STEVIE NICKS INFO

Category: 24 Karat Gold (2014)

Legend, icon, storyteller

Stevie Nicks Talks About Empowering Women, Fleetwood Mac and her Next Tour

Legend. Icon. Storyteller.

“I have a super loud voice,” Stevie Nicks said with a laugh. The world is thankful for it. Her voice is necessary in times like these. The future is up in the air and Stevie Nicks has stepped up to the plate to be the heroine we all need. She is taking the show on the road and it will be unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. The 27-city tour starts on October 25th in Phoenix and will travel to places like Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City and more. “The 24 Karat Gold Tour” is the next chapter in the mythical career of Stevie Nicks.

In an exclusive interview with The Huffington Post, Nicks went into detail about what fans should look forward to when “The 24 Karat Gold Tour” comes to town. “I made a list. I went all the way back into my full catalog because the 24 Karat Gold record has a lot of songs. It also does encompass in many ways all the songs from all my solo records. So I’m having to pick. My list ended up to be 31 songs, it’s really ridiculous. I have an amazing opening act in The Pretenders. It cannot be a three hour set like I just finished doing with Fleetwood Mac and I asked, ‘But why?’ My musical director and lead guitarist asked if I cut down the set at all yet and I went, ‘Nope.’ So I said, ‘Just hand out the 31 songs to the band and tell them they don’t have to learn them all perfectly. They just have to be aware that we need to play these songs because sometimes the songs that you think are going to be the best aren’t and sometimes the songs that you think will never work end up being some of your favorite things,’” she told me. It was quite clear that Stevie Nicks created an adventurous and exciting air around her latest undertaking.

Nicks acknowledged that she will have to revisit her classic hits before touching the new material. “Of course there are the songs that you have to do which are ‘Landslide’ and ‘Edge Of Seventeen.’ That’s fine. I love all those songs so I don’t care. I wish I could do all new songs but you can’t,” she chuckled. She continued, “I’m going to try to do some title songs. I’m going to make an effort to do an extremely difficult complex song called ‘Wild Heart’ which may totally go down in flames. The fact is I’m going to try because I always wanted to do it on stage. It’s a very complex and complicated song but I’m hoping it’s going to work. I’m going to do the songs ‘Bella Donna’, and ‘Rooms On Fire.’ I’m trying to represent every record. There’s a bunch of songs on 24 Karat Gold that haven’t been played by my band. We have to work through all the songs on 24 Karat Gold to see if they will work. If you miss one syllable you can be lost in the dark. There’s not even time to breathe. My musical director said ‘Oh my God. Call me when it’s over.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry it’s going to be okay. It’s all going to work out.’ He’s a nervous wreck. It’s going to be great because we are actually going to ‘represent’. That’s what people say today, right? This tour is a little bit about the glorious past up until now. These songs are not songs that were ever kicked off records,” Nicks told me. She then explained why the songs were never released. She said, “These are songs that were pulled off records by me because I didn’t like how they were recorded. Which means I didn’t like the production, I didn’t like the singing, I didn’t like the fact that it was made too much into a rock n roll song or not. These weren’t songs that I didn’t want to go out, these were just songs that weren’t right. I said ‘No, I’m not going to have a bad experience with this song’ so I pulled them. That’s where 24 Karat Gold came from.” What is old is new again. Fans have been salivating to see these buried treasures played live by the icon.

You can never, ever get out of the line. You have to stay in the line because somebody will jump in there and take your place.

When explaining the process of recording 24 Karat Gold, Nicks told me, “We started with sixteen songs when we went to Nashville. And it came down to fourteen or fifteen, maybe. I said to Dave Stewart who has all my demos, ‘How can we make a record of these songs and do it while I’m off from Fleetwood Mac, while Christine is moving back to LA, while we are getting her straightened out? How long would that take?’ Dave said, ‘2-5 and 6-10 and then you go home.’ He followed up by saying, ‘You need to be on time and everything will be charted. And you want these songs charted exactly the way they were on your demos. They will be exact. They won’t be arguing with you. These are the best of the best studio musicians and they play on all different kinds of records every single day.’ We had to be organized and we were. It was so great because I didn’t have to learn to sing any of these songs differently because they were exactly as I wrote them. And they loved them. We recorded live. I was in a booth looking at all of them. The drummer, another guitar player, we had three guitar players and it was all there and I could see everybody. It was like playing in a club. When we were done, we jumped on a plane and flew back to my house. It was really fun. We had another three weeks at my house and then it was done. And it was amazing because the only records made in that kind of time were Fleetwood Mac because we really didn’t have that much money. We had a record deal. It was well known but it wasn’t the time to be self-indulgent. And Bella Donna took three months with a month of rehearsal and a month before that of picking out the songs. Every other record we’ve ever done has taken at least a year. Rumors, all of the records. We have enough money where everyone goes ‘We can do whatever we want.’ And I think sometimes that really doesn’t work that well for you because you really don’t need to book every studio in the city to put five thousand overdubs on music that is already really good. You are trying really hard to use your time wisely. You get better stuff and it is a lot more fun getting the stuff that you do get.” Nicks has had a lot of fun throughout her career and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Just when you think you have seen it all, Nicks makes sure that you haven’t seen anything yet.

