Buckingham Nicks: 1972-1974
After Fritz disbanded in 1972, Nicks and Buckingham, now a couple, continued to write and record as a duo, producing demo tapes at Buckingham’s father Morris’s coffee plant. They secured a deal with Polydor Records.
Using tracks from the demo tapes, Polydor released the album Buckingham Nicks in 1973. The album was not a commercial success, despite the live shows that Nicks and Buckingham performed together to support it, and Polydor dropped them. To support herself and Buckingham, who wrote music and waited tables while recovering from mononucleosis, Nicks worked a variety of jobs, which included waiting tables and a stint cleaning engineer/producer Keith Olsen’s house, where Nicks and Buckingham lived for a time.
Nicks and Buckingham briefly relocated to Aspen, Colorado. While there, Buckingham landed a guitar-playing gig with the Everly Brothers. Buckingham toured with them, while Nicks stayed behind. During this time, Nicks wrote “Rhiannon” and “Landslide”.
Fleetwood Mac and Rumours: 1975-1978
Nicks and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac on December 31, 1974, after Keith Olsen played their track “Frozen Love” for drummer Mick Fleetwood, who had come to Sound City, California to find a new guitar player following Bob Welch’s departure to pursue a solo career. Initially extending the offer only to Buckingham, Fleetwood later included Nicks in the offer when Buckingham insisted that they were “a package deal.”
In 1975, the band released a self-titled album Fleetwood Mac, which hit number one and had three top twenty songs in 1976. Nicks’ signature “Rhiannon” reached #11. The album also included “Landslide”, a popular radio item which would only grow in stature over the years. That same year, Nicks worked with clothing designer Margi Kent to develop Nicks’s unique onstage look, with outfits that featured flowing skirts, shawls, and platform boots.
Fleetwood Mac began recording their follow-up album, Rumours, in early 1976 and continued until late in the year. Sessions were dogged by faulty drum tracks, disintegrating tapes, and the tension between the band members, which influenced the songwriting.
Nicks’s contributions were “I Don’t Want to Know”, “Gold Dust Woman”, and “Dreams”, which became the band’s only Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit single to date. Nicks had recorded the song “Silver Springs”, but it was not included on the album because of space limitations on vinyl records, instead being relegated to the b-side of “Go Your Own Way.” The song was special to Nicks, and she had not been told about the omission until after the decision had been made. Nicks was devastated.
Rumours was released to widespread acclaim in February 1977 and became one of the best-selling albums of all time. During the ensuing tour, the members of the band began relationships outside the group, including Nicks, who had a relationship with singer/songwriter Don Henley of the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac concert promoter David Pesnell, which would influence her next batch of songs. After the success of the Rumours album and tour in 1977–78, Fleetwood Mac began recording their third album, Tusk, in the spring of 1978. That year, Nicks sang back-up on Walter Egan’s “Magnet & Steel” from Egan’s 1978 album Not Shy, which was produced by Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut.
Tusk 1978-1980
By 1978, Nicks became concerned with an increasing backlog of songs, dating back to her Buckingham Nicks days, that she was unable to record and release with Fleetwood Mac because of the constraint of having to accommodate three songwriters on each album. During Tusk sessions in 1979, Nicks began laying down early demos for a solo album. During the exhaustive year-long world tour for the album, in 1979–80, she continued to write and gather material for a new project outside Fleetwood Mac. With Danny Goldberg and Paul Fishkin, Nicks founded Modern Records, a vehicle to record and release her own material. Between Tusk sessions, Nicks recorded two duets that became hits: with Kenny Loggins on “Whenever I Call You Friend” (1978), and with John Stewart on “Gold” (1979).
After a difficult thirteen months of recording and editing, Tusk was released as a 20-track double album in October 19, 1979. Nicks’s “Storms” and “Beautiful Child” were speculated to be about her affair with Mick Fleetwood, while the Billboard Hot 100 #7 hit “Sara” alluded to her relationships with Fleetwood and Pesnell. Nicks hinted at the sound of her future solo projects in “Angel” and “Sisters of the Moon”, (which reached a disappointing #86 on the Billboard Hot 100) about her hectic touring schedule being handled by Pesnell at the time. Nicks also recorded “The Dealer”, but it was shelved.
