S. Crow wanted to join Fleetwood Mac

[blinker12]

I just got access to a new music news database (Celebrity Access) at work, and found the following story. It offers a new twist on the rumours about Sheryl Crow joining Fleetwood Mac: apparently she called Mick Fleetwood last winter and asked to join the band... Mick turned her down!

Fleetwood Mac Says No To Sheryl Crow
Posted: Mon., Dec. 03, 2001 01:44:04 PM MST
As press reports saying that Sheryl Crow would be joining Fleetwood Mac as the new lead singer replacing Christine McVie, who has left the group, began widely circulating, Crow did what any curious singer would do. She phoned Mick Fleetwood and apparently offered to join the group. However, she was turned down.

"Sheryl called me and expressed an interest in joining the band following lots of speculation in the American press about it," Fleetwood said, according to the World Entertainment News Network. "Sheryl already has a very close relationship with our band member Stevie Nicks and was keen to join our ship, but I told her there isn't room for another member. Sheryl is a great songwriter and an accomplished keyboard player, but we don't need anyone else."

[chiliD]

Well, I can see both sides of this controversy.

One side: Christine quit, there IS a vacancy...Mick's a big friggin' hypocrite by saying "there's no room for another member"...hell, there isn't...if Christine wanted back in, you bet Mick'd be doing cartwheels to have her back...and Sheryl would be a perfect fit to fill the vacancy. The "three front" person format would be kept intact. The variety of three very different styles of songwriters would be intact. Sheryl, being more of a multi-instrumentalist would be a BIG plus to the way the band presents itself. The band will probably hire extra folks for the tour, anyway, so why not Sheryl as one of them?

Other side: Gives Lindsey & Stevie a chance to rekindle their Buckingham Nicks thing with an infinitely better rhythm section, plus a more familiar and financially rewarding moniker. But, anyway, they sure as hell won't tour as just the four of them, they'll hire some additional folks to fill out the sound.


Maybe THIS album and tour might not be the RIGHT time for Sheryl to join; possibly for the subsequent (if there is one) album.

[BLY]

For the next album? Im trying to control myself here.

[Les]

I sort of wonder about the verasity of that blurb. It's written in fairly classic gossip column style. Sheryl and Mick have both said at least a couple of times each in the last year or so that there were never any plans from FM's side or from Sheryl's side to have her join the band. Aside from Sheryl's friendship with Stevie to link her to the band, Mick and Sheryl also both seemed a little perplexed why this story kept coming up over and over, even after several denials.

Maybe the only "controversy" is who kept telling the story that Mick and Sheryl both kept having to deny?

[Skylark]

chiliD! You sure hit the "nail on the head" this time!!!
The Mac is becoming verry dis-tressing! This old comedy
just goes on and on and on!!! Yikes! Ad-nauseum!!! Sky

[bjk3047]

I agree with Les. I remember very well reports such as this, going so far as to quote Mick, but never quoting Mick saying Sheryl expressed interest and turning her down. Both sides simply denied the union as I recall. I think I would've seen this earlier than now.
-Brian

[Johnny Stew]

I really like Sheryl, and I've loved her production work on Stevie's songs, but I'm not the least bit disappointed that she won't be the newest member of Fleetwood Mac. (Not that I believe she was ever truly in the running.)

I think one of the things that made the Christine-Lindsey-Stevie dynamic so interesting, was the unique element that they each brought to the equation.
Their musical styles are so dissimilar, and yet they compliment each other beautifully.

I don't think Sheryl's music is that far off of what Stevie and Lindsey can do on their own, or together... so I don't see what she could really add to the band, that would make this a musical match made in heaven.
I think it would have simply come off as a redundancy.

But that's just my two cents.



Johnny Stew

[Gypsy-Rhiannon]

I'm sorry....but personally I don't believe for a minute that Sheryl wanted to join FM. Mick just loves to get people talking and buzzing about stuff. She seems more than happy with her solo career. As I said way back when I can see her 'guesting' which would be pretty cool...JMO

Pip

[blinker12]

Les,
I know, I wondered about the blurb's veracity too. I never saw anything in the US press to the effect that Sheryl wanted to join. So it's possible that it's made up.
However, from what I've gathered about this service (Celebrity Access), they're a pretty respectable database that's used a lot by industry insiders and concert promoters. Maybe this bit of news circulated in the UK and abroad but not here. After all, Mick makes mention of the "US press" as if it were a foreign entity.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sheryl did call and express an interest. I mean, I doubt she was begging and pleading, but maybe she just said to Mick, "hey, I've been thinking about all these rumours; maybe it would be cool if I joined Mac!"
Personally, I'm glad she didn't join. She's too much of a personality in her own right, I think, to work as a true band member.
By the way, Celebrity Access also lists artists' agents and their fees for live shows. For the record, Stevie's performance fee is $50,000 - $250,000 (upper amount for corporate events); Fleetwood Mac's is $500,000 to $1,500,000 (but they're listed as being on extended hiatus).
Justin

[CarneVaca]

This is just another sad example of what Fleetwood Mac has become: not a band, but rather an embarrassing tale of gossip and intrigue that has nothing to do with music. These people keep feeding us little tidbits of half- or non-truths just to get the fans in a tizzy, just to keep them hanging on rather than concentrating on what ultimately every fan truly wants: more music.