“I’m not going out to promote this record to sell records because I know people don’t buy that many records now. I have a really good record, and I can go up on stage and do as many of the songs that I can get away with doing,” Nicks told me. She continued, “This will be a very theatrical show. We have a lot of great pictures. This is something I have not mentioned to anybody else. The guy who took the cover of Rumours, Fleetwood Mac and all of my covers, Herbert W. Worthington III, died last year and he left me everything. He left me every picture he ever took, all the way back to Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy and all the Fleetwood Mac stuff. All of the press photo sessions. I have an immense amount of amazing photographs taken by this great photographer who was a dear friend of mine that I can now use. When he was alive, he was like ‘You can have that one picture but it’s going to cost you $5,000.’ I would go ‘Herbie come on! Nobody is going to pay that much money! Are you crazy?’ It’s never been seen. So we have these photographs to use and to put up behind me. There’s a picture for every song. A picture tells a thousand stories so that’s really exciting too. I’m going to try to make the beautiful art book that he always wanted to make but never got the opportunity to do.” Stevie Nicks is all about making opportunities that were once not possible—including another Fleetwood Mac tour.

“We will go out again. We will probably go out in another year and a half,” Nicks said while shaking her head. She followed up by saying, “We have to for Christine. Because she’s like ‘Oh my God. I just came back to the band after sixteen years and you are going to break up now?’ We can’t break up now. We gave Christine her 120 shows and she flew through them. She’s five years older than me and you would just never know it. She looks great. You’ll get to see that show. She will never let us off the hook for that.” Stevie Nicks made sure to not let the next generation off the hook when she spoke about what it takes to succeed in the world today.

Backstage with Stevie Nicks and Adele

“I think it’s very hard now. That does not mean that it can’t happen,” Nicks said endearingly. She continued, “Look, it happened for Adele. Adele is certainly someone who writes great songs and has an amazing voice. Why did it happen for Adele? It’s because the stars crossed exactly at the right time, who knows. Whatever it was she worked very hard at it. I think that’s the thing. You have to figure out a way, if you’re eighteen or moving out of your parents house because you have to figure out a way to play and also support yourself. If everybody is like how my parents were, oh boy, I went to college for five years. I stopped after five years and had three months left to graduate. I called my parents and I said ‘My boyfriend Lindsey and I are going to LA.’ They said ‘Well, that’s fine we totally believe in you and support your theory in what you’re doing.’ I said, ‘Mom, we have to go now. It’s now or never.’ She said, ‘Cool, however, we will be withdrawing all financial support.’ And I said ‘I know that and it’s okay. We are going and I will be okay.’ And it was okay. Lindsey and I went to LA in 1971 and we worked out butts off. I had lots and lots of jobs. We didn’t really play shows because Lindsey didn’t want to play covers. We could have made a thousand dollars a week if we did three days a week. I wouldn’t have had to be a cleaning lady, a maid, a waitress or any of that. But the fact is, is that it made me a well-rounded person to be able to do that. We never gave up. You just have to keep working. I watch all those shows like The Voice, the end of American Idol, America’s Got Talent. I watch them all because I think they are all really fun. I’m a musical person and I love to watch people sing. If that’s what Lindsey and I had to do, if it was now, I would be dragging him tooth and nail to do those shows. Because if that’s the only way you can get people to see you now, then go on those damn shows. If you don’t get on them this year, go home and get better and practice and go back and do it again next year. If this is what you want to do, you have to be absolutely organized. And devoted and determined and you can’t listen to anybody tell you what you can and cannot do. Nobody knows what you can do except you. You have to prove the world wrong, period. If you’re really good…And I think most people could actually say they are really good at something. I did. I would look in the mirror and would go ‘Lindsey and I are excellent singers and we don’t sound like anybody else. We can captivate an audience and we can write great songs. So I don’t care if I’m a waitress right now because I’m not going to be a waitress for very long.’ That’s the attitude you have to take.”

Independence…I think that’s important when talking to kids, especially women. Assert your independence.

