On Sunday night, Stevie Nicks wrapped up shows in the Lone Star state, performing at American Airline Arena in Dallas, the fourth show of the 24 Karat Gold Tour. To the excitement of fans, Stevie kept her incredible new set list intact, showcasing many deep cuts in her vast solo catalog.
Stevie is enroute to Florida, where she will play Amalie Arena Tampa on Tuesday and BB&T Center in Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday.
Videos
Much thanks and love to Adventures of 3sanmiguel, Ken, CayFont, Concert videos, Eddie C., hectornavarro67, and William Ruminer for filming and sharing these wonderful videos from the Dallas show!
Gold and Braid – partial (Eddie C.)
Gold and Braid – partial (Didos Cats)
If Anyone Falls (CayFont)
If Anyone Falls (Eddie C.)
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around feat. Chrissie Hynde (Adventures of Ken)
On Saturday night, Stevie Nicks performed at the Toyota Center in Houston — the third show of the 24 Karat Gold Tour. With no set list adjustments, Stevie has settled into performing the diverse selection of songs she has chosen for the tour, which includes “Wild Heart,” “Bella Donna,” “Crying in the Night,” and three songs from her latest release, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault.
All slideshow photos courtesy of Dave Rossman (Houston Chronicle)
[slideshow_deploy id=’375154′]
Videos
Much thanks and love to Ian Conery, DeadMike.com, mistyb420, and Mike Vederman for recording and sharing these wonderful videos!
Gold and Braid (DeadMike.com)
If Anyone Falls (Ian Conery)
If Anyone Falls (DeadMike.com)
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around feat. Chrissie Hynde (mistyb420)
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (DeadMike.com)
Belle Fleur (DeadMike.com)
Outside the Rain/Dreams (DeadMike.com)
Dreams (mistyb420)
Wild Heart/Bella Donna (DeadMike.com)
‘Your first album is just a fluke’
“Thank you. Just a note about those two songs. First of all, ‘Wild Heart’ has never been done onstage—ever. And ‘Bella Donna’s only been done maybe… Like on Bella Donna tour, I think it was like two weeks, and then I had to go rushing back to Fleetwood Mac because that was the promise.
Those two songs are the real reason that we’re even standing up here because Bella Donna was the first album, Wild Heart was the second album. And that solo career was only cemented by that second album because in this world of music then and now, your first album is just a fluke. Your second album proves that it wasn’t just a fluke. So those are those two songs. Thank you.”
Annabel Lee (DeadMike.com)
‘Steal the poem’
After performing “Annabel Lee,” Stevie shared some unconventional songwriting advice. “This is what you can do if you’re a poet and you can’t write poetry. You get a book like Edgar Allan Poe or Oscar Wilde, and you steal the poem right out of it. And you sit at the piano and you just like take the poems and write music. And all of the sudden, you’re a songwriter and you love it. Easy. Seriously, I’m not kidding. Try it.” (This is only possible because literature by Poe and Wilde are public domain works, free of copyright restrictions.)
Enchanted (DeadMike.com)
New Orleans (DeadMike.com)
‘The city survived’
This next song is a pretty serious song. It was written right as Hurricane Katrina was just about to hit. I was in California in my house by the ocean in Santa Monica. And I had been sitting there probably for 24 hours, watching it like we all were, and like it was scary because it was for me, I was looking at an ocean going, Oh my God, what if that was like coming toward me. And so I started writing a poem, a very long, very formal poem which are my favorite poems, and I finished it very fast because it was so emotional. And I remember that I had a CD next to my bed in my bedside table that had been there like three years that a friend of mine who is a wonderful guitarist and songwriter, had given me, and I just listened to it and put it away. And I ran and got it and by the end of like 20 minutes, I had written this song. So in its own way, it was written at a time when the world was just caving in. But now it has gone to a place where it did what I hoped it did when I wrote the poem. It is somewhat celebratory because everybody survived. Not everybody survived, but a lot of people survived, and the city survived. So it’s called ‘New Orleans’.”
