Stevie Nicks
(The Forum)
Home » RECAP: Inglewood, CA – The Forum
24 Karat Gold (2014)24 Karat Gold Tour

RECAP: Inglewood, CA – The Forum

December 18, 2016
26 min read

Scroll down for photos, videos, set list, fan reaction, and full transcripts of Stevie’s stories!

On Sunday night, Stevie Nicks wrapped up the first leg of the 24 Karat Gold Tour, performing at The Forum in Inglewood, CA (near downtown Los Angeles). The show was another sellout. Celebrity sightings included actress Hilary Duff, singer Carly Rae Jepsen, and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

Due to the extreme weather that the rest of the country has been experiencing, Stevie was relieved to back in Los Angeles.

“Hello Los Angeles! Well, it is so great to be back here. We have been all over the country, Canada…we have been to all the places that are now completely frozen over, and we are so glad to be back in California! She says, I may not be able to talk — it is cold out there!”

Continuing to break with convention, Stevie remained chatty with the audience, telling the stories behind the “mystical and magical” songs she had chosen for the tour. Some of the stories were noticeably shorter, with Stevie conceding, “I was told, I have to shorten the stories. My stories are becoming longer than the concert!” The adjustment comes after a scathing review from a Vancouver critic — the only one of the entire tour — who slammed the singer as a “party pooper” for telling “lengthy, egotistical and over-rehearsed anecdotes.” Another Vancouver critic, however, offered a less-agitated perspective — supporting the veteran rock acts well-earned “freedom to explore their vast musical repertoires” and appreciating this rare opportunity to hear those songs performed in concert at this late stage of their careers.

At the end of the show, Stevie told the audience that she would be starting up the tour again in February and also revealed that she may tour in Australia later in the year, though she wasn’t sure. She dedicated ‘Landslide,’ the final song of the evening, to her hard-working stage crew.

See tons of photos from the show! (courtesy of Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Photos & Video

Much love and gratitude to all the fans who shared photos and video!

Stevie Nicks
(The Forum)
Stevie Nicks
(Trevor Rich)

Gold and Braid (iseethecrystalvision)

“Hello Los Angeles! Well, it is so great to be back here. We have been all over the country, Canada…we have been to all the places that are now completely frozen over, and we are so glad to be back in California! She says, I may not be able to talk — it is cold out there!

The Forum, yay! So this show is not exactly the Stevie Nicks show that you have seen 300,000 times in your lifetime probably, because this time I decided I was going to do something for me, which was dig out some of my old demos that I love, that for whatever reason did not make it onto records, not because they weren’t as good, but because I pulled them, because I wasn’t happy with the concept. So I call all of these songs the songs that went into the black trunk of gothic, mystical songs that were lost forever. Well, I pulled them out and I’m really excited about them. This is our 28th show and we’ve had such a good time because it is different — it’s different — and it’s really fun and it’s really fulfilling for me So anyway, it’s a journey, come with me. Let’s go!”

Stevie Nicks
(Andrew Kevin Walker)

If Anyone Falls (jitsu1109)

Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around feat. Chrissie Hynde (SoCalLiveitLive)

Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around feat. Chrissie Hynde / Belle Fleur (Cal Vid)

Stevie: We have had the best time on this tour.

Chrissie: It’s all over. I love her.

Stevie: You can hire us two as a duo…parties, birthday parties, Bar Mitzvahs, we can do it. We have laughed ourselves across this country. We have forgotten words, we have giggled, we have looked at each other like, ‘We just didn’t come on here with a brain tonight!’

Chrissie: She gave me that hat.

Stevie: And I did give you that hat. You can only wear the hat and keep it on. You can never take the hat off.

Chrissie: See, I’m on a learning curve. And I’m learning from the queen herself.

Stevie: I gave it to you so you could just take it home and put it on your dining table! So you’re not leaving us, we’ll see you again.

Chrissie: No, we’ll see you soon. And I love you, you know that.

