Do you really believe it was Mick’s management and not Irving Azoff? Irving wasn’t about to put two guys who are best remembered for replacing Lindsey Buckingham on a tour of that magnitude. Just look at The Eagles. Fleetwood Mac was getting two guys with “calling cards.”

At most, Billy’s name came up in passing, but he and Rick were never in serious consideration for Fleetwood Mac. Remember the stack of tapes they talked about?

Rick and Mick weren't speaking in 2018. Rick said in a Peter Green tribute that he and Mick went their own ways in 2016.
Per Rick's social media, it seems 2016 meant his support of the right wing. And Mick is not right wing.

Yeah, but John’s a registered Republican, so I really doubt that plays too much into anything.

I know Rick participated in the tribute concert to Peter Green- wasn’t that after 2016? It seemed like Mick and Rick were getting along then. Or maybe I’m wrong about the dates?

I could be wrong but didn’t Rick once say perhaps in an interview here when asked why he quit in 91 that maybe one day he’d write a book and tell the story.

I’ve gotten the sense he’s not on great terms with Mick and hasn’t been on more than one occasion.

Personally I could take it or leave it when it comes to Mick as he’s done allot of crappy things to members in FM including Bob, Lindsey, Etc

We have huge differences of opinion. I dont know what you mean by "a tour of that magnitude." Would not the 1987 tour (first without Lindsey and promoting a new album he had no part of) be a much bigger event than some golden oldie cash grab tour of them in their 70's?
I have to trust Billy on some of his observations since he is not a pathological liar like Mick. If Billy thought Irving blocked him, he would have known and said so. He said Stevie and Chris wanted him but not Mick's management. I would think Stevie and Irving would be on the same page.
Billy jumped in with both feet and did well in 1987. He could have done it with eyes closed in 2018.
God bless Billy for forgiving Mick after 2 years. IMHO Billy had a right to be pissed. Very disrespectful. But hey, what he did to Lindsey was worse.

The opening night of the 1987 tour was in six weeks when Billy and Rick joined.

Billy was already deep in their inner circle. He’d played with all of them and had recorded with most of them. Mick knew Billy was very familiar with the songs and that he could sing with the girls. Mick also knew Rick and that he was a highly in-demand sideman. In other words, he knew they could pull it off.

However, it was the first Fleetwood Mac tour in five years and they were touring behind a hit album. In that five year absence, Stevie had four Top Twenty hits and Christine had one, and the band (at that moment) had three Top 20 songs from their current release. They were still commercially vibrant. Plus, Lindsey quit the band. Nobody was going to fault them for continuing without him. It didn’t matter nearly as much.

In 2018, they knew there was going to be blowback from Lindsey’s firing and that they would lose some fans as a result. Billy and Rick weren’t going to make up the difference. Mike Campbell and Neil Finn very easily could, especially in the wake of Tom Petty’s death. Again, there was never a serious consideration for bringing back Billy.

Interestingly enough, I don't think Fleetwood Mac lost many fans at all… and the ones they did lose had pretty much said they weren’t ever going to see them live anyway, so it clearly didn’t impact ticket sales.

I think Stevie is a Republican too but I meant Rick's support of "Trumpism." Rick could be a registered Democrat, I don't know.
I don't think John would agree with James Woods.

They split in 2016 and Mick reached out to Rick in 2019 or 2020 and put their stuff aside and told Rick he couldn't imagine doing a tribute to Green without Rick.

For me, it all comes down to either Stevie has full control over Fleetwood Mac or she doesn’t. There’s no in-between.

People have been bitching ad nauseam for nearly five years about Stevie power tripping and getting Lindsey fired. If she had that kind of power and she really wanted Billy back in Fleetwood Mac, Billy would have been back in Fleetwood Mac.

You are inferring that Campbell and Finn are better guitarists than Rick and Billy?
Maybe Campbell has a better style but if you talk about comfort, the Mac would have been like an old shoe for Billy. I dont follow your logic here. You are saying because the US leg of the Tango tour was only 6 weeks so it was an easier gig than the 2018 tour?
Rick and Billy had all the pressure stepping in for Lindsey while Tango was still cranking out hits. No one knew who they were (outside of Mac world). Finn had it easier. Lindsey had been gone before and were more like hired contractors than members. IMHO Fleetwood Mac sounded more like a cover band with Finn.

I don’t see how that was remotely inferred. It has nothing to do with abilities as guitar players.

Neil Finn and Mike Campbell have had massively successful careers outside of Fleetwood Mac. Billy and Rick are primarily remembered as the guys who replaced Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac in 1987. Neil and Mike could put enough people in seats to offset Lindsey fans boycotting the tour. Billy and Rick couldn’t. It’s really that simple.

No. I was clearly saying that the opening night of the TITN tour was six weeks (actually closer to eight) away from the day Lindsey quit. Fleetwood Mac didn’t have time to conduct auditions and very luckily didn’t need to, since they all knew Billy, while Rick was a highly regarded, in-demand sideman.

You be the judge. Here’s a video of Billy with Todd Sharp and Bekka Bramlett from 2018 (the lineup ChiliD wished had happened in 1994).

How would Billy have fared compared to Neil Finn?

https://youtu.be/YR6uoLYkzEo

I agree with all your statements 100% and I think the ladies probably wanted to spare Billy's feeling by blaming it on Mick's management.