Following the release of Tusk, Mick Fleetwood left his wife for Nicks’s best friend Sara Recor, adding to tension between the bandmates. During the tour for Tusk, in March 1980, Lindsey Buckingham mocked Nicks on stage and kicked her. When interviewed about it later, Buckingham was unable to remember his actions, but did not deny that it could have happened. Nicks ended her relationship with Henley at the beginning of the tour, but her relationship continued with Pesnell until the end of the concert tour.
The earliest band sessions Nicks’s solo debut album began in April 1980 with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Tom Moncrieff, tracking songs including an early version of “Gypsy”. Further work commenced once the Tusk tour ended in late 1980, with sessions lasting from then until the spring of the following year, helmed by Jimmy Iovine and featuring various contributions from Petty and his band. During 1981 Nicks toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and New Zealand band Split Enz as a guest.
Bella Donna and Mirage: 1981-1982
Nicks released Bella Donna on July 27, 1981, and it reached #1 on the Billboard 200 in September. As of 1990 it was certified four times platinum. All four of its singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s ten tracks included five songs written in previous years, and five new songs. Several unreleased songs from the Bella Donna sessions were included on soundtracks, in concert sets, and later Fleetwood Mac albums. Other tracks remain unreleased.
Bella Donna was the first album to feature Nicks’s back-up singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry. Nicks met Perry in the mid-1970s while working with her then-husband, producer Gordon Perry. Nicks befriended Perry after inviting her to contribute back-up vocals for the tracks she was working on. During a trip to Hawaii, Nicks visited a club where Celani was performing and joined her on stage during a rendition of “Poor Pitiful Me”. Celani later accepted Nicks’s invitation to join her forthcoming solo project. Sharon Celani and Lori Perry-Nicks, who is married to Nicks’ brother Christopher, have contributed vocals to all of Nicks’s solo albums since then.
During the short, successful White Winged Dove tour, Nicks performed Fleetwood Mac songs, tracks from Bella Donna, and unreleased tracks like “Gold and Braid”, “Blue Lamp”, and Petty’s “I Need to Know” (Nicks would later release “Blue Lamp” on the Heavy Metal movie soundtrack). Nicks’ December 12 and December 13, 1981 performances at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills, California were filmed for a one-hour video and laserdisc entitled Stevie Nicks In Concert, or White Winged Dove in Australia and other markets. The concert also aired on HBO. The concerts featured Waddy Wachtel on guitar, Roy Bittan on piano, Benmont Tench on organ, and Russ Kunkel on drums. Nicks had to cut this tour short to record the Mirage album with Fleetwood Mac.
For Mirage, Nicks contributed the track “Gypsy”, a song originally tested for Bella Donna, which became one of the album’s hit singles. “Gypsy” would reach #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and also would receive wide attention and awards for the elaborate video. Nicks’s other tracks included “That’s Alright”, written during the Buckingham Nicks era, and a new track entitled “Straight Back”. The short Mirage tour took place between September and October 1982, and included Nicks’s performance of “Sisters of the Moon”, her 1979 Tusk album track and concert encore. After the tour, Nicks prepared to record her second solo album.
The day that Bella Donna reached #1 on the Billboard 200, Nicks’ best friend since the age of 15, Robin Anderson, was diagnosed with leukemia. Robin managed to give birth to a son, appointing Nicks as the child’s godmother. Sadly, Robin had died just six months before doctors found the medical research which could save her. Following Robin’s death in 1982, Nicks married her widower Kim Anderson. They divorced just eight months later.
