Accessible FM members
 

How cool is technology these days, that I've had ~real time~ online discussions with Rick Vito, Bekka Bramlett, and Bob Welch? Just been trading comments with Rick, on his new signature guitar line, that Reverent Guitars put out.
http://www.reverendguitars.com/rever...signature.html
Of course the technology isn't what makes those members accessible. It's just the natural, humble nature of the artists. I can't imagine Stevie, Lindsey, or my beloved Christine, ever bothering to do that!
FWIW, I'm also FB friends with John and Billy Brunette, but they don't post much, and I'd hate to feel like I might be bothering them.

I love it when heroes turn out to be real people!:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

well, Ken Caillat always engages in conversations with people on both FB and especially twitter. just had a long back-forth with him this morning.

i guess others may be either older / less technology or social networking prone, or just don't want to be openly out there (think Prince's twitter acct under pseudonym). but i have to say if you meet Lindsey in person he is every bit as nice, accessible, generous, open, and engaging as one might wish him to be.

Tom Petty (or whoever it is that runs his social media stuff, if it's not himself I guess?) always responds to people, and so does Dave Stewart.

It's always nice when people are open and friendly and approachable, be it online or in person!

Well, and I understand that Stevie can't do that. She wouldn't have a moments peace! Lindsey could, but his personality isn't suited for it, and Christine just wants to be left alone. Fwiw, Bekka is the absolute sweetest soul in the world! She's always on facebook, either trying to find a lost dog, or trying to organize people to purchase window fans, for the poor and elderly. The whole world could learn a huge lesson from her. Shes as down to Earth as they come.:)

I really don't understand this automatic correlation between being accessible on social media and being "down to earth" and "humble." If Stevie, Lindsey and Christine choose not to be active on social media, more power to them! Maybe it's because they have each attained a level of professional and personal fulfillment such that they do not feel the need to go fishing for adoration on the interwebs. Sure, I think it would be cool if they were more "accessible," but I think it's also cool that they pretty much want to be left the f*** alone. And let's face it... Ricky, Billy, Bekka and the other Fleetwood Mac castoffs have a "manageable" fan base, i.e., they have small followings, so they are able to allot personal time for their fans. It would be an utter sh**show if Stevie, Lindsey or Christine attempted to do something in real time since their followings are orders of magnitude greater.

It might be more manageable if they did something like that on a regular basis, maybe once every six months. That way it wouldn't seem so 'once in a lifetime' and that every fan better try to log in Now and talk to them.

No offense intended, but you're not a very happy person, are you?
My intent wasn't to point out that SN, LB, and CM don't have to "mingle", but to point out how positive some of the other members can be. I was pointing out that Bekka is an absolute ray of sunshine, to the human species. And that Rick and Bob are open and accessible...
My glass is always half full...

I know Christine was going to have that Q & A on her website and we probably bombarded her with so many queries all at the same time that she ran back into her manor and shut the door for good.

Michele

LOL :lol:
I think I read somewhere that Chris doesn't like computers and she only occasionally use it to send Lindsey and Stevie some e-mails. Not because she doesn't want to communicate with fans, but because I don't think a 69 years old woman is really interested in technology. When she was young mobile phones, computers, Iphone, Ipad, Ipod, laptop and others electronic devilry didn't exists, so it's difficult for an adult/old person to become friendly with it if they're not forced to use it for work.

I posted something in reference to Bekka on Facebook a month or so ago and she sent me a nice message completely out of the blue, thanking me for my compliments. It was/is one of the coolest things that's happened in my life.

Matt

And she was on there last week, trying to rally people to buy window fans for the elderly. She's really something else.
The world is truly a better place with her in it! :):):):):)

I'd love to be Bekka's FB friend, but I think she hit her max. It doesn't even offer the option.

I think Barry suggested to her
to stay away from us crazies. And
we all know how much she respects
Barry.


At this point in their careers, I think it
would be wise for all of them to be a little
more accessible. That is, if they care? But
something tells me they don't.

WHO is Barry?

http://gallery.socionix.com/d/49908-...08_450x424.jpg

Only the man who brought back sexy...

Oh! Barry is a joke!!! My dumb ass thought that it may have been some advisor, whose name I had never heard before.

