Dennis Dunstun interview
 

I just listened to this podcast and it is very informative. Dennis was with FM for many years and helped manage the band til 1997. He has great stories to tell from past and present, plus a lot of great info about the music business in general. The most surprising thing and there are several, was that Mick went to Australia to visit Dennis 6 months before letting Lindsey go and asked his advice about Neil Finn. Mike Campbell had already been tapped by Stevie. Which is much earlier than I thought. Dennis was told Lindsey wanted to delay the tour to work on a solo project and that with Lindsey nothing gets done quickly. Also that Stevie didn't want to work with him anymore, which we already knew.

Thanks for posting. Dennis was very close with the band. I can only imagine the stories he could tell. Not that it matters but his interview reveals Buckingham's termination was crafted much earlier than we thought.
Did not Stevie say she never hired Mike or suggested him in some defense of the Buckingham firing debacle? No one believed that anyway.
Witchy woman sowed those seeds early on she was out unless Lindsey was gone.

My favorite Dennis scene is the Red Rocks RAL concert where Stevie is running around slapping hands back stage and he is trying to get her on stage. He has to grab her and point where the stage is.

It was over for Lindsey the minute he and the rest of the band decided to release the BuckVie project without Stevie. Before Christine's return, Lindsey/Mick/John could jam all they want and ask Stevie to participate until the cows came home, but they really didn't have a Fleetwood Mac project unless Stevie decided to join. Those dynamics completely changed the minute Christine returned and I personally think Stevie knew what was coming from the minute Christine returned and knew what she wanted to do.

Also...nothing gets done quickly with Lindsey? As if Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood are the king and queens of productivity. Those two can eat sh*t in a dog bowl.

Bless Christine for choosing to return, what a treat for fans. She had to have been rolling her eyes to realize the shear amount of drama still going on within the band upon her return.

I'd like to buy you a beer and a shot, sir.:wavey:

After the band put him in charge of security for the 1979 tour, Dennis said that he fired most of the existing security crew — except Greg Thomason (Christie’s then-husband). So who were the guys who were fired? Wayne Cody continued to work for the band through the eighties. Security for 1979 should be listed in the TUSK tour book.

I bet Dennis would do a Q&A on this site if he could market his HSCC tribute group (who have dozens of videos on YouTube). For this podcast, he was forced to share more industry practice than band stories. But if we got him for a Q&A, we could all monetize HSCC videos.

i listened to most of it last night.

my favorite part is Dennis saying how Mick is so smart in business (or something to that effect) and that Tusk tour bankruptcy was not Mick's fault.

Do you think Stevie was jealous of OR resented the Buckingham McVie album? Did Lindsey do the BuckVie project out of spite for Stevie? How did Chris feel about being caught in the crossfire?

In addition, I always wondered why Stevie, Mick, John, and Lindsey could be called "Fleetwood Mac" -- but Christine, Mick, John, and Lindsey could NOT be called "Fleetwood Mac".

Poor Chris. Selling the English countryside home, coming out of retirement, and then to be reeled back into the same old toxic drama.

I agree. I think Chris coming back to the band was the beginning of the end. And it was not hing she did, it was a power struggle between Stevie and Lindsey.

Because Mick and John allowed Stevie to call the shots and her threat of not touring with them again was used to ensure BuckVie was not Fleetwood Mac despite literally including Fleetwood, two Mac’s, and a Buckingham. They knew she put the asses in seats and with that album basically capitulated to her (and Irving) that she is Fleetwood Mac.

I guarantee Stevie not only had no material to contribute, but she had no interest because of how horrible she’s spun the recording of Say You Will years prior. And the audacity that Lindsey and Chris had to release their silly little album without her and turn her own interviews into questions about their album and “premise” further infuriated her. Then add in that she feels some odd ownership of Lindsey and is on record of being jealous of his “musical partnership” with Christine going back to the first days of their time in Fleetwood Mac. This set her off. In 2014-15, the dynamic had shifted and there was less and less focus on the Stevie and Lindsey show. Who got the biggest cheers on that tour? It was Christine. IMO all of this further fueled Stevie’s resentment and anger and finally using Christine being back to stick it to Buckingham once and for all. You can tour Fleetwood Mac without Chris. You can tour it without Lindsey. But she knew damn well they would never at this point give up the high life that touring with her allowed. Hearing that this goes back long before 2018 is the least shocking thing I’ve heard in the last five years.

He must be auditioning for a stand up act in Sydney.

All of this :thumbsup:

What I truly don't understand is... why wouldn't Stevie want to do a record with the fivesome upon Christine's return? It just seems to me that's immediately what you'd want to do. Forget her being pissed at the record industry. None of them needed whatever pennies comes from record sales nowadays. Why not do it just for the joy? Do it for one another? Do it for the "fans"? *siiiigh*

Do it for the fans…..haha this is the woman who refuses to sign autographs and if you happen to get past Karen she insists that it’s inscribed because she got pissed about people making a buck off her autograph on eBay.