Wild Heart and Rock a Little: 1983-1986
In the spring of 1983, Nicks worked on her second solo album. Inspired in part by the death of her close friend Robin Anderson from leukemia in late 1982, the album was recorded mostly live and retains a rock-inspired, live quality. Nicks released The Wild Heart on June 10, 1983. The album featured many of the same musicians and producers from Bella Donna, but it also introduced songwriter and performer Sandy Stewart who lent a synthesizer sound prevalent in early 1980s rock music.
The Wild Heart went double platinum, reached #5 on the Billboard 200, and featured three hit singles. Several promo-only singles, released exclusively to radio, placed on the Mainstream Rock chart. The album’s closing track, “Beauty and the Beast”, featured lyrics devoted to Mick Fleetwood with whom Nicks later admitted to having a short love affair in the late 1970s. Of the many songs recorded for the album, only ten made it to the final version. The title song, “Wild Heart”, was partially written during 1981. Footage exists from a Rolling Stone magazine cover photo shoot where Nicks, while getting her make-up done, sings the work-in-progress to the instrumental line from Lindsey Buckingham’s “Can’t Go Back” (from Mirage).
On Memorial Day weekend (May 28 - May 30, 1983), Nicks performed a 90-minute set at the second US Festival at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California, and later went on an arena and amphitheater tour from June 1983 to November 1983 throughout the United States in support of The Wild Heart album. Her band included Waddy Wachtel on lead guitar, Wizard on bass, Benmont Tench on organ, Roy Bittan on piano and electric piano, Liberty DeVitto on drums, and Bobbye Hall on percussion. The songs “Beauty and the Beast”, “If Anyone Falls”, and “Stand Back”, all from The Wild Heart album, were mainstays of the tour set. The album produced three Top 40 singles in “Stand Back (#5), “If Anyone Falls (#14) and “Nightbird” (#33). In fact, Nicks has often told the story of how she wrote the song “Stand Back”. She wrote it shortly after she was married to Kim Anderson. The newlyweds were driving up to San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara when Prince’s song “Little Red Corvette” came on the radio. Nicks states that she started humming along to the melody of the song, and “Stand Back” was born. They stopped and got a tape recorder and she recorded the demo right there in the honeymoon suite that night. Later, when Nicks went into the studio to record the song, she called Prince and told him the story of how she wrote the song to his melody. He came to the studio that night and played synthesizers on it, although his contribution is uncredited on the album. Then, she says, “he just got up and left as if the whole thing happened in a dream.” While promoting the album on MTV, Nicks admitted that her favorite song from the set was “Nightbird”, a thematic successor to “Edge of Seventeen”.
Following the tour for The Wild Heart, Nicks commenced work on her third solo album. Originally titled Mirror Mirror, Nicks recorded a host of dark and angry rock songs for the projected album during 1984 and 1985, including “Mirror Mirror”, “Thousand Days”, “Running Through the Garden”, and “At the Fair”. However, Nicks was unhappy with the recordings for the album “Mirror Mirror”, and instead scrapped the planned album, opting to record a new batch of songs in 1985.
Rock a Little, as it was re-titled, was released November 18, 1985 and issued to platinum success the next month. It showcased a harder-edged Nicks, both in her songs and her ragged vocal performances. The album hit #12 on the Billboard 200, and scored two Top 40 hit singles in “Talk To Me” (#4) and the danceable “I Can’t Wait” (#16). A third single, “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You”, was a relative chart failure , reaching #60. The lyric was for the Eagles member Joe Walsh. A solo outing with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan in Australia came after, but Nicks was threatened by Australian authorities with expulsion from the country for not carrying a work permit. The tour marked a turning point in Nicks’s career: although she had achieved significant critical acclaim, drugs were taking a toll on her performing, limiting her vocal range and pitch severely and changing her on-stage persona. It was at the end of the Australian tour that Nicks checked herself into the Betty Ford Center to recuperate and wean herself off of her all-consuming cocaine addiction.
Following the release of Rock A Little, Nicks toured in 1985–86. Widely successful, the tour resulted in a one-hour filmed concert released on VHS/DVD as Stevie Nicks: Live at Red Rocks, filmed at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado in August. The tour ended on October 10, 1986 in Sydney, Australia.