Nicks continued to share words of wisdom for aspiring entertainers. “If you can’t have that work ethic about what you do, you might as well just try to go to school and learn to do something where you can get a job that you can get paid for. Rock and roll, music, acting, being a dancer. It’s all fleeting unless you never look away. You can never, ever get out of the line. You have to stay in the line because somebody will jump in there and take your place,” she said in all seriousness. Passionately, she exclaimed, “One thing I remembered when we first moved to LA—we played for people. A lot of people were like, ‘Yeah you guys are really good…But who are you? What are you? Are you rockabilly? Are you folk singers? Are you going to add members and become a rock n roll band? A country rock n roll band? Are one of you going to become a preacher? Are you going to be with the Everly Brothers?’ We would be like, ‘We don’t know. We just know that we are going to be really famous. And we are really good at what we do. We don’t put ourselves in any specific box. You can put us in a box and tell us what we are if you want and maybe we will believe you. But the fact is—what we know is—that we are really good.’”

Nicks then proceeded to give career advice for young women in this day and age. “If this didn’t work out for me I would have probably been a disc jockey or maybe an editor. I would have done something that was really, really fun. If this didn’t pan out for me and I finally started thinking 10 years down the line ‘Well maybe this isn’t going to work,’ I would have done something else and continued to do music in my leisure time. There is something also to be said about that. I think I could have been a great disc jockey because I love music and I love talking and I love telling stories. I think I could have been great at doing something like that. I always had something like that in the back of my mind even when I was sixteen when I told my parents that I was going to be a singer-songwriter and that’s that. And my mom’s like ‘Well you are going to take short-handed typing. Because you are going to be able to be an independent woman. You are going to be able to stand in a room with really smart men and hold your own. You are never going to feel like you are behind while the whole room of men are going to look at you like some stupid girl.’ My mom was seriously independent and she always had a job. She wanted that for me from the very beginning. To have my independence. I think that’s important when talking to kids, especially women. Assert your independence. Christine and I knew that we would never be treated like second class citizens when standing in a room with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. All of the famous men. If anybody ever treats us with anything but total respect we will just walk out and it is their loss. And that was implanted in my head by my mom long before I graduated from high school.” Mom always knows best. So does Stevie Nicks.

Nicks hammered the point home by telling people to always put in their best effort and to never be afraid of being different. She said, “You could be a really good photographer but guess what? Your 5-year-old is a really good photographer. The bar has been set so high now with everything. I think I’m a good photographer. But then I see these little kids taking these pictures and they are phenomenal. So you have to go back and say ‘Well I’m going to be better than that. The bar is raised and I’m going to jump over that bar. I’m going to be a better photographer than all the 5-year-olds and all the 25-year-olds.’ The bar has been raised in everything because of this tech world we live in. I don’t have a computer. I don’t have an iPhone. I have a camera that takes really good pictures and I have a flip phone in case of a fire. That’s it. I don’t live in that world but I see everybody around me that lives in that world. Sometimes I feel like I am an alien. Everybody is sitting with a silver computer on their laps and crying because the Internet went down. That’s really how people are and I don’t live in that world. Maybe we should talk about kids being truly creative, who want to be a performer or a writer. They can’t live in that world. Get out of that world. Start writing by hand. Life is beautiful. Buy a notebook, take out a pen and write it out instead.” In true Stevie Nicks style, she had one last thing to say to everybody.

“Whatever you do just don’t be sitting next to somebody and talk to them on your phone.”

You can purchase tickets to “The 24 Karat Gold Tour” by clicking here.

Kyle Stevens / Huffington Post / Monday, September 19, 2016

Follow Kyle Stevens on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thekylestevens

September 19, 2016
Stevie Nicks on secret to Fleetwood Mac’s longevity

Ahead of 24 Karat Gold solo tour, singer-songwriter talks set lists, “sex, rock & roll and drugs” songs, and more

Stevie Nicks has been having trouble sleeping. The Fleetwood Mac vocalist wrapped up a year-and-a-half long tour with her band last November, but even as she’s begun rehearsing for a solo tour in support of 2014’s 24 Karat Gold that will launch in October, Nicks has yet to find herself on a better schedule.

“I’ve gotten into the habit of not going to sleep until somewhere between five and seven, and when I’m not working I can sleep until four [in the afternoon],” she reveals, blaming the tour routing schedule that had the band jumping between cities and time zones every other day. “I wish I had worked harder on it because now it’s gonna be harder for me to, but I’ll figure it out because I always do.”

Even though she doesn’t necessarily need to, the legendary vocalist and songwriter felt determined to get back on the road even after touring for so long with the Mac, who reunited with Christine McVie after a 16-year break. Just before McVie’s return, Nicks had finished recording 24 Karat Gold, based on a collection of demos from throughout her career that she had personally cut from the various Fleetwood Mac and solo albums they were originally intended to be on. She spent two and half months in Nashville with friend and producer Dave Stewart recording the songs, and the same day she turned the album into Warner Bros., she entered a rehearsal room with one of rock’s most iconic, formerly tempestuous line-ups.