And wow…all of these people in the past 10 years or so who have come out of the woodwork to schlep books or whatever their latest project to say BS like “I love Lindsey to death BUT…”

Did anyone catch how he called out Lindsey for not being a founding member of the band and not once mentioned the same thing about Stevie. Incredible.

He did say what we’ve been saying all along - as long as Mick and Stevie are in the band everyone else is replaceable….and to think this guy was at Christine’s memorial!?

Mick and Stevie must be real proud of themselves. What a pair of washed up junkies whose narcissism never ended when the drugs ended.

From everything I've heard thru different channels, this is all pretty spot on.
Don't know about the **** in the dog bowl, but I'll take your word for it. :lol:

She had nothing to contribute. It would have been all old stuff and that would’ve been known and In contrast to Chris and Lindsey who, IMO, had some
Of their best songs in decades. She has spun such a horrible tale about recording Say You Will and she simply has refused to record with Lindsey ever again. You could probably trace a ton of this back to that stupid Bob Dylan comment if we’re being honest. Sounds stupid but she’s been carrying a major grudge for over 20 years now with her varying stories of woah is me

So dumb. Stevie, Lindsey, Christine, and hell, even John McFnVie could all be included in that grouping!

Considering Lindsey recorded material in the specific keys that work best for Stevie, I don’t think any of it was resentment. He bent over backwards to accommodate her and she wanted none of it.

It’s really something when you think about what she did. She denied Christine the opportunity to make one last album with the group as a whole, she denied Lindsey and final farewell tour with Christine, she dragged the entire band into a major conflict that was largely between her and Lindsey.

She also screwed over Brett Tuggle in the middle of her power tantrum as well. A touring musician simply trying to make a living. Rest in peace, Brett.

Oh and the best part ? All in the name of a greatest hits tour that wound up starting well after Lindsey’s initial delay period. All for absolutely NOTHING.

Everyone sucks up to the old goat. God forbid you don't.

Old nasty pos...

You’re going to rile up the “i loved the 2018 show I saw. Neil was so awesome on Hypnotized. Loved seeing everyone so HaPpY! And Mike Campbell is a legend!” People.

Pretty sure the only people who don’t kiss her rump were: her parents, Lindsey (although he certainly did his fair share of coming close in the last 15 years), and Tom Petty.

JFC I already feel like the Lewis Black of Fleetwood Mac fans at this point, don’t tempt me into another rant…

The minute Stevie started complaining in an interview that the 2009 Fleetwood Mac tour was “benign” and “missing something” because her and Lindsey ::gasp:: didn’t have any conflicts….I knew then that she thrived on Fleetwood Mac / Lindsey drama. I immediately started questioning everything because when somebody feeds off drama like that, they will go to any end to create the drama if it’s not being provided for them.

Yep. Exactly. It was like she couldn’t understand how he just wanted to go out and put on a good show and not worry about rehashing their tired drama. Probably where Lindsey’s focus on his then young family and not on her nonsense really started to irk her.

Oh come on! Do it! Let me see…

Mike Campbell playing the riff on that little piano on Gypsy was so fun!
Go Your Own Way was much better with the key raised back up without a Lindsey there to ruin it.
Black Magic WOMAN allowed to be played to honor Stevie and Peter now that Lindsey was gone!
All Over Again > Songbird

I think she knows deep down inside that he and Christine both had something to offer, even in their final years of working together. BuckVie was widely well received by music fans, the press etc. Those two were still able to be working artists. Stevie is now a legacy act based upon her work from 20-30+ years ago and now she’s stuck with that legacy act schtick.

She’s apparently so embarrassed by her 80s solo work that she won’t even acknowledge her latest career spanning album box set. I guess it makes sense since she uses all her Fleetwood Mac songs to sell solo tickets.

Her solo show has basically become rehashing the same Bella Donna and Wild Heart songs with the occasional Trouble in Shangri-La tune tossed in. If I was to sit through a show I’d rather hear Rooms on Fire, I Can’t Wait, or Long Way to Go than tired versions of Gypsy, Sara, and Rhiannon.

I had several phone interactions with Dennis. Class act personified. I think I high-fived him at a Zoo show as I was leaving the venue. He even did a follow-up call after I sent Mick a VHS of Peter playing with Kolors at Rockpalast in 1985 (which also included the Rock Concert with Bob Welch).

Got some fan club stuff as a gift.