Tango in the Night and The Other Side of the Mirror: 1987-1990
In 1985, Fleetwood Mac began work on Tango in the Night, which was released in April 1987, five years after Mirage. The album included Nicks’ performance of “Seven Wonders” (Billboard #19); however, creative differences and unresolved personal issues within the band led Buckingham to quit the group right before their world tour.
In the Fleetwood Mac segment of British TV program Rock Family Trees (broadcast in 1995), John McVie described a “physically ugly” confrontation between Nicks and Buckingham at Christine McVie’s house in August 1987. Nicks claimed that Buckingham almost killed her after she violently rejected Buckingham’s decision to leave the band. After Buckingham chased her through the house and out onto the street and, according to Mick Fleetwood in his disputed autobiography, threw her against a car and tried to strangle her, Nicks warned him that if he killed her and none of the other band members came to get him, her brother Christopher and father Jess would murder him. This interview was held at a time when many of the members of Fleetwood Mac were not speaking to each other; Nicks and Fleetwood had disputed over the use of the song “Silver Springs” (recorded in 1976) for her solo retrospective album in 1991, while Fleetwood intended to premier it on the Fleetwood Mac box set The Chain: 25 Years in 1992, as well as items considered scandalously exaggerated in his autobiography. Therefore, the events leading to Buckingham’s departure in 1987 are unclear.
Fleetwood Mac eventually toured despite Buckingham’s departure, replacing Buckingham with Rick Vito and Billy Burnette for the Shake The Cage Tour from September to December 1987. The set-list included “Stand Back” which would later be performed on every Fleetwood Mac tour in which Nicks participated. However, Nicks’s bout with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and developing addiction to tranquilizers led to the removal of “Rhiannon”, “Gypsy”, and other Nicks songs mid-tour, and several shows had to be delayed or canceled. The tour was ultimately cut short, with dates cancelled in Australia and European dates delayed until May 1988. A concert from this tour performed at the Cow Palace in San Francisco was taped and released on video and later on DVD.
Tango in the Night returned Fleetwood Mac to major critical and commercial success on the tenth anniversary of Rumours. The surge in popularity led to the release of their Greatest Hits album in November 1988. The new line-up with Vito and Burnette recorded two new songs for the release, Christine McVie’s “As Long as You Follow” and Nicks’ “No Questions Asked”. The album, which became a major chart fixture, has sold more than eight million copies to date in the US alone.
In 1988, Nicks began work on a fourth solo album with producer Rupert Hine. Nicks released The Other Side of the Mirror on May 11, 1989. It was recorded in the Netherlands, Buckinghamshire, England, and Los Angeles. The album borrows thematic elements of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and features imagery of castles, princesses, and burning houses. The album reached #10 on the U.S. Billboard album charts, propelled by the major hit single “Rooms on Fire” (#16), which Nicks wrote about the album’s producer and Nicks’ love interest Rupert Hine. It would be the sole certified hit song from the album. The follow-up to “Rooms on Fire”, “Two Kinds of Love” (featuring vocals by Bruce Hornsby), became Nicks’ first single to fail to chart anywhere on the Billboard or Cashbox charts. The album achieved platinum status in 1997.
Nicks voice was more powerful and melodic than on her previous two recordings (solo and with Fleetwood Mac), but it also developed a nasal quality attributed to her cocaine abuse and subsequent dependence on tranquilizers.
Nicks toured the U.S. and Europe from August to November 1989, making it the first and last time that she toured Europe as a solo act.
In 1989, Nicks set to work with Fleetwood Mac on a new album. This was the first full studio album with the new line-up featuring Vito and Burnette. Nicks’ contributions included the co-writes “Love is Dangerous”, “Freedom”, and “The Second Time”, as well as her self-penned “Affairs of the Heart”. The album, entitled Behind the Mask, turned out to be one of the band’s least commercially - and critically - successful albums. Despite its more modest success in the US, Behind The Mask entered the UK album chart at no.1 and has been certified Platinum there. On the last night of the Behind the Mask tour, Buckingham and Nicks reunited to perform “Landslide”. After the tour, Nicks left the group to concentrate on her solo career, and Christine McVie retired from touring.