“I didn’t walk through the doors at the Fleetwood Mac rehearsal with Christine McVie sitting there after not having her in the band for 16 years and say, ‘Oh, would everybody like to stay up and listen to my new record?’” she recalls with a laugh. “So never a word was ever spoken about it for the entire year and a half that we were on the road, so I never even got to listen to this record until we got back.”

In the past few weeks, following a well-deserved break after Fleetwood Mac’s trek around the world, Nicks realized that the window was closing for the appropriate time to promote the album. “These are the glory songs,” she asserts. “These are the sex, rock & roll and drugs songs that I’m actually not really writing right now, and these are the songs I could never write again.”

As Nicks explains it, her solo career acts as a crucial counterweight to her band activities. “I feel really blessed to be able to be the Gemini that I am and be able to hop back and forth between my solo career and Fleetwood Mac. My solo career is truly the reason why Fleetwood Mac is still together because I get bored easily,” she says. “That’s why every time I go to work on my solo career, I try to make it as different from Fleetwood Mac as I possibly can so that it really is two worlds. When I feel ready to go back to Fleetwood Mac when we do our next tour in a year and half, I’ll be ready to go back to Fleetwood Mac, and it’ll be good.”

The “Wild Heart” singer’s love of contrast is something she embraces in her daily life, too. “I always think an environment change will fix anything, so if I get depressed, I’m gonna leave my apartment and go to my house for a couple of days,” she explains. Sometimes she’ll do the same in hotels, too, needing to leave a beautiful suite for a room just down the hall. “All it takes is a new living room and bedroom for Stevie and she’s a new person.”

As she excitedly runs through plans for her upcoming tour, Nicks speaks with the infectious energy of a teenager preparing for their first gig. She first mocked up a list of 31 songs for the show, and when she presented it to musical director and guitarist Waddy Wachtel, he asked for her to cut it down. She’s now at 30. “I’m like, ‘OK, that’s it. I’m not cutting these songs out,’” she says, noting that everyone will learn all 30 for rehearsals. “You never know which songs are gonna really work, so I can’t make that decision, and I’m standing by my statement that I cannot choose the songs until we go into rehearsal.”

Alongside 24 Karat Gold tracks, many of which she’s debuting, she’s thrilled to try “Wild Heart” live for the first time, as well as the title tracks off Bella Donna and Trouble in Shangri-La. “Gold Dust Woman,” “Edge of Seventeen,” “Dreams” and “Stand Back” are secured on the list, as well. She even has plans to connect 2001’s “Sorcerer” to the newer “Belle Fleur,” two songs that come from the same poem. “I don’t really get tired of my songs,” she says. “I’m lucky.”

Even as she works on getting herself in bed by 10 p.m. – “which is totally ridiculous for me,” she scoffs at her own suggestion – Nicks is looking forward to taking on another schedule that will keep her up late at night. “We’re gonna go on for like two hours then we’re gonna go and do what Prince would, which is then go find a club and play the other 14 songs,” she says with a laugh, alluding to the inevitable cuts she’s making to her set list. “It’s all a lot of fun.”

Bringing up Prince, who played on the original recording of Nicks’ 1983 solo hit “Stand Back,” puts the singer in a reflective mood. “I feel really sad that Prince’s journey didn’t continue until he was 95,” she says. “Just so devastated, but I think that for most of us, we’re all gonna live to be in our nineties. So a lot of this creativity and all the things I want to do when this part of my life starts to go away a little bit, then I’ll be sitting down at an old typewriter that I’ll dig out of my storage unit in Phoenix and I’ll start writing stories. I’ll start working on movies. There’s so many things I want to do that this is just a part of it all. That’s all I can tell you.”

Britanny Spanos / Rolling Stone / Wednesday, September 13, 2016

September 14, 2016
Stevie Nicks to perform ‘Landslide’ on AGT finale

NBC’s hit talent show will feature performances by rock icon Stevie Nicks, The Jersey Boys, and Il Divo on Wednesday night’s finale

Stevie Nicks is scheduled to perform “Landslide” during the America’s Got Talent finale on Wednesday. The performance comes on the heels of Nicks announcing her much-anticipated 24 Karat Gold North American Tour, with Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders, which kicks off in Phoenix on October 25. America’s Got Talent airs at 8:00pm (ET/PT) on NBC.

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September 13, 2016
Stevie Nicks to honor Prince on upcoming tour

NEW YORK (AP) — Stevie Nicks is trying to whittle down the set list for her upcoming solo tour, but one song that definitely made the cut is her 1983 hit “Stand Back” with Prince. Originally written as a compliment, now it will be a tribute.