Sheryl Crow joining Fleetwood Mac would have been a joke of major proportions. Yeah, just what Lindsey needs, another huge ego to gang up on him with I-want-you-to-believe-I'm-so-sweet-though-I'm-really-anything-but Stevie. And we all know Mr. Buckingham is no slouch in the ego department. Fleetwood Mac does not need Sheryl Crow and vice versa. Let them stay in their own corners. What would it mean? Fleetwood Mac getting on stage to play "All I Wanna Do?" No thanks. Let Sheryl stick to Central Park gigs to fill the pockets of the fat cats at American Express.

And why dismiss the idea that she might have wanted to join? I can understand the skepticism, considering the source -- Mick, who has been known to distort the truth on occasion. But let's face it, Sheryl had hit a creative block before she finished her latest, rather uninteresting album. So joining the band would have been a great way out for her. And working with Lindsey and the gang would have gotten her creative juices flowing again.

I guess ultimately we should ask ourselves, who cares? Just give us the music and cut this nonsense. Somebody ought to muzzle that tall doofus of a drummer before he says anything else stupid.

[itsmeangie]

"Fleetwood Mac does not need Sheryl Crow and vice versa"

i agree. i do like sheryl crow (not enough to buy the new album) but i think she should just keep doing her own thing. she's a good musician but i don't think she could really offer the mac anything interesting. and while technically there is a vacancy, they don't really need sheryl (or anyone BUT christine) to fill it, atleast not in the form of a new band member.

"Somebody ought to muzzle that tall doofus of a drummer before he says anything else stupid"

unfortunately i don't think there's any stopping him

*angie

[Les]

Hi Carne,

My only question is: Did this information truly originate from "these people?" Mick and Sheryl have both denied these claims on more than one occasion - and in Sheryl's case, more recently than December when this blurb was apparently published. The nameless/ faceless entity that operates as the "entertainment press" attributes quotes to people all the time that those people never said. I'm not one to stand up for some of Mick's tactics, but in this case, I'm not especially convinced that this should be attributed to him.

By the way, are you Pedro from way back??

[CarneVaca]

Les, shhhhh. Don't tell anybody. But yes. I can't believe you remember me. Didn't I antagonize a bunch of people back then too?

You make some valid points, but let me draw on my own experience as a former reporter. Never did I make up a quote or intentionally misquote someone. Yet I was accused of doing both on occasion. And there's not one reporter I know who hasn't dealt with that. Here's the problem: People during interviews will make remarks before realizing what they're saying. A reporter who is alert will say, "So what you're saying is..." You probably have seen that plenty of times with the more skilled interviewers on TV. That gives the person a chance to recant the statement on the spot. If they don't, well, then it's fair game. Another issue is that the written word has a lot more power than the spoke word for the most part. So when you read something you said you may realize that your statement was a lot stronger than you meant it to be or that you didn't quite say what you meant. Happens all the time. Just think of all the trouble I got myself into here for wording my posts so strongly. Yet in oral communication, a lot of what I said would have been shrugged off. I see people at work getting pissed off at each other all the time after misinterpreting the tone of an e-mail. You've probably seen that too.

Of course not all reporters are 100 percent ethical.

And lastly, let's not forget these celebrity folks have pretty well-oiled PR machines working for them. And as anyone who has had to deal with PR people knows, PR often has very little to do with the truth. So Mick or Sheryl or both might have been intentionally stirring up a pot by initimating something that they fully intended to deny later. I've seen that happen too.

[Les]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by CarneVaca
Les, shhhhh. Don't tell anybody. But yes. I can't believe you remember me. Didn't I antagonize a bunch of people back then too?

Hehe, yes...that's part of what made me recall.

You make some valid points, but let me draw on my own experience as a former reporter. Never did I make up a quote or intentionally misquote someone.

I agree for the most part about journalists because reputation is all you have when reporting information, so you want and need to be reputable. I just have a slightly more jaundiced eye when it comes to those "entertainment" releases that are not attributable to anyone in particular and give you no sense of when, where, how, etc... There have been occasions where I heard, with my own ears, an interview where an artist said one thing, but then saw it reported as something different in an entertainment gossip column. This just has the potential to fall into that kind of area for me. Had this been written by Robert Hilburn or Timothy White or David Wild, then I'd be ever so much more inclined to believe it.

Another issue is that the written word has a lot more power than the spoke word for the most part. So when you read something you said you may realize that your statement was a lot stronger than you meant it to be or that you didn't quite say what you meant.

Sure, but what is one to believe when all of the other reported statements from Mick on this matter, in print, indicated that Sheryl never even made the offer, and Sheryl herself says that too?

So Mick or Sheryl or both might have been intentionally stirring up a pot by initimating something that they fully intended to deny later. I've seen that happen too.

Certainly a distinct possibility...

[Johnny Stew]

Personally, I think Mick is directly responsible for every bit of gossip i've ever heard about *any* band.
The dude lives for this stuff!




Johnny Stew