Timespace and Street Angel: 1991-1996
On the tenth anniversary of her solo career debut, Nicks’ record label, Modern Records, issued a fourteen-song retrospective gathering selected tunes and new material. Released September 3, 1991, Timespace - The Best of Stevie Nicks (#30 on The Billboard 200) included contributions from Jon Bon Jovi (”Sometimes It’s a Bitch”, for which a video was shot to promote the compilation), and Bret Michaels of Poison (”Love’s a Hard Game to Play”). The third new song, “Desert Angel”, was dedicated to the men and women serving in Operation Desert Storm. The compilation also included re-mastered editions of some of Nicks’s most commercially successful singles. The album eventually went platinum in 1997.
Fleetwood Mac also released a four-disc box set, 25 Years - The Chain, in November 1992 featuring songs spanning the band’s entire career, with a focus on the 1975–87 era. The compilation, later also issued as a slimmer two-disc volume,and featured album tracks, b-sides, alternate mixes, and previously unreleased tracks like “Heart of Stone”, “Love Shines”, “Make Me a Mask”, and “Paper Doll” (which Nicks co-wrote).
During the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, Bill Clinton used the Fleetwood Mac hit “Don’t Stop” (written by Christine McVie) as his campaign theme song. The Rumours-era line-up of Fleetwood Mac reunited to perform the song at his 1993 Inaugural Gala, sowing the seeds for a later reunion album and tour.
In late 1993, while Nicks held a baby shower at her house, she tripped and gashed her forehead on a fireplace. Not feeling any pain, Nicks realized she needed help and endured a painful 47-day detox from Klonopin in the hospital. Her weight had reached a peak at 175 lb (79.4 kg), enhanced even more by her short stature.
Nicks used material written mostly in previous years to record a solo album in 1993 and 1994 that was plagued by her dependence on Klonopin. The tracks include “Greta”, “Love Is Like a River”, and “Listen to the Rain” dating from the mid-1980s, “Destiny” from the early 1970s Buckingham Nicks era (which shares some lyrics with the song “Enchanted”), and “Rose Garden”, originally written when Nicks was 17. Other material came from various co-writers, including frequent late ’80s/early ’90s collaborator Mike Campbell and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman”.
Released May 23, 1994, Street Angel (#45 on the Billboard 200 albums chart) became the most poorly received record of her solo career. “Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind” from the album made #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and “Blue Denim” was an even less successful hit, although the song did gain more promotion, such as her appearance on Late Night With David Letterman. Nicks was crushed by the focus on her weight and the poor reception of the album despite her successful, three-month tour featuring friends and old band musicians including drummer Russ Kunkel and Fleetwood Mac lead guitarist Rick Vito. Highlights from the tour included “Stand Back”; “Rhiannon”’ and “Talk To Me”; “Edge of Seventeen”; and a rare solo version of the Fleetwood Mac hit, “The Chain”. Disgusted by the criticism she received during the tour for being overweight, Nicks vowed to never set foot on a stage again unless she lost the weight.
In 1995 and 1997, Nicks contributed the song “Twisted”, a duet with Lindsey Buckingham, to the Twister movie soundtrack, the Sheryl Crow penned “Somebody Stand By Me” to the Boys on the Side soundtrack, and remade Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” for Fox’s TV hit Party of Five.
The Dance: 1997-1998
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Rumours, the 1975-1987 Fleetwood Mac line-up reunited for an album and tour beginning in May 1997. Lindsey Buckingham had enlisted the help of the band’s rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie for a planned solo album, eventually leading to the reunion of the band. The tour, featuring a slimmer Nicks, was a major success, with the opening shows recorded for video and album release. The video, which was recorded on their first and second nights performing together in 10 years and in surround sound, garnered critical acclaim. It was recorded on a Hollywood sound stage at Warner Bros. Studios with an audience that included many of Hollywood’s elite, and featured the USC Trojan Marching Band on the songs “Tusk” and “Don’t Stop”.