The Fleetwood Mac singer, who heard Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” on her car radio and loved it so much she decided to write an answer song, hasn’t played “Stand Back” since Prince died in April.

“I will be singing it for the first time without Prince being on the planet,” she said. “That is going to be horrible, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to pay homage to my ‘Little Red Corvette’ friend. I’ll sing it forever for him now.”

Nicks’ two-month tour with The Pretenders kicks off Oct. 25 in support of her 2014 album, “24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault.” She never got a chance to promote the CD since she spent most of the last three years on the road with Fleetwood Mac.

Nicks promises songs from “24 Karat Gold” as well as old favorites like “Dreams,” ”If Anyone Falls,” ”New Orleans,” ”Bella Donna,” ”Rooms on Fire” and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

“Stand Back” will be there, fueled by the memory of her having lured Prince into the recording studio to play keyboards on the song he inspired. She said one of her deepest regrets is never getting him to join her onstage for a live version.

Though Nicks and Prince were friends, the two didn’t hang out much. One thing they disagreed on was drug use. “He hated them. And he hated that I did drugs and that’s probably why we didn’t hang out more,” she said.

“He was worried that I would die of an accidental drug overdose and my sadness is that he did die of an accidental drug overdose. He’s up there looking down, saying to me, ‘Sweetie, I can’t believe it happened either.’”

Nicks has no current record deal — “I’m free to do whatever I want” — after delivering “24 Karat Gold” to Warner Bros. It’s an album of orphan songs, demos mostly written between 1969-1987.

“These were written during the days when everybody was pretty high and crazy and there was a lot of love affairs going on and a lot of breakups going on and just a lot of emotion going on,” she said.

The 68-year-old singer-songwriter said that there were many reasons why the songs never got on any of her albums or those by Fleetwood Mac. In some cases, she didn’t like the arrangements and pulled them. Or they came out soulless.

So in 2014, she and producers Dave Stewart and Waddy Wachtel went to Nashville, Tennessee, and re-recorded the songs in a matter of weeks. When they were finished, she put one CD in a gold box, wrapped it in a red bow and delivered it to the front desk of Warner Bros. Then she rejoined the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour.

Now she’s getting ready to hit the road again, one of the few legendary acts like the Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen to be able to deliver a three- or four-hour set because they never stopped making music.

“I am very aware that artists over 50 don’t — and are never going to — sell a lot of albums any more. It took me years to accept that,” she said. “Now we can just pretend we’re like 15 and start over and make records just because we want to.”

(© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

September 13, 2016
Stevie Nicks on tour, Fleetwood Mac album, Prince regret

Stevie Nicks on crafting a setlist for 24 Karat Gold Tour, possible Fleetwood Mac album & wishing she’d performed with Prince

“I’m hoping that this will be as much fun for the audience as it’s gonna be for me,” Stevie Nicks tells Billboard about her just-announced 24 Karat Gold Tour. The two-month trek — launching Oct. 25 in Phoenix, with the Pretenders opening — supports her 2014 effort 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault, which marked her sixth top 10 album on the Billboard 200 chart.

The album was comprised of tracks Nicks had written and made demo recordings for decades ago but had never been included on any of her previous albums. Then, in 2014, she and producer Dave Stewart headed to Nashville with the demos and recorded entirely new versions of the songs to produce 24 Karat Gold. “I think this [tour] is going to be great,” Nicks says. “I think that all the fans are gonna have a ball. And I hope that they totally just dress up — as Wendy Williams would say, ‘Dress to the nines.’ And come to party, and sing.”

Stevie Nicks Announces Joint Tour With the Pretenders

Nicks says the setlist for the tour is still being shaped (it’s “about at 30 songs right now”) but will feature songs from 24 Karat Gold and possibly title cuts from some of her older albums, like “Bella Donna,” “Wild Heart” and “Trouble in Shangri-La.” She wants the show to “have its little explosions of fun” from the various parts of her career. Nicks also gives a hint to fans: “You know what, you might want to come to two shows, because you never know: There might be an alternative [set]list.”

It’s likely that familiar favorites like “Edge of Seventeen” and “Stand Back” will both turn up in the setlist, and for Nicks, “Stand Back” has a new emotional weight. The track was “written to” Prince’s “Little Red Corvette,” and she’s “brokenhearted” that she was never able to have him share the stage with her on the song. “Had I ever in a million years thought that we would lose him,” Nicks says, “I would have made sure that that would have happened. And it didn’t. So that’s just one of those things in your life where you so say, ‘I really missed out.’ Because he should have. That should have happened. So whenever I play ‘Stand Back’ from this day forward, Prince will be standing next to me. That is always going to be a joy.”

