CA&E: While you've been the leader of the band, you weren't the primary songwriter.MF: If I had played a chordal instrument, like guitar, I do believe there's no doubt that I have the ability to do that, but I was surrounded by so many very, very talented people - I, for whatever reason, never made that transition to playing a chordal instrument. I sort of regret it. I'm 55 years old, but maybe by the time I'm 70 I'll have learned to play the piano or something.
CA&E: But you're Fleetwood Mac. You could hire a piano player, make up a tune and have him write out the chords for you.MF: That's true, true. But I'm happy being a part of the rhythm section. Of course I'm very involved in the music, in the production...
CA&E: You also handle the business affairs of the band.MF: Right. All the band members were brought in by myself. And the choices have been fairly good over the years.
CA&E: We'd say so.MF: That's really been one of the main things for me, keeping the band going when the personnel changes have come. I've always found hopefully a fairly good way of continuing. And of course Stevie and Lindsey became a historical change in Fleetwood Mac when they joined. And we've been very successful. We don't really over-expose ourselves. So touring next year with a new album is a major event for us. We had a great tour with The Dance - and a number one album. It sort of re-affirmed our confidence - the band realizes we have a lot of people who enjoy our music still. So we're basically gonna get out there and behave like teen-agers for two years.
CA&E: What do you think about the music business, from an artistic as well as business point of view, especially with music being controlled by just a few corporations these days?MF: It's not good. I believe it will change, out of necessity. Their philosophy is to find the one-hit wonder. Then they'll turn around 10, 15 years from now, and there won't be any catalog, no revenue. They're going to regret it. Some people are starting to realize that the business needs to be run by music people, not lawyers.
CA&E: So you don't think there's a lot of good music out right now?MF: Well, I think there is, but it's very produced. Y'know, the N-Syncs of the world, these bands - not that I don't like them, I think they're sort of cool, in a commercial way. It's just the example that they set, creatively. I mean, they are literally put in a band, like you write a script for a play: you cast the players and then you open the doors to the public and say, this is the play. There's nothing wrong in it, but a lot of that goes not very far because it's so reliant on money, PR, and imaging. The real artistry - not that these guys and girls aren't talented - but the atmosphere in which they were grown up - their credibility I don't think will ever really become something that lasts for them, sadly. That worries me.
CA&E: The industry now grooms talent in a different way.MF: There's a reason why Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Neil Young, Crosby Stills and Nash, and others still tour and fill out 20,000 seats. And there's a reason that some of these bands get incredible exposure on TV for a short period of time - they have one huge hit album, and they're gone and can't even get arrested, which is very sad. It's a waste of potentially really cool talent. What needs to happen is to get back to a sense of nurturing, of cradling talent and letting people know that you're not just gonna be with them for one album, but you're gonna try to build a career. Do that and the business will start making sense. Because you have 10, 12 albums that people like to buy year after year - that's how these big record companies became so powerful. Because their talent was mostly long-term. Fleetwood Mac, nowadays - I think we would've been thrown off the label.
CA&E: What's your opinion about the sound quality of CDs? For instance, Rick Rubin's talked about how sometimes vinyl will sound better than CDs.MF: My basic sense is that I don't think there's anything we can do about it. But I actually do agree. The mathematics of digital recording, years ago when it came out, the whole digital format - people like Ry Cooder were making direct-to-digital recordings. I didn't like it and I think people are learning to control and make digital sound like analog.