How fascinating to read about Billy's "involvement" with Charlie Manson and his "Family" in this article. First time I ever heard him talk about that.
But hands down my favorite part of this entire interview was this: "When you step onstage with Fleetwood Mac, you know that Stevie is the star of that show. Everybody knows that, in the band, and outside the band."

Long live my Queen. The Queen of Rock & Roll.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I know that was crazy. The second member of Fleetwood Mac that had a connection to Charles Manson. Chris's boyfriend used to be roommates with Manson.
Tells you everything about the band doesn't it ;)

BTW, Billy is just truthful. As being at those Mac shows with Billy and even today, the vast majority of "fans" are there for Stevie. The band knows this and so does Stevie. Its frustrating but its the truth. In 1987 as I waited in line for Tango tickets people raving about Stevie. When someone commented on Christine, I heard someone say "no one comes to see her."

Late to the thread, but what an enlightening interview. Billy may not be a household name, but he's made a living playing music, so good for him.

Re: the Vito/Burnette discussion, I remember Vito saying in one of his q and a's here that he runs into Billy occasionally, but that they don't hang out. Vito also wouldn't elaborate on the circumstances of his leaving the band.

I agree. I do think it was Mick who mentioned Neil Finn's name at the FM meeting table. Mick seems to be a big fan of Neil's work. They've played live together too.

There probably was an attraction for Stevie to sing Don't Dream It's Over every night and I Got You, since she loves those songs. I'd bet they rehearsed Something So Strong as well.

Billy is abundantly talented and he's impressive but Stevie wanted a person that at least millions knew a song or even two by. That's not Billy, nor is it Rick (but he and Mick weren't talking in 2018 anyway)

And for who else Stevie put forward for lead singer names, in my gut, I think she offered Keith Urban and Harry Styles.

Man oh man. It would have been a bad career move for Harry Styles to do an FM tour! He’s young and on his way up! I don’t know if Keith Urban would have benefited much but he’s also a much bigger star.

Neil was a good choice commercially. He is a name but not so huge that he wouldn’t do it. And he kind of did it as a lark and a big payday and has used the momentum to really push his own projects as well as Crowded House with the momentum. As much as I love Neil and I love FM, I don’t regret giving that tour a pass. But there’s no way Stevie will do an FM tour. She was put off by the backlash from the Lindsey firing and can make money and be worshipped as a solo artist.

She loves every song she's ever asked about..... Maybe she did love singing those songs, but honestly, either way she'd say she did, because that's her doing her "good soldier" thing and selling whatever the latest project is.

Makes me think of why Deacon Frey chose to leave the Eagles. Even though selling out arenas every night would be a dream come true for any musician, you're only young once, and that's the window in which you "make it".

Keith Urban could've pulled it off, vocally and as a (THE)guitar player. Wouldn't have hurt his career at all

Harry was way too young. Unless someone has a Deacon Frey (or even Colbie Caillat) connection to a band, it wouldn’t be credible.

As for Keith, isn’t pretty close to Lindsey? I can’t see him doing it.

Someone contemporary to the band like Steve Winwood or Steve Miller might have been great, both still great singers in their old age who could probably take on Lindsey’s vocal parts. I like Neil Finn but I don’t think he fit in well with the band at all.

Bruce Hornsby would have been another good choice.

Mike Campbell suggested Steve Winwood and the band looked at him like he was nuts. I think they thought he was too big for Fleetwood Mac.

I think Neil Finn was a good choice because he hasn’t yet reached that age at which the voice is shot, so the band was able to go out and play with one good voice and two shot voices on the front line.

On another level, I didn’t think it mattered who was chosen to tour the multiplex circus in 2018. Any of their choices would have disappeared into the whole. With all that hardware and commotion onstage, perhaps only Bruce Springsteen would have made much of an individual statement. Everybody else, including Stevie and Christine, gets swamped by how gigantic and impersonal the sound is, especially when the majority of the people making music onstage are trying to sound like Rumours or Then Play On or Tango in the Night, so that the entire night becomes a pastiche of earlier songs and essentially different bands. It happened to Stevie in 1975, too — if you watch the Capital concert on YouTube, Stevie only makes a personal impression on Rhiannon. The rest of the concert, she’s just window dressing. (The band was still too trapped in its earlier incarnations for Stevie to force herself to dominate more.)

She was a glorified backup singer on the 1975-76 tour, even though she gradually became the star.

That's the truth.