Nicks, of course, has a second career with the band Fleetwood Mac, which completed its triumphant On With the Show Tour in November 2015. The global run saw the classic Rumours-era lineup of the band — with a returning Christine McVie — play 120 shows on three continents. Now that the tour has concluded, might there be a new studio album from the famous quintet?

“You know what, I never know what’s going to happen,” Nicks says. “It’s like, I didn’t — in my wildest dreams — ever know that I was going to do the 24 Karat Gold record. And I certainly didn’t ever, after 16 years, think that Christine McVie was going to call up and say, ‘How would you feel if I came back to the band?’ You know, it’s like, are you serious? Is this a joke?”

With McVie back in the Fleetwood fold, fans are also holding out hope for a new album from the group. “I learned a long time ago to never say never. Right now, because of the fact that we know that people don’t buy records… it’s like, hard to sell records. So then you think, ‘Well, why do you do records?’ Well, the reason you do records is because it’s like we’re like kids again, and we can do anything we want. We have enough money. We don’t really have to work if we don’t want to. So we can do records for the reason that we actually did them in the very beginning — just ’cause it’s fun.

“Is it possible that Fleetwood Mac might do another record? I can never tell you yes or no, because I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. … It’s like, do you want to take a chance of going in and setting up in a room for like a year [to record an album] and having a bunch of arguing people? And then not wanting to go on tour because you just spent a year arguing? Or do you just go on tour because you know that you have fun up there and you love doing shows? And Christine’s only been back for [laughs] a year and a half.

“So you start to weigh your… ‘Why would you do this, why would you do that?’ And I honestly don’t know. But I never say never… that really is in God’s hands.”

Here are some excerpts from our conversation with Nicks:

Nicks recorded the 24 Karat Gold album just two months — and it was her final album owed to her record label, Warner Bros. Records. But she had to essentially put 24 Karat Gold away and not listen to it for over a year as she was about to head out on the road with Fleetwood Mac:

We finished [24 Karat Gold] in, like, two months — the whole record. And then, this is kind of what I did: It was like, metaphorically, I bought a gold box, I put the record in the box, I put tissue around it, I wrapped it, I put a red bow on it. I got in the car, we drove past Warner Bros., and I ran in, put it on the front desk and said, “Please give this to the president of Warner Bros.,” and I ran back out. Got in the car and went straight to Culver City to be at rehearsals with Fleetwood Mac at 2 o’clock. That was it!

Needless to say, me doing a record wasn’t exactly the most favorite topic of conversation at the Fleetwood Mac rehearsal. Christine had just come back in, you know, changed her life, moved to L.A. So that was it. I can honestly say, I never even listened to 24 Karat Gold again until we got home from the tour in January. Because why would I, you know what I mean? Why would I go and make myself feel bad by listening to my really beautiful, fun record of all my great old glory songs? [They] were the sex, rock & roll and drug songs that just almost made every single big record, but for whatever my reasons were, I pulled them. These weren’t songs that were kicked off the record by anybody; these were songs that I pulled off records.

So why would I want to sit around and make myself miserable? So I never listened to it once until we got home from the Fleetwood Mac tour. And then I said to my manager, “Well, I’m gonna think about this very carefully.” And the fact was… my little life-partner puppy dog that was almost 18 years old was seriously dying. And she died between December and July 5. So I didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t take any vacations, I didn’t really do anything except be with her and kind of deal with that whole situation. But all through that, I was thinking, “You know, if I don’t do this now, we’ll miss the window that will make it possible.” If we go out for 24 Karat Goldright now, we’re actually going out with some product — not that I am going to necessarily sell records, because I don’t believe that people buy records, so that’s not why I’m going out. I’m going out to promote this record just because I want people to hear what’s on it. And I figured the only way I can let them hear what’s on it is to actually go out and play some of the stuff that’s on it.

Her manager asked if perhaps Nicks would just rather stay home this year after the passing of her beloved pet and spending so much time on the road with Fleetwood Mac:

I don’t want to miss the window. If I don’t go out until next year, we won’t go out until the spring, and then by the time we get out there, it’ll be the summer, and by the time I get home, it’ll be too late to do the 24 Karat Gold Tour. And it’ll just end up being Stevie going out to do another Stevie Nicks tour that has all the exact same songs that every other Stevie Nicks tour for the last 20 years has had. And that’s not what I want to do.

