Scathing interview by Ken Caillat
 

Explosive Ken Caillat Interview: Famed Fleetwood Mac Producer Recounts Turmoil

Famed Fleetwood Mac Producer Recounts the Turmoil and Triumphs of ‘Rumours’

"Were the band members asked to participate?
I got a call back from the management, and he said, “Lindsey might write his own book, so he has asked the band not to support you and the book.” They basically said, “No. We’re not going to do the book.”

"Christine McVie has read the book now, and she told me that she loved it. Christine said that I brought passion back into the music for her and brought back so many memories. She’s the only real sweetheart in the group. The rest of them are all fighting with each other."

Christine might’ve given you an interview to use in the book.
"Right. But, Fleetwood Mac is a very complex group. I talked to Warner Bros. the other day. I was working on footage for the enhanced book and they used the “F” word, saying, “You know, Fleetwood Mac is just a nightmare."

"At the time, Christine said she would definitely do an interview. Then, she asked if anyone else in the band had given one. I said, “Well, honestly, no. Lindsey said he didn’t want them doing it because he said he might want one day to do a book himself.” Christine said, “I don’t want to go against anybody else.”

"There was no responsibility for anybody to take care of anybody else, but they are rich and some of the people like Judy Wong … she was found in her apartment after being dead for a week. Judy did everything for Christine McVie and the band, and for her not to be given whatever she needed … she died toothless. "

"Ray Lindsey, a roadie, works for Conan. He said, “Ken, I’m kind of haunted by this. I feel like I want to write a book to tell about it and to get the demons out of my head.” Richard said that they’ve pretty much abandoned him. He would work for Lindsey three years straight without getting a check. He just took advantage of him. So, Richard, being a pretty sensitive guy, just sold and gave away every piece of Fleetwood Mac memorabilia he had."

"I used to be able to call Mick or Stevie directly, but now I get someone else who answers and says, “Who’s this? Oh yeah, you’re the guy from 20 years ago.”

"Do you know of any plans for Fleetwood Mac to reunite for a tour?"
"Nope. I don’t think so. I did a Christine McVie album in 2003, and I suggested that before Fleetwood Mac ever goes on the next tour maybe they should go into the studio and record a few songs from Christine’s 2005 album. It would be really great because it would be the first Fleetwood Mac/Christine songs in a long time, and it would break through to the radio."

"Christine loved the idea. But, who knows? I told that to Mick, but he has no power over anybody. If Stevie thinks that Lindsey thought of something first, she’ll say ‘no,’ and vice versa. They could be doing so well, you know? If they had only listened to me, they could be doing so well. They’re just people. They have ups and downs, and quite honestly, they’re all down now. They could make a lot of people happy if they’d just cut the crap and just be human beings, not anything special."

"They’re not friggin’ special, and their crap stinks like everybody else’s, goddamit! They need to just get it through their heads. They need to knock it off and just be real. Nobody gets to put anybody down with power trips."

"I got a message on Facebook saying, “I love this book. Would you please write Tusk?” I actually started writing Tusk. I’m only about ten pages in, but I’m not sure I’m really that excited about doing it because it’s going to be a little more negative than this one. I think this book is pretty light with a loving look at music."

Read the full interview at Smashinginterviews

http://smashinginterviews.com/interv...phs-of-rumours

Read the full interview. there is lots more than this. This is edited

Shouldn't this be in the Rumours forum?

it sounds like sour grapes too me......Is he complaining that no one from FM wants to help him market his own book?? :distress:

I think it's more than sour grapes. Ken is just saying the exact same things which Mick himself recently said in his scathing Playboy interview. Even Stevie & Lindsey have said the same things about Fleetwood Mac. They all blame each other, but no one is willing to take responsibility & put their pride aside. It's unfortunate. I feel like Fleetwood Mac probably has died it's final death, & that the possibility of a new, great studio album is dead too. I dearly hope I'm wrong, though. :)

If it's true that:

1. Christine didn't want to go against the rest of the band, and

2. Christine was open to the idea of recording some of her solo songs with FM,

Then, I'm happy.