Starshine (DeadMike.com)
Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream) (DeadMike.com)
“Thank you. Of course, you know that was for Bella and Edward, who live in my heart in the stories of Twilight. And they just live there, so thank you.”
Stand Back (Ian Conery)
Crying in the Night (DeadMike.com)
If You Were My Love (DeadMike.com)
Band Introductions (DeadMike.com)
‘I appreciate you every day’
During the band introductions, Stevie made some touching comments about her longtime backup singer Sharon Celani. “Sharon Celani has been singing with me since 1978. She has gone to limit for me many, many times. And Sharon, I appreciate you every day. I just want you to know that and remember that you are such a beautiful person.”
Gold Dust Woman (mistyb420)
Gold Dust Woman (Ian Conery)
Gold Dust Woman (DeadMike.com)
Edge of Seventeen (DeadMike.com)
Edge of Seventeen (Ian Conery)
Rhiannon (Ian Conery)
Leather and Lace (Ian Conery)
Leather and Lace (DeadMike.com)
Closing comments
“You have been an awesome, awesome audience! Thank you for staying. That means more than anything. And you know really, Texas is a great place to come and play music. I’ve always thought that. It never disappoints. So you’re awesome, all of you! Thank you! We’ll come back and see you! Keep listening to music. It will save your lives! Good night!”
Set List
Gold and Braid
If Anyone Falls
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (with Chrissie Hynde & Waddy Wachtel)
On Thursday night, Stevie Nicks performed at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado — the second show of the 24 Karat Gold Tour.
Having once lived in Colorado, Stevie shared the story of her “crazy aunt” who owned a bar in the historic, former gold-mining town of Cripple Creek.
Stevie told brief stories throughout the evening. “I crafted this song in Tom Petty’s basement,” she told the audience when introducing “Starshine,” a Bella-Donna-era track later recorded for 2014’s 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault. She then teased, “You wish you could have been there, I know!”
The tour now moves south to the state of Texas, where Stevie Nicks will perform at the Houston Toyota Center on Saturday night.
Slideshow photos courtesy of Miles Chrisinger (Westwood)and Denby Gardiner (303 Magazine) [slideshow_deploy id=’375090′]
Set List
Gold and Braid
If Anyone Falls
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (with Chrissie Hynde & Waddy Wachtel)
Belle Fleur
Outside the Rain/Dreams (medley)
Wild Heart/Bella Donna (medley)
Annabel Lee
Enchanted
New Orleans
Starshine
Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)
Stand Back
Crying in the Night
If You Were My Love Band introductions
Gold Dust Woman
Edge of Seventeen Encores
Rhiannon
Leather and Lace
Approximate start time: 8:50 pm Approximate end time: 10:50 pm
Photos
Thank you to Concertaholic for sharing these outstanding photos from the 4th row!
What a day! Honoring Roslyn Jaffe at her Awards Banquet in NYC at lunch The @StevieNicks tonight in Denver! Trailblazing women! pic.twitter.com/qz62fBOJ19
"I'm special, so special." Chrissie Hynde. Surreal moment right now. The Pretenders live in Denver before Stevie Nicks! @PepsiCenterCOpic.twitter.com/0abE4xtgFQ
For fans craving something fresh on the concert stage, Stevie Nicks’ new 24 Karat Gold Tour is truly golden.
She rehearsed 30 songs with her band to come up with the 20 that made the cut for the tour, which comes to Sunrise’s BB&T Center on Nov. 4 with opening act The Pretenders. Her goal was to include tunes she has never (or rarely) done live in a career that dates to the 1973 Buckingham Nicks album with then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham.
Rarities like “Bella Donna” and “Wild Heart,” the title tracks of her first two solo albums that are also being reissued in expanded versions Friday, are in the set. So is “Crying in the Night” from Buckingham Nicks that predates the couple joining Fleetwood Mac.
Fans will also appreciate the live debuts for a couple of tracks from her most recent solo album, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault — “The sex, drugs, rock and roll glory songs between 1969 and 1987,” Nicks said of demos she polished and recorded anew in Nashville in 2014.