Stevie: “Aww…we’ve really had so much fun.”

Belle Fleur – short clip (Kevin Bergen)

“OK, so this next song could have been written by Chrissie Hynde or Stevie Nicks or any girl that’s in a rock and roll band. When I first joined Fleetwood Mac, I was very taken by this one picture, and that was: A) I was a cleaning lady and a waitress and I had a Toyota with no reverse B) Suddenly, I was picked up by a very long, shiny, beautiful, black limousine. This stuck in my head to this day. I’m not crazy about the SUV thing because the limousine is just so grand, and after driving that Toyota with no reverse for five or six years, I was like, ‘Ah!’ But what I realized, when that black car came to pick me up to take me somewhere, it was usually on a tour and that meant that I wasn’t going to be back so if I had a boyfriend, which sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t. But if I did, I had to basically say, ‘au revoir.’ And I couldn’t say when I would be back because you never know when you go on tour when you’re gonna be back. So I painted this picture in my head, and I wrote this song about it and it’s called ‘Belle Fleur.'”

Gypsy

Stevie Nicks
(Taehyuns Jaimz)

Gypsy (SoCalLiveitLive)

“Thank you so much.”

Stevie Nicks
(Renee Bowen)

Wild Heart / Bella Donna (The Scatman)

“Thank you. So I have a little story that goes along with those two songs. First of all, when we did Bella Donna, you have to kind of understand I walked away, and I didn’t…I wasn’t walking away, but that’s how everybody looked at it. I walked away from a very big band to do a solo record, which you know, was not, not greatly applauded by my friends and my band. But I promised them, I made them a promise. Swear to God, I’m not breaking up this band. You don’t have to worry, go on vacation and then I’ll be back. And you’re going on vacation anyway so you won’t even be here. So I said, I’m going to do this record. So when I did it, Bella Donna was very, very successful, and… But what I was afraid of was that everybody would think that it was fluke, and that’s what I was afraid of. And so I knew that I was going to leave Bella Donna because it was a very short tour and run to Paris to do Mirage, and then the second I got to Paris to do Mirage, I could be writing Wild Heart really fast so that the second I got finished with that, I could hit the ground running back to do Wild Heart because I knew that Wild Heart would be the single thing that would prove that Bella Donna wasn’t a fluke if it was successful. And Wild Heart…crazier, more fragmented, drove Jimmy (Iovine) crazy…but nevertheless, a beautiful album, very successful. And for me in my heart of hearts, signified that Bella Donna was not a fluke and neither was my solo career. So I had a little confidence, and I didn’t hurt anybody’s feelings. But the last thing about that story is you might notice I am wearing the original Bella Donna cape, which does not even have a snag. It is perfect, it is exactly the way it was in 1981 when it was made so I’m going to show it to you.

So if my mom was here, she would say to me, ‘Well, Stevie, you made a very good choice of fabric because, look at this, this cost like $2000, and you’ll never have to remake it because it’s made out of silk chiffon, and silk chiffon basically is what they make sails for boats out of. It will never fall apart.’ This is my mother, right? And I’m like, well this is her talking from heaven actually right now, and I’m thinking that she would be so knocked out to see this and think that, well, it really was a good choice. So that’s my little message from my mom. I think we should all invest in silk chiffon.”

Enchanted (The Scatman)

New Orleans

Stevie Nicks
(Lindsey Salls)

