with Fleetwood Mac (same old, same old). Delayed tour, solo album getting delayed, concurrent tour, not signing on the dotted line...None of us know exactly what happened, but the story line going back to 2013, but even more so last summer, made it clear that things weren’t good in Fleetwood Mac.

It’s unfortunate Mike Campbell became available, but there were other legendary, iconic guitarists available if Tom hadn’t died. They could have easily gotten Jimmy Page. He’s not doing anything major without Led Zeppelin and he’d LOVE to be back on the arena rock circuit. His first phone call would have been to his travel agent to get him on the next flight to Maui and his second phone call would’ve been to Robert Plant to say “blow me.”

One thing's for sure: They should never have let him delay his solo album and tour if they knew they were going to fire him regardless.

I don’t think they had any control over his album getting delayed. IIRC, the original plan was Lindsey’s album was going to be released in early 2018, he was going to do a spring tour, and be back with the Mac for the current tour, but the label decided to delay the album.