“I can never write those songs again. Those were songs I am very proud of. I pulled them off Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac records. The reasons were I didn’t like the production or I didn’t like the way they were recorded. I considered those to be my best songs so what I am going to do is go out with those songs and songs off In Your Dreams [her 2011 solo album] I didn’t do live, and it will be really fun.”
Such familiar hits as “Stand Back,” “Edge of Seventeen” and “Rhiannon” still figure in the set. The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde steps in to sing Tom Petty’s part on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” The show even opens with a rocking outtake from 1981’s “Bella Donna” — “Gold and Braid” — which Nicks hasn’t performed live since 2000.
After more than a year on the road with Fleetwood Mac on a worldwide reunion tour that grossed almost $200 million in the U.S., Nicks has been promising a radical departure from the same old for this tour and a late 2017 return with the Mac.
“Maybe when Fleetwood Mac does our last tour, maybe if I have anything to say about it, we’ll definitely go through the catalog and do a very different set. People have heard the set we’ve had to do all these years. Now they deserve to hear all the great stuff through all of these records,” she said. “I will put my foot down. I’m not going back on the road to do the same things we did on those 220 shows.”
The September release of Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 album, Mirage, as an expanded boxed set and the Bella Donna and Wild Heart reissues have put Nicks in a reflective mood. (The group’s 1987 album, Tango in the Night is also forthcoming in deluxe fashion.)
The outtakes discs from Mirage and Bella Donna include versions of “If You Were My Love,” a song re-recorded for “24 Karat Gold” that she’s premiering live on the tour.
Meantime, the other members of Fleetwood Mac have recorded new songs and want to release a studio album, but Nicks is reluctant to participate. Listening to such classic tracks as “Gypsy” from the Mirage sessions hasn’t quite convinced her to go back into the studio with the others.
“When you listen to that song you wish Fleetwood Mac could make those kinds of records now, but it’s just not possible,” Nicks said. “It was such a different world then, and everything was done so differently and everyone was more on the same page. As the years went by, not really everybody, but mostly Lindsey and I, just went such different ways. It’s really hard to come back together.”
Stevie Nicks and The Pretenders perform at 7 p.m. Nov. 4 at BB&T Center, 1 Panther Pkwy., Sunrise. Tickets: $45.25-$320. Ticketmaster.
Howard Cohen / Miami Herald / Thursday, October 27, 2016
Stevie Nicks kicked off the highly-anticipated 24 Karat Gold Tour Tuesday tonight at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in downtown Phoenix. Promising an eclectic show packed with music “in your heart,” Stevie delivered a surprisingly diverse set list that focused heavily on her solo work, performing just three songs from her Fleetwood Mac catalog (see full set list below). This was clearly the rock icon’s plan, as she made the bold move to open the set with “Gold and Braid” — an obscure track from the Bella Donna sessions that was never completed (the 1981 live version appears on 1998’s retrospective Enchanted.)
Among other set list surprises were a fantastic “Wild Heart/Bella Donna” medley; a moving stripped-down version of “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)”; and the elusive “Crying in the Night” from Stevie’s out-of-print 1973 recording Buckingham Nicks (with Fleetwood Mac band member Lindsey Buckingham). Stevie noted that her longtime friend, musical director, and guitarist Waddy Wachtel played an instrumental role during the recording of Buckingham Nicks.
Fellow-Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Famer Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders hit the stage first at around 7:20 pm, igniting the crowd with a bevy of hits, which included “Back on the Chain Gang,” “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” and “Brass in Pocket.” Sporting ripped blue jeans, black Elvis Presley t-shirt, and white sneakers, Chrissie commanded the stage with authority, as she and the band knocked out a catalog of songs spanning nearly 40 years. (The Pretenders set list also appears below.)
The Pretenders performed for about an hour before Stevie took to the stage at 8:45 pm. Chrissie returned to the stage to join Stevie and Waddy for the hit duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” filling in nicely for Tom Petty and providing a unique point of view at the same time. During the song, the two rock veterans high-fived in cool female solidarity (Stevie and Chrissie’s positive influence on female rock and roll is undeniable).