Thank you. Well, this next song… It’s way harder singing all the songs, I have to tell you, than…(inaudible). You have no idea. So this song, this is serious, and I wrote this song in 2005. I was sitting in my house in Santa Monica, looking at my beautiful blue calm sea. And all of the sudden, on the news, it started that morning the fact that there was a giant, angry hurricane getting ready to slam into the coast of New Orleans. And so I, as a writer, when stuff like this happens, I’m always writing about it. I don’t necessarily tell people that I’m writing everything that’s going on, but I am, and so I hide those journals away. And so I thought, OK, as a writer, I know this is gonna be bad, so I have to figure a way to write about it, to chronicle it, to archive it, and not have people when they do read it in 10 years, go like, ‘Well, that’s the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard. Why in the world would she write something that was like unhopeful?’ So uplifting is the word that comes to mind. So that’s what I tried to do. I found a really good track that somebody had given me like two years before, brought my cassette-to-cassette recorder out, which is still the best way to record music, and sat there, and over the next two, three days, put this song together and then I put it away. I put it into the dark, gothic trunk of magical, mystical lost songs, and there it stayed. And then in 2010 when I did In Your Dreams, I decided I had the right people, I had Waddy, I had Dave Stewart, I had an amazing team of musicians, and I thought, OK this is the time. Let’s record it. So we did, and it came out so great, and I was so proud of it. We went on the road for two years with that record. We still did not do the song because it just was too sacred and too close. So when we decided to do this tour, I thought, OK, it’s time to like bring this song out and play it for people because it is a celebration now. It has turned into something that I’m very proud of that I hope the people from the city, the specific city, will love always. Anyway, so we gonna do it for you now. This is ‘New Orleans.’

Starshine (The Scatman)

“Thank you. So this next song was written at Tom Petty’s house. And I have been saying every single night that he was living in the Palisades when I wrote this, and I realized that’s totally not true. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, if Tom comes and I say he he was living in the Palisades and he wasn’t living in the Palisades, I’m going to get into so much trouble! So I think he was living in the Valley, which meant it was a long drive for me from Santa Monica to the Valley, but…

So I was going over there, he had a great studio and I had a song. And so I went there and I go to the door with my guitar in a case because I looked much more serious with my guitar in a case. Of course, I don’t play because I had really long nails, but I looked serious. So I come through the door, and he’s like, looks at me and he’s like, I’ve got my huge bag and my guitar, ‘Are you moving in?’ And I’m like, ‘No, just today.’ And I said, I have a song and I think it’s good. So he goes, ‘OK, well, come on. Play it, play it for me.’ So I sat down at the piano and I played it . And he said, ‘That’s a good song, Stevie.’ And he’s not, you know, he doesn’t love everything that you do, so it’s a big deal. So I’m like, ‘Yes! So I said like, ‘Well, can we record it?’ And he said, ‘Yes, we can.’ And The Heartbreakers slowly came straggling in, and the story is really very short because it happened…I think we played it twice. The track was amazing, and I did a good vocal. And had I been doing a record or had Tom been doing a record, it would have gone on one of those records, but we weren’t doing a record, so guess where it went? Into the glass gothic trunk of mislaid and mystical songs, lost forever. So there it stayed until now. And that was probably…1980? So anyway, it’s called ‘Starshine,’ and here it is.”

Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream) (SoCalLiveitLive)

“This is for Prince.”

“There’s a big, long story that goes with that, but I’m not even gonna go there tonight. I’m just going to tell you that he was my friend and that song was written about un-doable relationship of people, and I was Prince’s friend and I’ll always feel that maybe, you know, we…any of us could have done something, and so anyway let’s just leave it up there in the twilight. Thank you.”

Stand Back

Stevie Nicks
(Ben Harris)

Stand Back (SoCalLiveitLive)

“Thank you. So the reason that we put that picture up now is because Prince and I actually wrote a song together even though we didn’t sit in the same room and write it. But the story is that I was driving in the car… I was told, I have to shorten the story. My stories are starting to become longer than the concert. Pretty soon it’s just going to be like a seminar here. So anyway, there is a longer story, but I’m just gonna tell you the immediate story and that is that I was actually driving to Santa Barbara on my honeymoon and this is in like, you know, 1982, and this song came on the radio and my then, one-and-only-husband Kim said, ‘It’s a great song, huh?’ and I’m like, ‘This is a great song.’ And I’m like getting paper and pencil out of my personal things and he goes, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘I’m writing a song to this song,’ and he goes, ‘Well, this is a Prince song. You can’t just go and write a song to his song.’ And I go, ‘Well, yeah, yes i can and I’m doing it.’ So I said, ‘We have to pull over to like a drug store, laughing — no, not driving to get a cassette player! — and have something to take with us to where we were going in Santa Barbara because we have to record this. We have to make a demo before I forget it.

