That's one strength that Stevie has. She's really not a strong instrumentalist in any way. Her instrument is her voice and her words. And it keeps her focused on the very center of that.
'Tango' was a good experience, looking back on it, and it seems to hold up pretty well.
One of the things about Fleetwood Mac is, when we're not together, we don't talk a lot or keep in touch. We keep a healthy distance.
But by taking the time away, getting myself off the treadmill, and just slowing down and learning, I felt I had so much more to give back. And maybe that was something that needed to happen for all of us.
I also learned to be more confident, to trust my instincts more.
'Tusk' was clearly a line in the sand that I drew.
I'm very fortunate.
I was playing a Fender Telecaster when I first joined.
All of my style came from listening to records.
I'm also married for the first time, and I have two kids. So there's some kind of good karma right now.
Certainly, whatever I learn while I'm out solo, I bring back to Fleetwood Mac.
Lyrically, you know, most of the things on 'Rumours' were very autobiographical and very much conversations the three writers were having with other members of the band.
I have an amazing wife and three beautiful children, and that certainly makes you less obsessive about your art as a musician - which I've always felt was more like painting than anything.
You just get out there and be what you want to be. That's part of evolving and part of staying true to yourself - part of remaining alive in a real authentic, long-term sense creatively: not listening to what other people tell you to be.
There is a lot of pressure to top yourself... to come up with a 'Rumours II,' and that seemed like a trap.
If things are crazy in the studio, usually the road is times 10.
I couldn't put any kind of label on my production aesthetic.
I guess you can look at Fleetwood Mac as the 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' movies and my solo career as indie films.
There have been several occasions during the course of Fleetwood Mac over the years where we've had to undermine whatever the business axioms might be to sort of keep aspiring as an artist in the long term, and the 'Tusk' album was one of those times.
We're not one of those bands that throws the names of all their songs in a hat and pulls them out right before they go on stage.
You have to look at what 'Rumours' was, what drove the subject matter. You had two couples who were broken up or breaking up. And probably, you could say, success we had achieved was the catalyst for those breakups.
It's really touching that we can come back after so long and care about making an album that says as much as this one does. And after all this time, we really do care about each other.
I remember being a kid - if a new member joined a group, I just didn't like that at all.
Studio D has a lot of symbolism for me.
You get to be a certain age - I am 58 - and it becomes tricky not to become a caricature of yourself.
The first couple shows I did by myself, I was looking around wondering where the rest of my band was.
After the success of 'Rumours,' we were in this zone with this certain scale of success. By that point, the success detaches from the music, and the success becomes about the success. The phenomenon becomes about the phenomenon.
I always made the joke that I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Warner Brothers first put 'Tusk' on and listened to it in their boardroom as a follow-up to 'Rumours.'
I love to be in the studio. That's what I like to do best.
My foundation is acoustic guitar, and it is finger-picking and all of that and sort of an orchestral style of playing. Lead guitar came later, more out of the necessity to do so because of expectations in a particular situation.
Arcade Fire seems to be doing very well; certainly, Phoenix is doing very well.
I've been playing since I was about 7. I never really used a pick very much. I mean, once in a while, if you're in a festive mood, you might draw a little blood, but nothing significant... But my hands aren't abused, really.