Behind The Mask Concert Tour- 1990

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I say "supposedly" because I also read somewhere that it was actually Warner that didn't authorize Silver Springs to appear on a Modern Records release. And Mick couldn´t do anything. Don´t know if that was true.

It is in Bob's book where I read that. But he didn't include the source.

Why did Stevie and Christine decide to leave the band? Certainly they felt outraged at Mick’s revelations contained in his autobiography published in 1990. Nicks felt particularly aggrieved with regard to his “kiss’n’tell” account of their earlier affair. She also wanted to pursue her solo career. Nicks had always been the most commercial successful of the five as a solo performer. As a prolific and talented songwriter, she had often found it terribly frustrating that only two or three of her songs ever appeared on Mac albums.

Christine was simply tired of the madness which seemed to have surrounded the Mac for the previous two decades. After all, John would wryly comment that “the only two people in this band who haven’t had an affair are Mick and me!” Although Mick would put up a brave front to the press, claiming that Fleetwood Mac had not really broken up, but were merely “taking a break”, few believed him. After all, the true architects of the band’s success from the mid-Seventies onwards had been the writers: Nicks, Christine McVie and the departed Buckingham. John and Mick rightly prided themselves on their respective roles within the band. Their resilience and stamina had kept the often-beleaguered group afloat for years, but neither of them claimed to be any more than highly efficient members of one of the best rhythm sections in the world. They needed talented singers and writers if Fleetwood Mac were to survive.

All Mac members retreated into solo mode, with varying degrees of success. Fleetwood Mac would be placed on hold for a while. Stevie Nicks’ estrangement intensified when, to her fury, Mick Fleetwood would not allow her to place her beautiful song ‘Silver Springs’ on the Greatest Hits package she was carefully compiling (Timespace — The Best Of Stevie Nicks). It wasn’t quite his fault. Mick, who owned the rights to Fleetwood Mac songs, had signed a deal with Warner Brothers, who would not give permission for ‘Springs’ to be released on another record label. Stevie dramatically announced that she would never again have anything whatsoever to do with Fleetwood Mac.

Mick Fleetwood reluctantly resigned himself to the loss of the two major players in the Fleetwood Mac organization, and started to do what he had always done best. Pick himself up, and look to the future. Just to add to Fleetwood Mac’s problems, Rick Vito also left the band. Good old musical differences were cited. Only Billy Burnette remained from the Behind The Mask line-up.