So then we did that, we made a demo, we raced back to LA, went into Sunset Sound recording, and I finally talked to somebody, maybe it was my manager, I don’t remember who but I said, ‘So can we get in touch with Prince? And I know he lives in Minneapolis, but maybe he’s here. Well, of course, he’s not here, he’s in Minneapolis,’ and they said, ‘Well, guess what? He’s here and here’s his number.’ So I called him and I go like, ‘Hello, Prince. Um, this is Stevie Nicks.’ And he’s like, ‘Hello, this is Prince,’ and I go, ‘I know.’ He said, ‘Well, how are you doing? and ‘Well, I’m doing fine, but this is why I’m calling you. So I wrote this song along to your musical track of ‘Little Red Corvette’ and I think you’re really gonna like it, but you may hate it and if you hate it, it is like deleted.’ That word didn’t even exist then. It is erased. And I said like, ‘So you’re in Los Angeles?’ and he said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘Can you come over here to Sunset Sound?’ and he said, ‘OK, I’ll be there in minute,’ and he was. Dressed…more dressed up than me and the girls, so dressed up…in purple.

So he listened to the song, he loved it, and he thought it was very innovative of me and he played guitar, he played synthesizer, he played other keyboards, and he did all this in about an hour and a half and then he was — whoosh — gone! Just gone. And so this song became like, you know a big — that horrible word — single, big single for us and was extremely…became a huge part of my life. And now, it is more of that because now when I sing ‘Stand Back,’ it’s like he is standing right here. And for me that will always be for me, so he’ll always be right here on this stage because I’ll never not do ‘Stand Back’ onstage. And I’ll always be able to whisper in my head, ‘Thank you for that song.’ So that’s our Prince story for ‘Stand Back.'”

Crying in the Night (The Scatman)

“OK, here’s the really funny story. Let’s look at it this way. This song was probably written before Lindsey and I left San Francisco. That would have been 1970. But let’s round it off and say I wrote it in 1973 when Buckingham Nicks came out. So that would be 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003, 2013, 14, 15, 16…43 years! So I just wanna say that if you ever thought that you had a dream and it didn’t come true, the fact that Waddy and I are standing on this stage 43 years later, singing a song that should have been a single, but it never was, for an album that should have been big ’cause it was really good, but never was, and here we are today. So what I want to say to you is, you know, you have a dream, you’re 20, you don’t know what to do. You know, wait ’til you’re 25. Maybe it’s going to happen then. You’re 27…if you’re still looking for that dream, you haven’t found it yet. Your parents are mad you. OK, so like, 32…dream’s not happening yet. It’s in your hands. You’re like, I’m not giving up. 37…nothing. 40…45…here comes the dream, baby! Not quite. 50…55…60…68!

So never give up on your dreams because they are right out there in the ‘Bella Donna Starland.’ Just reach out your little hand and get ’em. It’s always there for you.”

If You Were My Love

“So this next song is one of the other songs I don’t remember who it was written about. But I do remember that I love this song, and it should have been on Bella Donna, but I didn’t like the concept of it. I didn’t like the way it was recorded, and it was all finished and mixed. It’s really hard to walk up to your producer and say, ‘I don’t like it.’ And they’re like, ‘Why didn’t you say something half way through it. ‘Like, I don’t know, but I don’t like it now.’ And so I pulled it because it was right. And I knew someday I could figure it out and make it right. It’s my favorite song. It’s one of my favorite songs to actually sing, because I think that being in this business is really about singing and if more people sang songs like this, it would be good. So anyway, for your listening pleasure, this is called ‘If You Were My Love.'”