Michele

haha "scathing"... I enjoyed it for sure. I definitely think Ken has many valid points. I think he, like many of us, are a bit tired of the senselessness of some of the things the band does. They just need to be a band and get on with it. The bits about Dashut were extremely disheartening... but hey, we're only getting Kens side of the story. Even if Lindsey, Stevie, and John were to all wrote their own books, I don't reckon we'll ever really know the full truth. ;)

That's long been confirmed, hasn't it? :shrug: I thought Chris was just opposed to touring, which is why she was not allowed to record with FM for SYW.

Really kind of shocked about Judy Wong. Just....wow.

Well, this was true during the SYW recording process. Ken's comments make it sound like it was also true some time after that. I like to think it's a continued openness.

Michele

Wow, Ken...just wow!

Petty and small...same as he paints the band members. :sorry: The goat, once again, is... the envelope please! :lol: So Ken was just sucking up at the Tech Awards? Didn't pay off the way he expected? :shrug:

Poor Judy. Poor Rich. Poor Ray. The band just takes advantage of people then dumps them. Band members don't support former employees for life?:eek: That sucks. :(

As part of the FM family I wonder if Ken's sharing his book royalties with Rich, or Ray, or any of the other people who've been left in the dust by the band?

I had the same thought at first too...but when was the last time Judy was associated with FM? Early 80s? And even then, her really prime involvement, I believe, was a decade prior. Sure, it would have been nice to think that they had some sort of relationship with Judy up until the end of her life, but how do we know they didn't?

I also read somewhere that Mick/the band payed for her entire funeral. Could be a case of "too little, too late," or maybe they did have a good relationship up until the end. I don't know.

As much as I can't wait to read Ken's book, and respect Ken, I don't think it's fair for the band to be expected to take care of former employees, decades after employment ended. Just because they have the money, doesn't mean it's their money, too!

I hope that Ray really didn't work for 3 years without a check! Now, if that's true, they should at least make that right.

I wasn't aware that Ray was no longer with them...does anyone know what happened???

Well, this was interesting.

So basically, Lindsey's writing a book. Christine is interested in recording with the band and basically doesn't want to do anything against their wishes. Everyone sucks at communicating and they all are horrible to the people they used to work with - except for Christine, the only sweet one.

So wait.. does this mean that Stevie won't do something if Lindsey wants to do it (and vice versa) or that Stevie won't do something UNLESS Lindsey wants to (and vice versa)?

I remember LB and Stevie mentioning it was Ray's last show during the last SYW show.

I think it was Richard who went 3 years w/o a check.

I think the band does owe something to employees, especially long-term ones. Especially Judy. She arranged the band's first US tour back in '68, she brought Bob Welch into the fold, she was a major part of the band during the heyday...You take care of people who take care of you.

I agree. Even though simple charity would prompt you to help someone if you can, to keep them from being homeless, you can't support them indefinitely. If you paid them fairly when they were with you, that's about all you can be expected to do.

I don't know, but even after he'd stopped working for Lindsey he showed up when Lindsey first started promoting his GOS album, to help for a couple of those first appearances. Then, I haven't seen him around since.

Michele

They won't do anything that the other one wants to do, if they think it was the other one's idea.:laugh:

But wait, shouldn't that mean that the fact that Lindsey doesn't want any of them to speak to Ken would cause Stevie to really want to give Ken an interview?

Michele

Lindsey has too much dirt on her. :laugh:

That's was my thinking haha.

There's no telling with these guys, I suppose. :D

Richard doesn't get royalties for work he did as co-producer and co-writer? Who was paying all his bills for those 3 years? :confused:

People with the band should take care of one another, as Mick says. But if anybody owed Judy Wong it was Mick. I guess, Christine, too. According to Ken, Judy did everything for Chris. Why do I get the impression Ken feels other members owe the people forgotten by the band?

Well, he didn't have to pay much rent, since he and Lindsey were still roomies. In the end they gave him pie, lots of whip cream and a watch. I'm sure he was happy.

Of course, his writer/producer royalties wouldn't even be coming from FM anyway.


Michele

Yes, but that duty has to end at some point. When was Judy last even involved with FM?