This live release, The Dance, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 in the autumn of 1997 and earned the group a Grammy nomination. Two promotional singles — both Nicks songs — were released: “Silver Springs”, for which Nicks earned a Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination, and “Landslide”. In 1998, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and won the Outstanding Contribution at the BRIT Awards.
Nicks put plans for a new solo album on hold when she was approached by Warner Music to release a solo career-spanning box set, to finish her contract with Atlantic Records in the US. After the culmination of the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour, Nicks settled down in Los Angeles and Phoenix with close friends and colleagues to devise a track list for this three-disc collection.
In 2002, a second greatest hits album from Fleetwood Mac, The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, was released, becoming a platinum-selling success with a more in-depth track list than the previous greatest hits release.
Enchanted and Trouble in Shangri-La: 1998-2001
The box set Enchanted, was released to acclaim on April 28, 1998 with liner notes from Nicks, as well as exclusive and rare photographs. Featuring successful solo hits, Nicks also included b-sides (”Garbo”, written in 1973 and recorded for The Wild Heart era), rare soundtrack contributions (”Blue Lamp”, “Sleeping Angel”, “Battle of the Dragon”, “Violet and Blue”), duets (”Whenever I Call You Friend” with Kenny Loggins; “Gold”, with John Stewart), and covers (”It’s Late”, “Free Fallin’”, and Warren Zevon’s “Reconsider Me”). Nicks also included demos (”Twisted”, “Sweet Girl”) and “Long Distance Winner” from the Buckingham Nicks album. Live versions of “Edge of Seventeen” and “Gold and Braid” from her 1981 tour were also included. Nicks also recorded a special solo piano rendition of “Rhiannon” for the set. The box set was supported with a successful US tour with a more varied set list incorporating rare material such as “Rose Garden”, “Garbo” and “Sleeping Angel”. The set sold 56,000 units in its first week (an excellent achievement for a three-disc box set) and was certified Gold.
In 1998, Nicks contributed songs to the Practical Magic soundtrack, recording a new version of “Crystal”, with Nicks on lead vocals (Lindsey Buckingham sings lead in the original) and “If You Ever Did Believe”, originally a mid-’70s demo which shared the lyrics “And the days go by/Doing nothing about them/How much time will I have to spend?” with another mid-70’s demo, “Forest Of The Black Roses”. Sheryl Crow produced the two tracks for the soundtrack, and Nicks and Crow released a music video to VH1 to follow for “If You Ever Did Believe”. The song became a moderate radio hit. She also took part in a benefit concert for Don Henley’s Walden Woods Project. She sang two songs including the classic “At Last”, which would later be included on an AT&T promotional CD.
Nicks received further accolades when People magazine named her one of the 50 Most Beautiful People, and in 1999, she ranked #14 on a list of VH1’s Greatest Women of Rock, and #1 Greatest Woman of Rock voted by VH1 viewers. VH1 also featured an episode of their Behind The Music documentary program on Nicks’ career and comeback. In viewer polls, it was voted the best episode at the time of its broadcast. Nicks was a featured artist on the acclaimed VH1 Storytellers Concert Program that same year.
Nicks had begun writing actively for Trouble in Shangri-La in 1994 and 1995 with “Trouble in Shangri-La” and “Love Is”, as she came out of her Klonopin dependency. According to Nicks, friend and former musical partner Tom Petty was responsible for convincing her to write music again. In 1999, Nicks began recording songs for the Trouble in Shangri-La album with Sheryl Crow, who produced five tracks. When Crow dropped out of the project over a scheduling conflict, Nicks approached R&B producer Dallas Austin to work on tracks at his Atlanta recording studio. She had been impressed with his production work on TLC’s song “Unpretty”. The Dallas Austin sessions have never surfaced. Nicks finally called on John Shanks to produce the remainder of the album, with contributions from producers David Kahne, Rick Nowels, Pierre Marchand, and Jeff Trott.