Nicks discusses what the 24 Karat Gold Tour setlist might include:

This will make you laugh, but it’s the truth. When I sat down a couple weeks ago to start figuring out what would be in here, I had decided that I also wanted to do “Wild Heart,” maybe do “Bella Donna,” maybe do “Trouble in Shangri-La.” So I wanted to do some title songs [from Nicks’ albums]. I mean, I thought, you know, this is laying open a whole new world for me… So my list is like about at 30 songs right now. And so Waddy [Wachtel, Nicks’ guitarist and music director for the tour], he said to me, “Just call me when [the setlist is] over.” Like, “Stevie, have you cut out any songs yet?” And I said, “Well, maybe two, so I’m working on it.”

So what I’ve done is, I’ve sent out all 30 songs [Laughs] to everybody in the band, saying, like, “We’re not going to do all of these 30, but we have to try some of these.” Because sometimes you don’t know. You might hear the song that you think is going to be the best ever, and it’s not. And then there’s the song that you think is going to be totally terrible and it’s great. So I said, “You don’t have to learn them for real, but just be aware.” So that we can spend a few days just playing bits and pieces of everything. So, yes, is [the setlist] going to be songs from 24 Karat Gold? Absolutely. But it’s also going to be some things from some of the other records also, because I’ll never get a chance to do this again. Until I actually do, like, the full-on acoustic set that will actually be three hours, where I can actually start with “Bella Donna” and go all the way up through… until I get to that tour.

So this tour, I want it to have its acoustic parts, I want it to have its little explosions of fun from all different parts. I want it to have the 24 Karat Gold demos, there’s two or three songs off In Your Dreams. I’d like to do the “New Orleans” song, I want to do “Soldier’s Angel” because that’s important to me right now — just, once again, with the whole political thing that’s going on, I think “Soldier’s Angel” is an important song to do. So it’s like, it’s gonna be a lot of cool stuff, and I’ll have about two hours and 15 minutes. So, I may — maybe — cut a couple songs down a little bit. Maybe I won’t do all six verses, you know? … Maybe if I do “Bella Donna,” maybe I’ll only do half of “Bella Donna.” I want to do “Wild Heart,” and that has never been done onstage, ever. Because that is a hard song to do. So I’ll give it a try, and if I can pull it off, I’ll do it.

On how so many of her old demo recordings ended up on the Internet and eventually back to the 24 Karat Gold album, and then to the 24 Karat Gold Tour:

At some point a suitcase of demos was sold, and out went all the demos to all these songs. … They all got sold. I mean, they just got lost. And in those days, we were so free with our music. It was like, “Sure I just wrote a new song.” And some of your friends are like, “Can I have a tape of it?” And you’re going, “Sure I’ll make you a cassette right now.” And then of course that cassette goes to their house and then somebody else says, “Gee, that’s so great can I have a cassette of that?” And they’re like, “Sure!” And nobody was ever selfish with music, one bit. But in the long run, unfortunately, it did release just about everything I’d ever done. Everything, probably, I’ve never done is out in the cosmos, somewhere.

But the thing is, [the fans] haven’t seen it done. They haven’t seen it played in concert. So that’s what I’m hoping, is that this can be the suitcase of demos that they didn’t ever see performed. And that this will be really fun for people. Because they are familiar with these songs. They’re familiar with all the songs on 24 Karat Gold. They’re familiar with almost every demo I ever made. So this is bringing them to life. And that’s what I wanted to do, you know? And I’m hoping that this will be as much fun for the audience as it’s gonna be for me, because I’m so tired of doing the same thing over and over and over again. I’m not that kind of person, really. I’m the off-the-top-of-your-head kind of person and always have been. And it’s very hard for me to just do the same thing every single night.

Nicks has performed “Edge of Seventeen” and “Stand Back” more than 400 times each in her shows. Are there songs she’s tired of performing live?

Because I have two careers — the great thing is, is that I got three years off from doing “Edge of Seventeen” or “Stand Back,” because Fleetwood Mac actually used to do “Stand Back” and took it out [on the last tour]. So I haven’t done “Edge of Seventeen” or “Stand Back” in closing in on four years. … All those songs, if they actually were in almost all the sets, then you know I really like those songs. I didn’t do them because I had to do them. Because I could always put something else in instead.

Keith Caulfield / Billboard / Thursday, September 8, 2016

Read more articles by Keith Caulfield

September 8, 2016
TOUR DATES: 24 Karat Gold Tour
Legendary acts Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders pair up for fall tour

On October 25, Stevie Nicks will kick off the 24 Karat Gold Tour, performing 27 shows across the U.S. and Canada. The Pretenders, lead by Chrissie Hynde, will be the support act. To purchase VIP concert packages, visit Stevie Nicks Official.