(Melissa Fossum / Phoenix New Times)
Stevie revealed that she was a little nervous about singing a full set of songs on her own again (20 in all), but she was delighted and inspired to be starting the tour in her hometown of Phoenix.
“I’m a little freaked out,” Stevie said. “But I’m in my hometown where I wrote a lot of these songs.” After performing the “Wild Heart” and “Bella Donna” medley, Stevie told the audience she had been wearing the same blue cape she wore during the Bella Donna sessions in 1981.
The middle part of the set was strong, with Stevie showcasing a number of songs from 2011’s In Your Dreams and 2014’s 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault. The uptempo “Annabel Lee” (Edgar Allan Poe’s poem set to rock music) and “Starshine” played especially well onstage, with the singers in full vocal range. This momentum led into the pulsating “Stand Back,” complete with full spins during the guitar solo. The signature spectacle never fails to impress.
Stevie shared the stories behind some of the songs she performed, such as “Crying in the Night” and “If You Were My Love,” two lesser-known songs in her repertoire. Stevie revealed that both songs had languished in her back catalog for years, namely the reflective “If You Were My Love,” which had been rehearsed numerous times and withdrawn from both Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks solo projects.
(Melissa Fossum / Phoenix New Times)
Stevie closed out the show with her trademark anthems “Gold Dust Woman,” “Edge of Seventeen,” and “Rhiannon” (first encore). During “Edge of Seventeen,” Stevie paid her respects to “Stand Back”-collaborator Prince, showing a photo montage of the legendary musician on the large projection screen at the back of the stage. The tribute produced a loud crowd ovation from the Phoenix crowd.
Stevie skipped her famous “Edge of Seventeen” walk, during which she has traditionally shaken hands with fans in the front row. A Stevie Nicks concert without this ritual seemed like an unthinkable occurrence, but this decision allowed time for additional songs and truly underscored an evening of experimentation for Stevie, who has not often strayed from familiar set lists. But the risk paid off, as she had the crowd pumped and on their feet by the end of the show.
The final encore “Leather and Lace,” performed with just “the girls” (background singers Sharon Celani and Marilyn Martin), as it had been arranged for the White Winged Dove Tour back in 1981, was a fitting homage to Stevie’s 35-year solo career coming full circle. “What a journey it has been!” she remarked at the end of the show.
The 24 Karat Gold Tour coincides with the November 4th re-release of Stevie Nicks’ first two solo albums Bella Donna (1981) and The Wild Heart (1983), which combined have sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S. alone.
All slideshow photos courtesy of Michael Chow / AZ Central
Thank you to Jamie Maletic and her friends for providing the full set list before the show!
Gold and Braid
If Anyone Falls
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (with Chrissie Hynde & Waddy Wachtel)
Belle Fleur
Outside the Rain/Dreams (medley)
Wild Heart/Bella Donna (medley)
Annabel Lee
Enchanted
New Orleans
Starshine
Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)
Stand Back
Crying in the Night
If You Were My Love Band introductions
Gold Dust Woman
Edge of Seventeen Encores
Rhiannon
Leather and Lace
The Pretenders Set List
Alone
Gotta Wait
Down the Wrong Way
Private Life
Hymn to Her
Back on the Chain Gang
Don’t Get Me Wrong
I’ll Stand by You
Tattooed Love Boys
Mystery Achievement
Stop Your Sobbing
Brass in Pocket
Holy Commotion
Middle of the Road
Room Full of Mirrors
Videos
Big thanks and much love to Haley Clark, UnderTheDesertMoon, and especially The American, who filmed the entire show!
Gold and Braid (Haley Clark)
Gold and Braid (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXljEmrv_Mw
“Phoenix, Arizona…just like I pictured it! Well, I’d like to say, Welcome home! This is our house tonight. Very proud to be here, very very proud to have Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders here with me. This is not exactly… And I know you all know this, but I’m just gonna tell you anyway ’cause you know that I just love to talk, so. This is a… This is a little different kind of set. We really have done what you have asked for all these years, and we have gone back and we have picked up some things that we think maybe in your hearts you always wanted to hear. It’s been a lot of fun for us to put this together. So everybody, thank you for coming! We’re very, very happy to be here! We love you and we’re home! Thank you!”
