Adding Lindsey and Stevie

[SteveMacD]

The more I think about it, the more curious this decision was. Looking at all of the guitarists the band went through between 1967 through 1974, it would seem to me that Waddy Wachtel was the more obvious choice to replace Bob Welch. He used a pick, he played Les Pauls, he played slide guitar, he was more bluesy rock meets pop, he enjoys heavy touring, and he would have been joining the band alone. (And, he's geeky-but-cool, in a way not too dissimilar from Bob Welch.)

When Lindsey joined, Mick and John tried to get him to use a pick and basically made him switch to Gibson. They had to go through that whole "Stevie can only join if Christine approves" thing, which admittedly wasn't much, but still. And, Lindsey's own style was a bit unusual as far as Mac guitarists are concerned. Lindsey's main focus has always been the finger style. The solos were always secondary. He didn't play slide. In fact, I think Welch was the only other guitarist up to that point who didn't play slide, though "Heroes" was the only album affected by that, and even then it featured a cameo by Sneaky Pete Kleinlow.

Of course, in the long run, adding Stevie and Lindsey, and having that slight paradigm shift (as I've said, I don't their sound was all that significantly different from some of the lighter pre-1975 Mac stuff), ultimately was the greatest thing to ever happen to the band, at least from a commercial standpoint.

It just seems to me that it would have been a much easier, and more obvious, transition with Waddy than Stevie and Lindsey.