Lindsey reacts to Tusk

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by anusha

100% I think that once Tom Petty died, Stevie very much wanted to have Mike Campbell in the band. She had worked with him (and other members of the Heartbreakers) for many years on demos and solo projects.

I've spouted this theory before but I think a few things happened -- first, The Eagles had a lot of success with Vince Gill, and there was little backlash on them replacing members who had passed away or left. They are also managed by Stevie's manager, Irving Azoff, so I'm sure both of them felt like this would be a workable move.

Second, Lindsey pissed off Azoff by implying that The Classic music festival was a cash grab (it was, I paid, it was good), and pissed off Stevie by (1) making Buckingham McVie and (2) existing as himself, i.e. someone who did not worship her as an icon and didn't defer to her as the cash cow (ahem, Mick).

I think she and Azoff went forward on firing Lindsey (and sold it to Mick, John and Christine) because they felt like it would not affect the bottom line if they were able to recruit known musicians to tour with them like Mike Campbell and Neil Finn. I think Stevie would have fired Lindsey after Say You Will if she could have, but was stuck with him for money until The Eagles proved that you could continue without original members and still make a ton of money touring.

And she couldn't handle the backlash.

I agree with you on all this.

And the Azoff stuff makes me still bang my head against the wall trying to figure Lindsey's logic in having him as his personal manager. Did he think having Irving "on side" would somehow mitigate things? What a bad judge of character.