If Anyone Falls (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXfy3Q9URCc
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around – with Chrissie Hynde (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fucmVEYUPCo
Outside the Rain/Dreams (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zt2Zveo_XY
Wild Heart / Bella Donna (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQookMdC8i8
Annabel Lee (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucHw3NHAEQk
“Thank you, Edgar Allan Poe! Here’s here. He’s in the back. Just watch out. He’s standing behind you somewhere.”
New Orleans (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sr2wUtxP9U
Starshine (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nYqwrtBqw8
Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream) (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VMNX2qvGyU
Stand Back (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QElg2ETPUYw
Crying in the Night (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeMqftCpUoY
Gold Dust Woman (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SdkkRLLksI
Gold Dust Woman (UnderTheDesertMoon)
Edge of Seventeen (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv-XM3eMMVg
Rhiannon (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaJLwrHqxbE
Leather and Lace (The American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj8oHIAc074
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvYav6QRoP0
“What a journey it has been! Thank you, everyone, so much. You know, uh, first of all, thank you for staying. That’s a big plus. That makes me really feel good because, you know, I mean if it was me, I’d probably be going like, ‘A lot of traffic out there.’ So thank you so much!
Secondly, you always surprise me, and uh, this was a very, you know it’s like, I’m not really supposed to like talk this much. Someday I’m going to do a show where I don’t even sing, I’m just gonna talk. And uh, but I want you to know this was a very different show. This is doing songs that we’ve never done, and it’s hard because you haven’t ever. You’re so familiar with your other songs. These songs, a lot of them you’re not familiar with, but you love them, and to be able to share them with everybody is wonderful. By the time we get a couple more shows, they’ll be a little more finessed. But I’m glad that I was able to share this first night of trying to get this all in my head with you.
You have been my great friends, sitting in my living room, listening to my new demos. And that, of course, is my favorite thing of all to do, is sit in my living room and play demos. So that’s what’s you’ve done for me tonight. And you’ve let me know that this is gonna work, and I’m gonna be OK, and I appreciate that.
So take care of yourself, stay strong, don’t watch the news — it’s depressing. I love you all! We’ll be back! Take care! God bless you!”
Stevie Nicks kicks off her 24 Karat Gold Tour tonight in her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, and she promises a show packed with music, not a lot of chatter.
“I’m not gonna do long talking things, where they might be going, ‘Well, she could’ve actually done a whole song during this little talk here,’” Stevie tells ABC Radio. “It’s gonna be fast and furious.”
The set list will feature songs from Stevie’s entire solo career as well as Fleetwood Mac hits, so everyone will go home happy.
“It’s gonna be eclectic,” she says. “I don’t think anybody’s gonna walk away going, like, ‘Oh my God, she didn’t do that Fleetwood Mac song that we wanted her to do.’”
She adds, “I’m not even gonna give people a minute to even start to ponder what’s missing!”
And while she’s giving fans a show, Stevie wants them to give her a show, too — she’s urging them to come dressed to the nines.
“I’m dressed-up up there, so I think it’s a great thing to…say, ‘I give you all permission to totally pretend that you’re going to a glorious cocktail party, and wear your most beautiful clothes,’” Stevie says.
“If you’re a six-foot-five guy and you want to come in your white ‘Edge of Seventeen’ outfit, please do!’” she adds. “‘Cause I just think it’s hysterical, and I love it!”
Stevie’s opening act is another legendary rock and roll chick, Chrissie Hynde, and her band the Pretenders —which thrills Stevie to no end.
“When my manager said, ‘What about The Pretenders?’ I’m like, ‘Would they even go with me?’ And he said, ‘I think they would!’” Stevie says. “I’m really excited about this, and I think, yes, we are bada** chicks, and it’s really gonna be fun!”