The album featured songs that Nicks had originally written and rehearsed in the ’70s such as “Candlebright” (known in some fan circles as “Nomad”, from 1970), “Sorcerer” (circa Buckingham Nicks), and “Planets of the Universe” (written around 1976).
Nicks’ voice on the new recordings was more tuneful and passionate than on Street Angel, her previous solo outing. Nicks had worked with a voice coach since 1997, lending her voice more control and protecting it from the stress of lengthy touring schedules.
Released May 1, 2001, Trouble in Shangri-La restored Nicks’ solo career to critical and commercial success. The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200, her best album chart position since The Wild Heart almost two decades earlier, which also hit #5. The singles “Every Day”, “Planets of the Universe”, and “Sorcerer” (which originally appeared on the 1984 Streets of Fire soundtrack with Marilyn Martin singing lead and Stevie singing backup) helped promote the album, performing well in the Adult Album Alternative radio markets. One of the dance remixes for “Planets of the Universe” reached #1 on the Billboard Dance and Club Play chart. The original Trouble in Shangri-La album version of the song was later nominated for a Grammy Award (Best Female Rock Vocal Performance). The RIAA certified the album Gold in June 2001.
VH1 named Nicks their “Artist of the Month” for May 2001, airing short interviews and Nicks’ catalog of videos throughout the month, including a new video for “Every Day”. She also made a video for “Sorcerer”, which began airing later in the year. The album featured collaborations with Natalie Maines (Dixie Chicks) on the country duet “Too Far from Texas”, Sarah McLachlan on the ballad “Love Is” and Macy Gray on the soft, funky “Bombay Sapphires”. Sheryl Crow was also featured playing various instruments and performing on background vocals on many of the tracks. Nicks performed the new track “Fall From Grace” at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards on FOX in March 2001, with Sheryl Crow on backing vocals. Crow also presented Nicks with a Songwriters Award at the ceremony.
Nicks promoted the album with various appearances on television including an interview and performances on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, as well as Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and other appearances. In August 2001 she performed the single “Sorcerer” at the 2001 Radio Music Awards, introduced by Bush front-man Gavin Rossdale.
Nicks supported the album with a successful tour, although some shows were canceled or postponed because of Nicks’ bout with acute bronchitis. Shows were also canceled because of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on 9/11/01.
Say You Will: 2003-2005
In 2001, while touring for Trouble in Shangri-La, Nicks received the news that the other members of Fleetwood Mac were planning a new studio album. The line-up consisted of the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, as well as Lindsey Buckingham, but Christine McVie opted out of the project in its early stages, as she had retired from the group’s heavy touring schedule (she had to be coaxed into participating in the 1997 reunion tour).
Nicks sent off a demo tape of around 20 previously unreleased songs, some of which had already been considered for previous Fleetwood Mac albums or solo albums. After the end of her solo tour, Nicks convened with the other members of the band for recording during 2002. The album, which Buckingham had planned as a two-disc set, became a half-Buckingham, half-Nicks record, with nine songs each. The decision to reduce the album to a single disc album was not reached without much drama within the band, as can be seen in the “Destiny Rules” documentary of the making of Say You Will, which aired on VH1 and is also available on DVD release. Lindsey Buckingham pressed for a 2-disc set, while Nicks and eventually Mick Fleetwood as well opposed it, because of uncertainty in the music industry. Buckingham’s material was notably more experimental and unusual (some coming from his unreleased Gift of Screws album), and Nicks contributed a series of passionate songs, including her reaction to 9/11 terrorist attacks, “Illume”, an ode to Sheryl Crow, “Silver Girl”, and various songs from earlier eras: “Smile At You” had been written for Tusk and also recorded during the Mirage sessions; “Running Through the Garden” was originally intended for Rock a Little; and “Goodbye Baby” was written around 1976 as a piano ballad, “The Tower”.
Nicks was ranked #52 on VH1’s 100 Sexiest Artists in 2002.
