Approachable Lindsey

[Les]

I would think that age and confidence and happiness and a family have a good deal to do with it.

I don't actually think that Lindsey ever wanted to be as popular as Stevie or Fleetwood Mac. I don't think that it bothered him so much that they out-sold him. What I think bothered him was his perception that people only ever wanted him to be "that Rumours guy," and not who he was. They wanted him to be that Rumours guy in the kind of music that he made, and they wanted him to be that guy who wanted to make that kind of mega-selling, accessible material. The more pressure he felt from within the band and from within the fanbase to ditch his ideas that were labeled weird (but that he found exciting), and to conform to being that guy, the more he completely didn't want to be that guy, and the more his confidence waned. And the more he withdrew from people he thought wanted to impose that upon him, and the more kind of defiant he got.

Add to that Lindsey's very intense and narrow focus on music, and music almost solely for many years, and I think you maybe produce a somewhat "closed" individual in some respects.

He's also talked about living in "emotional exile" for most of his years in FM. By that, I think he literally felt like he sealed himself off from a lot of his emotions in order to function in the band. He's said rather openly that he knows forcing himself to do that really screwed him up.

Sooo, after all that, he did something he needed to do for his survival. He escaped. He left the band. A good portion of the pressure to be something he didn't want to be was gone. By doing so, he also removed himself from that immediate microcosm of Mick, Stevie, John & Chris and could start to deal with some of those emotions he crammed down for years. I don't think all of those emotions even necessarily had to do with them, but he just got in the practice of not dealing with some things. Therapy would appear to have done wonders for opening him up a lot in all aspects.

Insert wife and kids, who he may not have been open enough in the past to even consider having, who provide a foundation of love and support and safety he hasn't really felt before. He's said many times how his family is something he never thought he'd get the chance to experience. Now that he has it, I think it's created a great deal of happiness. And kids especially force you to be a more social person.

He's said many times that he gained back a good deal of confidence in his musical abilities in his time away from the band, which he's now happy to be able to give back to them.

So I think all of that has opened him up immeasurably. I think he's very consciously worked pretty hard to be more comfortable with himself and be more open, which is very commendable, because it's not always so easy to do, especially later in life. That's my .05.