On Saturday night, Stevie performed a benefit show for St. Joseph Hospital of Orange, California. The special dinner and concert were held at the City National Grove of Anaheim, where approximately 650 guests attended.
Stevie performed a special selection of her classic hits — “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” “Landslide,” “Stand Back,” and “Gold Dust Woman.”
Stevie also donated a signed tambourine and did a meet-and-greet with VIP guests after the concert.
Do people often ask about your songwriting process?
They do. You know, they say, “Do you write about people? Do you write about love affairs? Do you write about what’s happening now? Do you write about what happened to you a long time ago in the past? How do you summon those memories up?” I always say to them, as a writer you don’t have any one way. You write about what inspires you right now. If what inspires you right now is that song “Missing You” by John Waite because you just happened to hear it on the radio, then so be it. That was my song back when I was with Joe Walsh and whenever it comes on I just have to sit down. My mind races back to that time in my life and if I let myself I could run right to the piano and write another song. I don’t always let myself do that anymore, but that’s what it inspires.
As a writer you don’t have any one way. You write about what inspires you right now.
I can be sitting in a parking lot waiting for my assistant to come to the car and I see a couple walk by and I can see their fingers gently touch and see him open the door for her and look at her and her look at him and for a moment they just stand still in time… and then I can go home and write a song about them. Or I can see a movie—say, it’s a movie with Michael Fassbender called The Light Between Oceans—and I can’t get this movie out of my head. The tragedy of this movie is so intense and so beautiful you can hardly stand it and you go home and think about it for days afterwards. It’s everything I can do to not just say “Stop everything I have to go and write a song about this movie because I need to write a song about this fictional relationship that I can’t stop thinking about.”
When people ask me about songwriting, that’s what I tell them. Pay attention to your feelings. It can be anything. Everything. And yes, I can write a really super romantic song today even though I’m not really in a relationship nor have I been in one for a long time. I can take ideas right out of the air, but I have to be really inspired. It has to be something truly inspiring that pushes me to go and write a poem, and then that poem is something that, when I have the time, I will take to the piano. That has always been my process since I was 15 years old.
You’ve spoken about the connection between poetry and songwriting. Is writing poems and songs your way of making sense of the world?
It is. It’s the way that works for me. You know, if you’re gonna write a novel or make a movie about the state of the world, it’s going to be this really long, epic thing. But if you’re writing a poem it can simply be a page—or it can be two or three little verses. Poetry allows you to write a whole story in a very small amount of words and get your point across. I’ve never actually written a long story and I wouldn’t even begin to know how to do that, but poems and songs let me talk about these things in a form I can manage.
It’s like when I think about the Twilight saga, those long books. I’m going, “How in the world did that woman write this? How did she come up with all of those characters and the different generations and backstories?” I could never do that. Instead, I’m like, “How about I just write a song about it?” So I did. I wrote a song called “Moonlight” about those books, which I loved. I put my whole heart into Bella and Edward’s story into one small song.
I think that poets and songwriters have a lot in common because a songwriter really has to be a poet first. That’s how we live our lives. It’s the same kind of thinking. Unlike people who write fiction or make movies, we put our stories into these small little containers filled with mostly short lines and verses. This is how we talk about the way we feel and talk about things and explain the world and ourselves. So, yes….whatever it was you asked me, my answer is yes.
I love that you are such a romantic. It seems as though a lot of people who have been in the entertainment industry for a long time eventually lose that, they become jaded or bitter—which doesn’t generally make for good art.
It’s very sad, once you stop being a romantic, you can no longer be a poet. If you are, you’re a lousy poet and nobody’s going to want to read your poems because they’re just jaded and miserable. If you can’t write something that’s going to inspire people they’re not going to read it. They’re going to look at your work and then they’re going to say, “This person is done. That career is over.”
To inspire people, to make people feel things—that’s why we do this. Maybe you want to make people sob the way we were sobbing the other night at the movies—me and two friends, all of us sobbing so hard we can’t even look at each other—that’s actually a really beautiful thing. If you can’t do that or if you can’t make somebody laugh and remember the first time they ever fell in love, then you should just stop. You should not destroy your former career by trying to keep things going if you don’t have it anymore and the work isn’t coming from the right place. You should just count your money and make investments in real estate and be done. That’s it. You should just go to do something else.