Oh, I'm sure it's always half full... half full of it. :p Go on, go ahead and make your inference about me... I really don't care. But back to the matter at hand, I was referencing your *slight* dig at Christine, Stevie and Lindsey in which you stated that they couldn't be bothered to reach to their fans. And I merely defended their right. I am not saying the former members of FM are bad people... I am merely implying that they, um, have smaller careers and accordingly probably have more time on their hands to devote to online social activities.

What I think what happen with these older artists.I'm probably wrong.All the internet pirates scared the daylites out of them years ago .also today too.They dont trust the internet like Stevie keeps on memtioning internet piracy in her interviews.I'm glad Dave Stewart is into the digital world and some how probably had talks with Stevie about making her feel alittle better about the internet.Also the older artists are old fashion and dont like the new high tech world.Me .I can't stand cell phones.But I have a cheap Trac-phone for emergencies only.John M's into it.Ken's into it.as mention.

It would be great to chat with your favorite artists online.

IF I was a artist.I would love to chat with my fans.

Have a good night, Ed.

Well whether it's due to their distaste for modern media or the size of their fanbase, we simply can't expect to personally interact with all the members of the Mac on Facebook. Still, I think Fleetwood Mac is a band whose members care about their fans. There are lots of ways they can show their appreciation (Stevie does her Edge walk, for example, which to this day is still totally cool to me). Sometimes we get carried away and want to think of them as uncaring and blame them personally because Mirage hasn't been remastered or whatever, but I hear lots of positive things about fans' interactions with all of them.

Y'all got the wrong Barry.

If you need a picture of Barry, I bet
Michelej has one she can post of the
three of us at the Wiltern Theater a
few years back.

Barry of course can be heard on the
infamous limo tapes. Those tapes
will give you a clue of just how important
he's been to the various members of the
Mac. And unfortunately to Stevie, how
he influenced the direction of Street Angel.

So I'm guessing he had LOTS of blow?

That's where the artist needs to just give the time they know they can to it and not worry about the volume of requests. Even being scheduled to answer an hour of questions per year would mean a lot to fans.

Also, if they secretly don't want to deal with fans, they are in a position to hire someone to answer the mail for them and even "pretend" to be them if they prefer that route. Not that I'd like that but in reality I'm sure it happens all the time and assuming they'd hire a personal assistant type to do this, any questions that they can't answer themselves they could always just ask S/L/C on the way to where ever and they could make a note of the answer then send the reply when they get back (and that's assuming it's on paper and not Facebook/Twitter/whatever which is probably is so I'm sure the PA could even just send the answer to the person on their phone or whatever, must admit I don't know how all that works but even outside of that it sure sounds do-able to me but it's JMHO). :)

John

I'd love it too, if I was famous! :thumbsup:
Well, it seems that men are more into tech than women, as always... :(
Can you imagine Chris playing "Guitar Hero" or other games with Xbox or Playstation sitting on the couch with her dogs and a glass of Dom Perignon? :D

No. Musicians tend to suck at GH and the like. I heard Rush had one of the lowest scores ever recorded.

Yes, now the online chat Christine had was wonderful. You're there for a finite amount of time and there's only so many questions you can answer. So, you don't feel bombarded, the way you do if questions are collected from fans over a period of months. In a chat, the moderator says it's over and you don't have to be the one to end it. You're just in and out of there.

Michele

Since that is the case, that's why I feel more artists should participate in an online chat. I guess some people would say I am wrong for saying that. I feel that any artist could take a couple of hours once or twice a year to do that.

Especially since we always hear how life on the road is a lot of waiting around in hotels, lonely etc. so why not haul out the laptop, nothin' else to do right? :)

John

You know, I've been thinking about stardom, and how it changes people...

