Lindsey discusses his firing (Rolling Stone)

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

I don’t believe Tom’s death and Mike’s subsequent availability was a significant factor in Lindsey getting fired.

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.”
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I agree Tom's death is not a factor, despite many wanting to make it one.

But....Jimmy Page?? I mean, yeah, I guess if he didn't care what he played and just wanted to get back on a posh tour (reminds me of an interview with Michael Caine talking about various movies he'd done and why he'd done them and he said about certain films "I did it for the money" or "I did it because I wanted to work with a certain director and didn't care that the movie wasn't that good"). (to be clear, I think FM's music is good...duh!) Otherwise, I can't realllllly see Jimmy Page being a support player for a twirling chick -- both onstage and offstage, as she is indeed now effectively running the band and calling the shots.

Also, musically, I just don't see his playing fitting their hits. Sure, the old FM blues stuff, but really, you can imagine him trying to adapt his style to play the required bits on Dreams, Gypsy, Never Going Back Again, Little Lies, etc etc??????? Before anyone freaks, I'm not saying he can't play the songs, but the guitar parts on any FM song are more melodic and integrated into supporting the song, not about showing off scorching solos, and don't have big, driving chords (esp not Stevie's songs, where he'd essentially be playing the same one or two chords throughout).