The part that makes it seem like sour grapes to me is where he says, "they're all down now." Really? Yes, Mick seems to be having some issues, as he does from time to time. I bet John is happy sailing his boat somewhere. Lindsey seems to be enjoying his solo work. Stevie is probably as happy as she's ever been. We all have things we would like to see Fleetwood Mac do, but, like all of us, they have to live their lives for themselves, not for their former associates.

Who says it has to end? The Grateful Dead actually have a pension plan for their roadies. You certainly don't let somebody who was THAT important die toothless!

As for Judy's involvement, there was a pic of her in the 1990 tourbook.

Well, what are they all afraid of then? Why isn't everybody writing books and dishing the dirt to exorcise the demons like Carol Ann Harris did? :shrug:

Lindsey was receptive to Stevie's idea to go to Paris during Unleashed. In fact, he garnered a big compliment from Stevie that he was being his "very lovely self" and said "Ok, we'll got to Paris." He had to know it was her idea since she had been adamant enough to say she was going to Paris if she had to go by herself and sing on the street corner. :laugh: She must have got him on a really good day.

They don't have a superstar daughter and still have to worry about getting/keeping work :shrug:

In other words, somebody offered the band a helluva lotta money.

I found Ken's change of tune regarding Chris to be rather intriguing. He was just saying less than a year ago how cold & even strange Christine has become- how he wasn't allowed in the room when her dogs were eating, stuff like that. I wonder why Christine is suddenly the saint, while the rest of the band are evil? :shrug:

If I interpreted the response Ken got correctly, it doesn't mean "Lindsey is writing a book." It means "Take a hike, buddy. I'm his manager now and I'm not even going to pass on your request to him. I'm in power and I'll decide whether and when Lindsey Buckingham does anything for you." Lindsey's not writing any book.

He has a bitchy little manager--as do the others--who functions exactly the way mid-management functions in a big company: as a buffer, as a way of keeping the rank-and-file employees (meaning old colleagues, fans, and press) at a great distance.

Stevie, too. She has proved over and over (like yesterday on TV) that she herself is a sweet, affable person. But that is not her management, and has never been. They are little twerps whose purpose is to keep people out. Whatever the girl's name is (Karen?), she is a nobody who has been given great power to abuse people's starry-eyed love, and who very successfully buffers her boss from anyone she chooses. She is a mid-manager: she doesn't produce the product and she doesn't create the vision for the product. She's just the Human Resources woman, monitoring behavior.

Ken is just extremely frustrated with the management surrounding the group. On the one hand, I don't blame him, but on the other, he himself has been in the business so long, he ought to be used to it. He also probably had buffers around him during the Rumours years.

Exactly...

If Lindsey is writing a book, he sure is really quiet about it. He could be shy or perhaps, he doesn't want the other band members to know. If he says nothing about his plans, they won't think twice when they see him sitting in a corner battering away at his Smith Corona.

Maybe it will be a collection of all of his song introductions and it will end with Sardonic World.

I'm very proud of the way he can make all of the rest of them shut up and not talk to Ken, just because he says so. Like a boss, Buck.

Michele

Maybe Ken is wearing better looking shirts now.

Michele

This is a most entertaining thread.

Perhaps Ken's new relationship with Christine is
the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I personally witnessed Lindsey tell
him time and time again...

I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday.

Yeah, well. Paris is one thing, but you don't see a BN remaster do you? That's because both of them thinks the other wants it.:cool:

Michele

So if Mick isn't in charge, who is? I hope that they make plans to do whatever they want, either with their solo things, or the group thing, But I don't like hearing that their pissed at one another, or angry. I thought Lindsey and Stevie were in a happy place, mutual admiration society again. Keep the love the music will come in time.

Whose your favorite singer?:D

They may say that but a decades long history dictates that it won't last 15 minutes if and when they begin actively working together again.

Whomever has to edit that thing is going to have a Herculean task on their hands. :laugh:

I find it intriguing he says the rest of the band have basically blown him off. They don't take his calls. He can't get tickets. Then he turns around and says Stevie talked to him about making her latest album.:confused:

How did her obnoxious handlers ever let that happen?:eek:

Their lawyers...

Most likely, Stevie's. Face it,:mad:, they all have to bow to her wishes....

He was probably referring to TISL.