The album was released on Reprise Records, although Fleetwood Mac had been shopping around with a new record deal. They had been offered a deal by Interscope Records, run by Nicks’ former lover and producer Jimmy Iovine. Eventually the band decided to stick with their longtime label, Reprise Records, as a result of a “larger advance offer” by Reprise, according to Lindsey Buckingham. According to Forbes Fleetwood Mac was given a “lucrative” 2-album contract for the release of “Say You Will”.
The album, Say You Will, was released to mixed reviews in April 2003, but still became a Top 3 hit on the Billboard 200 selling over 300,000 copies in its first week of release. The group supported the album by embarking on a mammoth world tour lasting until September 2004. They later released two DVD releases: the concert film Live in Boston (RIAA certified Platinum) and the documentary Destiny Rules. The tour become one of the highest grossing concert tours of 2003, headlining at such venues as Madison Square Garden, Staples Center, Philips Arena, Allstate Arena, Ford Center, MGM Grand, Rose Garden, Fleet Center, Hershey Park and many more.
Fleetwood Mac won an American Music Award in 2003 for Best Pop/Rock Band, Duo or Group, up against Matchbox 20 and 3 Doors Down. Fleetwood Mac accepted the award at a hotel via satellite from Hamburg, Germany where they were on tour supporting “Say You Will”.
In an interview with the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph (8/9/07), Nicks noted that she is unwilling to carry on with the band unless Christine McVie returns. However, in March 2008 it was announced that singer Sheryl Crow would be joining Fleetwood Mac, one point being made that she would be a support for Stevie when they began work. Crow declared 2009 as the year when the public would again experience the group but stopped short of confirming whether it would be with new material or by touring.
Crystal Visions and Soundstage Sessions: 2007-2009
On March 27, 2007, Reprise Records released Crystal Visions - The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in the US. The album debuted at #21 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.
The compilation includes the solo hits “Stand Back”, “Edge of Seventeen”, “Rooms On Fire”, “Leather and Lace”, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (with Tom Petty), among others; and live performances of “Landslide” and “Edge of Seventeen”, recorded with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in February 2006.
Also included are the original Fleetwood Mac version of “Silver Springs”; as well as live performances of “Rhiannon” and “Stand Back” (iTunes-only bonus track); and Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll”. The CD also includes Deep Dish’s dance cover of Nicks’ Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”, for which Nicks re-recorded the vocals in 2005.
A DVD component, compiling 13 of Nicks’ music videos, accompanies the CD release. It includes optional voice over commentary from Nicks and rare footage from the making of her first solo album Bella Donna in 1981.
A tour with Chris Isaak, opening in Concord, California on May 17 supported the release.
Reprise Records initially released two radio only promos, the live version of “Landslide” with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and also her cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll”. Both tracks failed to garner much airplay making an impact on the charts. Reprise Records released “Stand Back” (issued with club mixes) on May 29, 2007. “Stand Back”, which peaked at #5 on the pop singles chart in 1983, has reached #2 on the “Billboard Club Chart”. Nicks previously reached #1 on this chart, with “Planets Of The Universe” (from Trouble In Shangri-La) in 2001. The Remix single of “Stand Back” debuted on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart on September 15, 2007 at #10 peaking at #4 the following week. It also debuted on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart at #3 peaking at #1.
According to the The Tennessean, in January 2008, Nicks was spotted “in Nashville recording an album with Joe Thomas for a CD that accompanies a DVD of Soundstage”. Stevie released a CD, titled “The Soundstage Sessions” on March 31st, 2009 through Reprise Records. The first single from the album is “Crash Into Me” and was released as a digital download, along with “Landslide” (orchestra version) as a B-side, on March 17th, 2009.
Along with the CD, Nicks also released a DVD on the 31st, titled “Live In Chicago.” Both are of her October 2007 Soundstage performance directed and produced by Joe Thomas.. The DVD features special guest Vanessa Carlton for whom Nicks provided backing vocals on her 2007 album Heroes & Thieves.