So many young artists celebrate you as an influence and an inspiration. I can’t help but think of Tavi Gevinson’s 2012 Ted Talk in which her final word of advice to young women is simply, “Just be Stevie Nicks.”
I have to tell you, I remember watching it and I’m thinking, “Well I love this. I love watching this but I’m still not exactly sure why they sent this to me.” Then she gets to the very end and I’m thinking this little girl is getting ready to drop a magical bomb here. She’s been working towards something and I can see it in her face. All the sudden she goes, “Oh and one more thing. Just be Stevie Nicks.” I almost fell off my chair.
Stepping outside the confines of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks released her first solo album, Bella Donna, in 1981. The album, which is getting a deluxe reissue later this year, would eventually go on to sell over six million copies. “After the Glitter Fades” remains one of the album’s most beloved tracks—an early treatise on the highs and lows of suddenly becoming very famous.
“Stand Back” is not only one of Nicks’ biggest hits (with an iconic synthesizer line courtesy of Prince), it’s one of the most-watched music videos of the early 1980’s—a confluence of wind machines and ballet-inspired choreography that famously featured Nicks strutting on top of a neon-lit treadmill. This, however, was not Nicks’ original vision for the video. The now-infamous “Scarlett” version—which was mercifully scrapped—shows a terrified Nicks riding a runaway horse and cavorting with Civil War soldiers. (Best watched along with Nicks’ color commentary.)
The title track from Nicks’ 1982 sophomore album, The Wild Heart, has become a fan favorite in recent years due in large part to this viral video, which captures Nicks singing the song backstage in 1981 while getting her makeup done. Referring to it as “My favorite YouTube video of all-time,” Bon Iver sampled the clip on 2016’s 22, A Million.
Though Fleetwood Mac fans largely considered it both weird and unwieldy as a follow up to the gazillion-selling Rumours, 1979’s Tusk has taken on a kind of mythical status since its original release. Not only did the album further cement Nicks’ status as a songwriting force within the group, it also furthered her image as a kind of mystical goddess from another dimension, as is evidenced by this clip of the band performing “Sister of the Moon” on the Tusk tour.
Stevie Nicks is one of the rare artists whose body of work and visual aesthetic seem to constantly engender new generations of hyper-devoted fans. For the past 26 years this devotion has manifested in the form of Night of A Thousand Stevies—a annual party in which hundreds of people gather to celebrate all things Stevie-related, which means it’s an explosion of tambourines, lace shawls, crystal visions and white-winged doves.
I knew something was coming but I didn’t know it was going to have something to do with me. When she said that I was like, “I knew I loved this girl.” [laughs] I immediately got in touch with her. I sent her one of my gold moons and wrote her a long handwritten letter. We have really been very good friends ever since. I buy her golden platforms whenever I’m in Paris. I go and see her in her Broadway plays. I just went and saw her in The Crucible which just about put me in my grave since it’s a really miserable, dark story. When we first became friends she sent me a little thing of her playing guitar and singing “Landslide”—and doing quite a good job of it, I have to say. I always thought, “This little girl knows no bounds. She is going to take over the world.” So yes, it’s amazing to have inspired other people, even when you didn’t know that’s what you were doing. It makes you want to keep going. It’s hard to know what else to say except that it’s incredibly flattering and amazing to know that someone you’ve made has touched someone or encouraged someone…or that you’ve set an example somehow just by, you know, surviving and doing your best.
You recently wrapped up a nearly three-year long tour with Fleetwood Mac and now you’re about to head out on a solo tour. Even having done this many times, do you still get the same kind of creative rush in preparing for a tour?