(after the song)

“Thank you. That song is just for the joy of singing. I will be back.”

Gold Dust Woman (Steve Isaacs)

Band Introductions (iseethecrystalvision & The Scatman)

“Thank you. So now I’d like to introduce you to my band because, just think about it, if there was no band, it would just be me telling you more stories. It’d be cheap.

So nice Christmas decorations. Did you do that yourself? Can you hear me? Did you do that yourself? He did it. Thaggard. OK. Ladies and gentlemen, on Hammond B3, the best in the world, Mr. Ricky Peterson!
On drums, also best in the world, we love him, he’s come back, he goes away, he comes back, on drums, Mr. Scotty Crago!

The grand pianist on the grand piano, the person who is the best balladeer along with me, me and him, we’re the two balladeers of this band, and almost as cheap, just the two of us. What he plays, I feel like I’m playing, and that is like so amazing for an artist. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Darrell Smith on grand piano!

Right in back of Darrell is my friend from Phoenix, Arizona, yes. We come from the same place, and we’ve been hanging out since the middle of the ’90s. We make demos on cassette players. Well, we had an intern, we did. But anyway, we have lots of fun, and we have been in the beginnings of many amazing songs. So I always have to thank you for that because that’s very improtant to me. Thank you, Al. On bass, Al Ortiz, ladies and gentlemen!

Over here, the girls. First of all, you might notice that if you are a diehard Stevie Nicks fan, which you may not be, but if you are, you might notice that instead of a redhead where the blond is, there’s a blond now, and that’s because Lori, my sister-in-law, had to go and be with her daughter who’s having a baby in a couple of weeks. So we thought that was a good excuse, but we had to find somebody to sing for us. So we remembered that we had this amazing singer/friend from the ’80s that sang with us for quite a while. And I said to Sharon, ‘Sharon, what do you think? Let’s call Minnie.’ So we called Minnie and asked her if she would come on this tour, and she said, ‘YES!’ And we’re so happy that she came in without a ripple, and it’s a big job. So thank you, Minnie, you saved our lives. Ladies and gentlemen, on vocals, Miss Marilyn Martin, but we call her Minnie.

Right next to Minnie, my friend Sharon. I have known Sharon since 1978. I met her in Lahaina, Maui, and she was playing at the best bar in Lahaina. And I was there to have dinner and drink and hang out. And there was Sharon singing in this great band and I waited until she was done, and I asked her, ‘So Sharon, if I ever do a solo career, which wasn’t really in the book yet, would you like to be in my, like, Crosby-Stills-and-Nash thing?’ She said like, ‘YES!’ And so basically, two months later, she moved to Los Angeles and we went full speed on getting those Bella Donna songs written, right? So anyway, the really sweet thing about Sharon is though, the next day, I said to her, ‘Well, OK, we’re gonna sing and write and everything, but we don’t have a piano, so we’re acapella. So she said, ‘I’ll get us a piano.’ And so here comes… (A cartoon of Sharon moving the piano from her Treehouse is projected on the screen.) (laughing) Sharon lived in a treehouse. (laughing) She’s getting from (laughing)…the piano out of the treehouse. Seriously, this is the truth, and brought it to my house! Oh, Arlo! Arlo is our little lighting guy who does that. Sometimes, even I am surprised. She did live in a treehouse and it did have an upright grand piano in it. No lie. I ain’t lyin’. Ladies and gentlemen, on vocals and piano delivery, Miss Sharon Celani!

Right next to Sharon is our other guitarist, who is simply fantastic, and plays an amazing guitar, and has an amazing knowledge of the guitar and of all different kinds of music and keeps us laughing all the time. And for that and his brilliance on that instrument, we love him. His name is Carlos Rios, on guitar! Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome him.

You notice I’m hurrying. I’m hurrying because I’ve been told to hurry. I’m not that good at hurrying. We just need another hour.