So I do sound for what I'd call mid-level acts. Acts that sell 300-3000 tickets. So what I've really been thinking about is how much some of them change, even from tour to tour. I did sound for a fairly big country name, last Friday. I did the same band, last summer(when they were still fairly fresh and new), and the whole entourage was FAR more friendly, a year ago(and I've witnessed this quite a few times). It's like "stardom" has made them guarded and distant, and avoid much personal contact.
Another example....Hank Williams III. When he first started, 10 or so years ago, he helped carry gear, and was just a regular Joe. A couple years later, he was much more guarded, and the last time I worked for him, he was so distant. NOTHING like the guy I initially met.
So yeah, I'm rambling here, but I guess my point is, that I can't imagine what 40 years of touring, and avoiding people, would manifest itself...
It doesn't happen to everyone, but it seems like it does to most of them.....

(pardon the ramble)

Although I have no first-hand experience, I'm sure everything you say is true. Unfortunately, when stars begin acting guarded I think we all tend to think it's because success has gone to their head and they have become egomaniacs, and sometimes that's exactly what it is. But in a lot of cases, I bet it's just because they've been used and/or betrayed by people they thought they could trust. Certainly Fleetwood Mac had its share of hangers-on over the years.

I agree with you, John :) and still I wonder why men do it and women not...

that's because playing the guitar in Guitar Hero is NOTHING like playing a real guitar. Most real guitarists, and good guitarists, suck at it. I would expect Lindsey to totally suck at it and would be disappointed otherwise.

Now the drums in Rock Band are actually quite realistic....and super hard to play.

Yeah, the GH guitar is very different from a real one, and when you are used to play a real guitar you may find it difficult having to press buttons instead of different chords. The RB drums are "almost" similar to the real ones (the plates are missing), but can you imagine Mick playing it? :D


Or Chris playing the piano on 2 iPad via Pianist Pro? Naaaa, NEVER! :D

Two or three years ago I ordered CD's from Rick Vito's website and he offered to autograph them for me, no charge.

I obviously jumped at that chance, and he not only signed them all, he individualized each one and offered to sign any other CD's of his (FM material included), all I had to do was send it to him.

We exchanged emails a few times, general type stuff and found him to be a really down to earth, accessible, friendly guy who definitely/genuinely cares about his fans.

Great guy in my opinion.

I do agree about humble nature, specially after reading all those short laconic and succinct.. almost reluctant answers at the Ask Stevie section of the nicksfix.com (after all, I think nobody forced her to open that section, so what did she agree?:confused: I never understood, it was like she didn't enjoy answering, then why??), I think your comment applies specially on Stevie.

But on the other hand, can you imagine going to every place and everybody wants to tell you Hello!!, ask for a picture (or just take them without asking you), an autograph, touch you, hug you, etc.? Almost impossible to run some errands alone, stop at a gas station, hang around in Disney World, walk in your street with your dog, enter the Louvre museum, walk in Sunset Blvd., enjoy the sand in Venice beach etc..

Bekka, Rick and the others weren't that famous (maybe Bob was), and their fame momentum were shorter than the Rumours lineup singers. I guess Lindsey, Stevie, Chris, got reeeeally tired of fame during the 70s and 80s. Oversaturated actually. So I'm not surprised they are not accesible at all.

I like to go Broadway theatres every time I go to NYC. Once I saw Tom Hanks with Rita and their sons. He was very serious and entered and left the theatre thru a backstage door (even at intermission) so there was llitle chance to contact him. I just saw him few seconds. Of cours he didn't want to be annoyed. Of course I didn't try to reach him for an autograph or something. I considered it completely inaapropiate.

The 2nd time I saw a movie star was again at a Broadway theatre. It was Whoopi Goldberg. She remained seated during the intermissions (2 friends at her sides) but she was very smiling and friendly so I dared to ask her for an autograph and she signed it for me, very kind.

Yes you are right, there are people and people. But I wouldn't blame on Tom, Stevie, Christine, Prince Charles, etc. I can't imagine how difficult their life must be, in many aspects.

Privacy is something I would never give up (as freedom). In fact privacy is a kind of freedom.

I totally agree with you, Villavic! Great post and you did the right thing choosing not to follow Tom Hanks for an autograph. Whoopi as always was so sweet :o
When you love an artist you must respect his/her privacy and think about what you'd do if you were famous too and you couldn't even go in your backyard or at the bathroom without fans or paparazzi following you everywhere, trying to enter in your house, trying to kiss and touch you, always asking for autographs or photos...I'd go crazy! O_o