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Sheryl Crow has always been very kind to the Smoking Section. We had a chance to visit her this past January -- right before the release of her last album, Detours -- at her ranch outside of Nashville, where she keeps her 19 horses. Crow recorded Detours in her studio basement. There, the walls are lined with amazing vintage rock photo of June and Johnny Cash, the Stones, and a killer print of Dylan and Harrison onstage at the Concert for Bangladesh. We also ate delicious cheeseburgers at a roadside market. It was fun.

So, can you give us a Fleetwood Mac update? What’s going on?

Well, um, we’re not taking Sheryl Crow out, that’s for sure.   

What was that all about? 

This is just my perspective on it. If you go back to 2003 when Fleetwood Mac was touring without Christine McVie for the first time, I had a great time because [Stevie and I] split the material right down the middle, and it gave me that much more room to do what I do onstage. I don’t know if it made Stevie uncomfortable, but I think she missed the female backup up there. So, when it came time to contemplate doing something the next year, someone -- I think maybe Stevie,  possibly even Mick as well—brought up the idea of finding another female.  Sheryl’s name got brought up. I didn’t say anything, but I immediately was questioning the validity of it because, you know, no matter who it is, it made me wonder what you’re accomplishing if you’re bringing in someone else to do Christine McVie’s songs. Another part of the equation was that maybe we didn’t do enough of the quote “hits,” you know. But if you're bringing someone in just to do Christine’s stuff, doesn’t that sort of degrade it into kind of a lounge act?

Like a cover band.

Yeah. So, I was not really a fan of the idea but I was trying to remain open to it. And that was the end of that -- it was a complete hypothetical, you know, something that was being tossed around.  And then you cut to a couple months later, and Sheryl’s album has come out, and she basically chose to announce to somebody in the press, that she was joining Fleetwood Mac, which, uh, did not set too well with anybody. 

Including Mick, and Stevie, and John?

For one, it wasn’t something that we had decided on, it was a complete hypothetical. And two, even if we had decided on it, and there had been an understanding come to, it was not the manner in which to announce it.  It should have been done with all of us sitting down at a press conference and announcing it in a unified fashion—not as an extension of her own album.  So it came off not only a little self-serving, but also inappropriate on a number of other levels. Stevie, I think, was a bit angered by all of that, and it led to some rather harsh conversation between Stevie and Sheryl.  And I think Sheryl realized that it was just, you know, just not gonna work from either side.  And we realized that. I think the mantra that Fleetwood Mac needs to follow, at this point, is one of—you know...

Transparency within the band about how decisions are made?

Yeah.  And you know we’ve been down this road, and we have some road to travel here—and let’s do it in a manner where the individual agendas are taking a back seat to a mutual respect and care for each other as people, and let’s go out there and enjoy each other as people, as we know we can.  And not let all this other political crap get in the way.  And so, you know, that was one of the catalysts from the Crow incident—was that Stevie and I began to talk more, and have some conversations that were all very, very positive about acknowledging that the core four can go out and accomplish what needs to be accomplished, in any number of ways,.  And it’s just a matter of knowing that and trusting that and finding it.  If we want to do more Christine stuff, we can do it. It’s just a matter of finding an effective way to do it.  And so, all of that has set the stage for what is going to come, which is more what you’re asking, which is what’s going on with Fleetwood Mac, and that is that we are going to begin rehearsal sometime the middle of January, to do dates, and probably those dates will start sometime in April—and we are also going to use that time just as hang time, so we can exchange some musical ideas, and just loosen up the whole thing, and then going in and make an album, once we’re done with that part of the touring.

Sweet!

And I am very much in favor of looking for a producer —not that my input would not have a great part in what goes on, but, just to take the pressure off me. And someone to overview so there’s no kind of polarization coming into the situation and I don’t get caught in the middle of all of that. I'm very much in favor of that, and of course once we’re done making an album, I’m sure we’ll be hitting the road again.