I actually enjoyed hearing what Neil had to say about his time in Fleetwood Mac. I’ve been a huge Neil/Crowded House fan for decades, but I could not bring myself to see that tour. I’m sure that Neil was paid well for his efforts with him, and probably more than he would earn on any of his own tours these days. Not to mention, it was a chance to play areas that he might’ve never gotten to play on his own and tour in a super luxurious way. And maybe even if you got 5% of the audience who didn’t know him before to check out his music, that would also be a win for him.
I think we’ve been trying to read the leaves on the Lindsey firing and hiring of Mike and Neil came to be. I’m sure I’ve said this earlier, but I think that Stevie has probably always had some thought that her life would be easier if she didn’t have to deal with conflict with Lindsey in FM. I think there were enough changes in the industry and the world at large that helped around 2017–2018 And made it possible for her and her management to push Lindsey out. Before, then, as much as Lindsay annoyed her, she probably felt he was necessary for the tours to be financially successful, because FM lean on the Stevie Lindsey dynamic to sell tickets since The Dance.
But, in the late 2010s, you saw other bands be able to go on the road with replacement members after core members died or left, especially the Eagles with Vince Gill. And they still did a ton of business. Then you had Lindsey pissing off Irving Azoff and Stevie by calling The Classic shows a cash grab. It was the truth, but it’s the part that most people don’t say out loud. Also, Stevie was getting a big profile with younger artists like Harry Styles and HAIM, and Working on American horror story. So her level of audience compared to the band as a whole was growing. Then you add to that a lot of the me too revisiting of bad male behavior in the past — And Lindsey has had some bad episodes in terms of treatment of women. I think the fact that you have someone like Vanessa Carlton tweeting about Lindsey in that context shows that it’s probably something that Stevie had in mind at the time that she pushed for Lindsey to be fired. I’m not saying Stevie did it to stand up for women or anything (After all, she knew about all this stuff for decades and continued to profit off of having him in the band), this was purely self interest, but a lot of people who do self interest in things like to wrap it in a cloak of self-righteousness. And I’m sure Stevie did that because she realized that kicking out somebody that she’s known since she was a teenager and he was a big part of her success, that’s a lot to ask an audience to tolerate when you’ve spent the better part of five decades talking about the everlasting connection between the members of the band. But I don’t think she regrets it to this day because ultimately she didn’t need Lindsey anymore and she doesn’t need him now to tour and make money and be adored. She only regrets that there was a blip in time where people called her out for firing him. But even that is long gone For the general public.
I’m only sad for Mick, John, and Chris, because their final tour as FM was overshadowed by the Stevie Lindsey drama again. But even they took it to the bank, so I don’t feel that bad. Everyone here made their choices.
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