(Photo: Danny Clinch)
Oh, absolutely. It’s not just the music, you’re also starting to think about boots and clothes and all the fun feminine crazy performer, entertainer stuff that’s going along with it. You’re sitting around with people trying to figure out, which of those 30 songs you rehearsed are actually going to make it to the final set. It is exciting. We don’t have a whole lot of time to prepare. My solo tours are a little looser. Fleetwood Mac rehearses for eight weeks solid, every day. It’s a big rehearsal thing, and with my solo band we don’t rehearse that long, because we’re a smaller thing. We just go. It’s coming at me like a speeding train right now. That makes me a little uncomfortable because I always get the deer in the headlights thing like, “Oh my god. It’s starting the day after tomorrow!” but that’s also a good thing. The faster it moves like that the more exciting it is because you have no choice but to get on the horse. Sometimes I think that’s why I’ve been able to have such a long career. I basically stayed on the horse. [laughs] What else am I gonna do?
The Queen of Rock and Roll slays on The Late Late Show, charms Taylor Lautner
On Thursday, Stevie Nicks appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden. She performed her Top 5 hit “Leather and Lace” (from Bella Donna), which was originally a duet with Eagles’ Don Henley. For this performance, Stevie sang the entire song with harmony help from her backup singers (Sharon Celani and Marilyn Martin) for the second half of the song, similar to the way it had been done for The White Winged Dove Tour in 1981. Afterwards, host James Corden showered Stevie with praise in his trademark tongue-and-cheek way, dropping to his knees to kiss the Queen of Rock and Roll’s boots!
After the performance, Stevie sat with fellow guests actors Taylor Lautner and Zach Galifianakis for a short interview. Stevie shared the story of when she and Taylor first met at a major Twilight: New Moon (2009) film-premiere after-party and explained how the second Twilight film inspired the recording of the song “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” and the 2011 album In Your Dreams. Taylor recalled meeting Stevie at the party, but admitted he didn’t remember hearing the actual story due to being starstruck from meeting her in person — telling her, “I’m a huge fan.”
Stevie Nicks explains her “Moonlight” (A Vampire’s Dream) story to Taylor Lautner. (CBS)
In promotion of her upcoming 24 Karat Gold Tour, Stevie Nicks performed her classic 1981 rock anthem “Edge of Seventeen” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which aired on Monday. Ellen shared the performance on her official website. The clip is embedded below.
The performance featured the return of singer Marilyn Martin (“Separate Ways,” “Night Moves”), who last performed with Stevie on The Wild Heart Tour in 1983. Joining fellow backup vocalist Sharon Celani, Marilyn will be filling in for Lori Nicks, who decided to sit out for the 24 Karat Gold Tour.
[slideshow_deploy id=’374788′]
After the performance, Ellen embraced Stevie and let the audience know about the upcoming 24 Karat Gold Tour. To celebrate the tour, Ellen will be giving away tickets to every show on the tour. Click here to enter for a chance to win tickets to a show near you!
It’s like when I think about the Twilight saga, those long books. I’m going, “How in the world did that woman write this? How did she come up with all of those characters and the different generations and backstories?” I could never do that. Instead, I’m like, “How about I just write a song about it?” So I did. I wrote a song called “Moonlight” about those books, which I loved. I put my whole heart into Bella and Edward’s story into one small song.
I knew something was coming but I didn’t know it was going to have something to do with me. When she said that I was like, “I knew I loved this girl.” [laughs] I immediately got in touch with her. I sent her one of my gold moons and wrote her a long handwritten letter. We have really been very good friends ever since. I buy her golden platforms whenever I’m in Paris. I go and see her in her Broadway plays. I just went and saw her in The Crucible which just about put me in my grave since it’s a really miserable, dark story. When we first became friends she sent me a little thing of her playing guitar and singing “Landslide”—and doing quite a good job of it, I have to say. I always thought, “This little girl knows no bounds. She is going to take over the world.” So yes, it’s amazing to have inspired other people, even when you didn’t know that’s what you were doing. It makes you want to keep going. It’s hard to know what else to say except that it’s incredibly flattering and amazing to know that someone you’ve made has touched someone or encouraged someone…or that you’ve set an example somehow just by, you know, surviving and doing your best.