So OK, over here, this man, you’ve heard a lot about him since the beginning of the show. I met him in 1971. We became really good friends. We have played music ever since, and he’s been my musical director since 1981 when I got my Atlantic deal, with Jimmy and Atlantic. I called Waddy and said will you come and be like the musical director. I don’t even know what a musical director is at that point, but I’m like, I think that sounds good. So he says yes, and we go in and make that record. So he’s been along for the entire ride, and he is the person who makes me feel safe up her because I’m not always brave and courageous. This was a little scary to do this show and to do all these new songs that some of you probably have never heard. So I was nervous about it. And Waddy was just like, ‘You know what? Just do what you want to do, and have fun and feel your heart, I mean, at this point.’ So anyway, he makes this our little house of love. It’s like our little living room at The Forum. And when somebody does that for you, it’s amazing because you are never scared and that is such a great thing. Ladies and gentlemen, musical director, million dollar baby, best friend, Gemini twin…Waddy Wachtel!

That’s really the only time we get to talk. We have that little moment. So, OK, well, I’ll be right back.”

Stevie Nicks
(Steve Gaines)

Edge of Seventeen (prestoff2000)

“Thank you so much, everybody! You’ve been an awesome audience. You have been awesome! And it’s just so great to be back so I thank you so much. Hopefully, we’ll get to see you again. We’re going to go back out in February for like two more months and we’re going to Australia, I think. And so this is like, it’s carrying on. So I’m really excited, and I’m so glad you got to share this with me. So many of you out there are just my really close friends, and all the people, all of you. Even though you don’t know it, you’re my really close friends, too. So thank you so much. You have just been awesome!”

Rhiannon (The Scatman)

“That darned, old Rhiannon. You know, we can’t rid of her. She like puts on her black wings and flies in and has been in every show on every stage I’ve ever been on, ever since 1975. And every once in while I will say, ‘So maybe we could not do Rhiannon this time.’ And this is the reaction that I get, (loud gasp!). So I don’t say that very often. People are like, ‘What?!’ So anyway, that was her. Now she’s gone.

So before we go into this last song, this is our 28th show, I want to thank our amazing crew because, as marvelous as the lighting is all done by our amazing lighting people and the sound that is done by our amazing sound people, the crew makes sure that one of those things don’t fall on my head. That’s really important if you think about it. Can you feel safe down here or not? So I want the crew to know that I know how hard you work every single day, every single night to put this together and make it safe up here for us. And Arlo, lighting, you’re just like…the graphics for Sharon in her treehouse like…you get like a small raise. Small, but nevertheless, a raise. And just everybody who has made this tour so fantastic. You just can’t name all the people. They’re all amazing. So thank you to them, and I would like to take this moment to dedicate this song to my crew, my lighting people, my sound people, and all the people who care so much about us and keep us safe here every night. This is ‘Landslide’.”

Landslide (Cal Vid & Steve Isaacs)

Reviews

Review: Stevie Nicks opens a ‘gothic trunk’ of lost songs at the Forum
Stevie Nicks brought her usual assortment of accessories to the Forum on Sunday night, including a tambourine festooned with glittering streamers and a dark-blue garment she described as “the original ‘Bella Donna’ cape.’” Unchanged since she started wearing it around the time of her debut solo album in 1981, the cape cost $2,000, she said, and was made of silk chiffon — the same material used to create ships’ sails, according to Nicks. “It’ll never fall apart,” she added. —Mikael Wood / LA Times (Read the full review here.)

Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde are timeless at The Forum
While 2016 has seen more than its fair share of loss in the music world (David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Prince, Merle Haggard, Sharon Jones, Sir George Martin and Leonard Cohen for starters), two of classic rock’s most celebrated women showcased their distinguished legacies in a sold-out concert at the Forum in Inglewood on Sunday. —Robert Kinsler / OC Register (Read the full review here.)

Fan Reaction

FacebookX

stevienicks

View all posts

You may also like