it'll happen to you, too.
</grandpa simpson>
on principle, it's not a bad thing if he wants to be a little more sophisticated. it's just that the nashville direction he's spinning in isn't going to sit well with a lot of the fans he's built up on the dirty garage/psych side of things, who'd rather hear his sophistication branch out in more of a tame impala direction (to use a contemporary act as a reference point). bluntly, a lot of us are probably going to finally trip the line with this and admit we're bored by it - not because it's "more sophisticated" but because it's just wandered too far out of our sphere of interest. the couple of mahavishnu romps seem forced. and, note that mahavishnu was not the sonics, huh?
and, that's fine. he doesn't need the cash. and we can all find something else to listen to. but, if he's smart, and he is, he'll find a way to better align his marketing apparatus with his musical future.