[michelej1]

And my feeling is, if someone really doesn't want to be there, do you WANT them there.

It's like John said about Christine in the SYW program. He said that she was so miserable during the Dance tour that it was good she left. She shouldn't be there if in her heart she didn't want to be.

I want an album with all five of them, but knowing that Stevie is against it makes me think nothing good will come of it. We may get a couple of good songs from her, but if she was there under duress, all we will get is a lot of bad vibes and complaints about the process of making those songs. And I don't want to do this at this stage of everyone's life -- including mine.

So, without accusing her or saying she should just grin and bear it, I say let her go. She'll come back when she's ready. But if you force it, it's only going to lead to more hostility. I want them to stop talking about her reluctance as a barrier to them not moving forward and just go on with what they have.

And it's not just that Christine has returned. John had cancer too. Doesn't that make anyone want to do something differently? If you were too scared to put out an album without a big label before, the knowledge of mortality should have changed that. If you didn't want to make an album without Stevie for commercial reasons, isn't THIS the time to say, "What have we got to lose if we do?" And also ditch the feeling that it's the end of the band if Stevie doesn't record with you. She can record in the future. This doesn't have to be the end of anything. Michele

Michele