I thought it interesting but not surprising that Dennis admitted Stevie loved Micks book but it was better drama if she said she didn't. So fake and phoney. Obviously they care what they spun to the fans as long as it kept them in the spotlight

Interesting. She claims she never read it because she knew the story anyway. But even Mick wrote in his book that when she found out he was writing a book she demanded to know what was in it. Their affair was never revealed before. When he refused to tell her, she threatened legal action. But I suppose she read it and had no issues with him making her look foolish several times in it? He did not hold back.
Stevie threatened to leave the band if Lindsey's shacking up line was left in GYOW
Stevie threatened to leave the band if the album was called Tusk
Stevie dropped acid and could not find the airport to pick Mick up in Hawaii
Stevie threatened to tell Rolling Stone she had nothing to do with Tango In The Night
Stevie fell off the stage several times during her dizzy coke spins on the RAL tour
Stevie fell for the band's gag on Don Henley's card on her roses

Her whole axe to grind about Tango really tells you what a warped sense of reality she had at the time due to the drugs, but I start to wonder if even sober her recollection of the past doesn't quite line up with reality.

Being the only person in the band who didn't play an instrument must have really given her the biggest case of imposter syndrome known to man, despite the fact that she never needed to feel that way.

That's completely possible. David Bowie told about remembering nothing about the recording sessions of an album while he was pretty in coke during those days.

The comments that Christine made in the past couple of years about the band really made me pause. I've said it before, I wonder how much was exaggerated as each passing year occurred, especially in the minds of Stevie and Lindsey. And now we're finding out band members were told how they should react to Mick's book...

I don’t think I thought about it that much. I enjoyed the storm.… Even though I am quite a peaceful person, I did enjoy that storm. Although it’s said that we fought a lot, we actually did spend a lot of our time laughing. So, that must have been forgotten. Great sense of humor.

There weren’t that many fights. When you think about it, we really did not fight that much. There were moments when it got a bit beefy, but all in all we got on really quite well.

Yes, time makes the heart grow fonder, but Christine has never been one to sugar coat anything.

Did anyone ever ask Lindsey in one of the meet and greets if Stevie's infamous 3 hour rant/phone call before the 2013 tour was actually a 3 hour recount of every beef she's had from 1975? I'd love to know the actual truth of what that phone call was.

Was it 3 hrs? I remember reading about it. She probably was drawing lines in the sand for the upcoming $$$$$ she was gonna make.

That confused me because it didn’t jibe with my experience. I remember one interview where she said that, no, she hadn’t read it because why should she? she lived it. Other than that, I don’t recall her being particularly negative about it, just a little dismissive — claims of not having read it and having no intention of reading it. Big deal.

But she also stood at the mic every night on the 1990 tour and introduced Mick as the hardest-working man in show biz (poking fun at James Brown or Springsteen) and a New York Times bestselling author. Mick later told Graham Nash on TV that Stevie helped him sell his book, so she couldn’t hate it that much.

Going back to 2013 interviews is fascinating with the knowledge of what would eventually happen. I had forgotten all about this one:

https://fleetwoodmac-uk.com/wp/the-m...icks-dec-2013/

Lindsey also told MOJO: “There are still parts of mine and Stevie’s relationship that are unresolved and it will be interesting to visit that on this next tour…”

Stevie: He’s probably referring to what I call ‘The Talk.’ About a year and a half ago I told him everything I had wanted to say to him since 1968. I said, “Do you remember how cute we were? How we could walk into the room together and people would be mesmerized because we were so funny and smart?” I said, “Lindsey, if we can’t go back to being those people, I’m going to quit. I have other people I can work with that treat me with warmth and utter respect, and in my world there’s never a harsh word spoken.”

And his reaction?
Stevie: He was very quiet. I said, “The ball’s in your park, Lindsey 2013 better be great.

So has it been great? When the pair of you hold hands on-stage now what’s going on there exactly? The hand-holding on the 2009 tour seemed a bit hammy..

Stevie: That’s interesting. My cousin John has known Lindsey and I since 1968. He told me, “When I saw you and Lindsey play with Fleetwood Mac in 2009, there was nothing between you. It was as if you were thinking, ‘What shall I get from room service tonight? Grilled cheese? Tomato soup?” Hammy wasn’t the word for Lindsey and I in 2009 – it was totally fake. But what you see on-stage now is not fake. It is loving, and it is as close to those two people who met as teenagers as you could hope for. Every night I tell the story of Without You, the poem that I wrote in 1972 before we made the BuckinghamNicks album. The story has become longer than the song, and I told Lindsey, “I’m sorry, I’m trying to shorten it.” He goes, “Don’t worry, Stevie – it’s charming.” Three years ago he would have been like, “Are you kidding? We could do The Green Manalishi in that time…”

---------------

So you want your ex to treat you as if you're still a couple (40 years after the fact!) and that's how you're going to judge if you're being respected on tour?

It was totally fake in 2009, but it's somehow not fake in 2013 despite threatening to quit if he didn't pretend to be your boyfriend? It's no wonder Lindsey suggested that Stevie was still in love with him during the 2021 press feud.

I've got nothing...

Funny. The show that I saw in 1990 it was Billy saying all of that at the mic.

Can you imagine being this full of yourself? My god her ridiculousness was on point during that interview.

I really do think she's certifiably NUTS. What an egomaniac!