He replaced Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac for nearly a decade, until getting unceremoniously booted from the band he saw as his family. But Billy Burnette has 'no regrets' about what he remembers as 'a magical part of my life.'
Who are some of your biggest influences as a guitar player?
You did a bunch of solo records in the Seventies and Eighties. Did it frustrate you that none of them found a big audience? It seems like this band existed since Stevie was busy with her solo career, and Mick wanted to keep going. Getting back to when I was asked to join the band, I was in the studio with Roy. Mick goes, “Can you join Fleetwood Mac? We’d need you to get free from all your contracts and everything.” I’d just been nominated for my record [] for Best New Country Artist. Things were starting to go somewhere. I had to get out of my deal with Curb MCA. They weren’t happy about that since I just got the nomination.Not at all. How can you? It was Fleetwood Mac.
We rehearsed the songs. Everyone got along great. We did our first date in Kansas City. It was fantastic. I don’t think we got a bad review on thattour until we got to Pittsburgh. The critic said, “Billy Burnette merely aped Lindsey’s parts,” which I did. Rick [Vito] and I played the stuff to the T of how it was supposed to be played. We were both guitar players, and we could hit the parts. In fact, the song “Everywhere,” Christine asked me to play that song and sing those parts.
He did mostly the lead stuff. I did the parts that were on the records. We got together and worked it out. We’d known each other for years, and Rick was a huge Peter Green fan. In fact, he did a Peter Green song in the show. I did “Oh Well.” Rick did “I Love Another Woman.” We split up the parts. We knew what we were doing before we got with the band.
No. The problem was that Stevie and Lindsey had a rift at the band meeting when I joined the band. Something happened there.I don’t think they were more frustrated than I was. The business was changing. I knew it. I don’t think the band really knew it, or cared as much as I did. I just wanted to have hits and be loved by the masses like they were. When you step onstage with Fleetwood Mac, you know that Stevie is the star of that show. Everybody knows that, in the band, and outside the band.
I told Mick and Mick’s manager to check out Bekka one night in Malibu. They were looking for someone to replace Stevie at the time. Boom, they put Bekka in the band. Then they called me to do that tour with them, and record some songs on the album. I did that.He was a friend of ours. He lived in Malibu and was always hanging out. He was one of our buddies.When they started the record, I was living in Nashville and doing my country thing.
We toured with Pat Benatar and Crosby, Stills, and Nash and REO Speedwagon. There were plenty of hits to go around.I don’t know. We were still playing sheds. It was the same places we’d play with Fleetwood Mac. To me, it was still great. I never felt like they felt bad about it.Yeah. I just saw that there’s a YouTube post of the full show. I just watched that the other night. It’s wild to see something like that after all this time.
I guess I said that in the book, but I don’t feel used now. I don’t feel like I’m poor little Billy that got treated bad. I made a lot of money with them. I did. In fact, I got really upset with Mick about that. I’d heard that the girls wanted me back in the band. But Mick’s management team has always had a problem with me from that time I was in the Zoo. Some people gel, and some people don’t. I could have done that tour easily. I saw them do a couple of shows and I went, “Oh, that doesn’t sound very good.”Yeah. He said, “We’ve already made that decision.” I got upset with him. We didn’t make up for a year or two after that.
Bob travels the whole world. He’s always on tour. But he’s almost never seen offstage. He just seems to vanish.
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