Official Tour Dates

October 25: Talking Stick Resort Arena-Phoenix AZ
October 27: Pepsi Center-Denver CO
October 29: Toyota Center-Houston TX
October 30: American Airlines Center-Dallas TX
November 2: Amalie Arena-Tampa
November 4: BB&T Arena: Ft. Lauderdale FL
November 6: Phillips Arena-Atlanta GA
November 7: Bridgestone Arena-Nashville TN
November 10: Time Warner Cable Arena-Charlotte NC
Novemeber 12: Colonial Life Arena-Columbia SC
November 14: Verizon Center-Washington DC
November 15: TD Gardens-Boston MA
November 18: Boardwalk Hall-Atlantic City NJ
November 20: Wells Fargo Center-Philadelphia PA
November 23: Van Andel Arena-Grand Rapids MI
November 25: Mohegun Sun – Connecticut
November 27: The Palace of Auburn Hills-Detroit MI
November 29: Air Canada Center-Toronto ON
December 1: Madison Square Gardens-New York NY
December 3: United Center-Chicago IL
December 5: Pinnacle Bank Arena-Lincoln NE
December 6: Xcel Energy Center-St Paul MN
December 9: Pepsi Live at Rodgers Arena-Vancouver BC
December 11: Key Arena-Seattle WA
December 13: Golden 1 – Sacramento CA
December 14 SAP Center-San Jose CA
December 18: The Forum- Los Angeles CA

Official Press Release

Singer Stevie Nicks, the multi-platinum, Grammy Award Winning music icon today announced The 24 Karat Gold Tour. Produced exclusively by Live Nation, the 28 city tour with Pretenders, will begin on Tuesday, October 25 in Phoenix, Arizona and will see the legendary Nicks perform throughout North America this Fall with shows scheduled in New York City, LA, Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta and more. A full list of tour dates follows this release.

American Express Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Wednesday, September 7 at 10:00 am. Through Sunday, September 11 at 10:00 pm. Tickets go on sale beginning Monday, September 12 at www.livenation.com.

Nicks, a multi-platinum selling artist – dubbed “the reigning queen of rock and roll” by Rolling Stone Magazine has had six Top Ten albums and 8 Grammy nominations. Her 2014 album 24 Karat Gold – Songs From The Vault debuted at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top 200 Charts. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, Nicks recently performed 122 sold out shows around the world during 2014-2015. Collectively as a solo artist and Fleetwood Mac band member, Nicks has sold over 140 million albums and won several Grammys.

The Pretenders cross the bridge between punk, new wave and Top 40 pop music more than any other band, with hit songs like I’ll Stand By You, Back On The Chain Gang and Don’t Get Me Wrong. The band has sold over 25 million albums and founder & leader Chrissie Hynde is one of contemporary music’s greatest songwriters. Chrissie most recently released the album Stockholm and a 2015 memoir, Reckless: My Life As a Pretender, hailed by the New York Times upon its release as “honest and distinctive…first and foremost, a love letter to rock and roll.”

Key Articles
- Stevie Nicks on her Fleetwood Mac ‘team’, solo joys, and the 2016 election (New York Times)
- Stevie NIcks announces 24 Karat Gold U.S. Tour (Rolling Stone)
- Stevie Nicks sets 24 Karat Gold dates with Pretenders (Pollstar)
- Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde join forces for fall tour (Inspirer)
September 5, 2016
Stevie covers Rolling Stone Australia

[slideshow_deploy id=’54318′]
The Australian edition of Rolling Stone (April 2015) featuring a different photo of Stevie hit the newsstand on Wednesday. The photograph, originally shot by Sam Emerson, is from the mid-Seventies.

(It was previously reported in error that the photograph was taken by Herbert W. Worthington III. Our apologies to the Sam Emerson and the Herbert W. Worthington estate.)

March 5, 2015
Rock’s Gold Dust Woman

Already a fiercely popular vocalist for mega-band Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks began her solo music career in 1980 It seemed that releasing just two to three songs every two years was not enough for her. And being a prolific songwriter, she decided to sow her creative oats with what would be her first solo album, Bella Donna. No one expected a hit, not even Stevie herself. She figured she would simply return to Fleetwood Mac once the album as done, but the fans stated otherwise. Upon its release, Bella Donna went to Number One on the Billboard Top LP chart, eventually gaining platinum status and spawning 4 singles, including “Edge of Seventeen” and “Leather and Lace.” A small tour followed, after which she did go back to Fleetwood Mac. But the seeds were sown, and a solo Stevie was just fine with where she was headed.

Throughout the 1980s, Nicks would go on to record her most popular music. Her second and third albums, The Wild Heart and Rock A Little went on to achieve platinum status as well, with singles like “Talk To Me,” “I Can’t Wait,” and the uber hit, “Stand Back.” Collaborations with some of rock’s heavy hitters, most notably Tom Petty and Don Henley, added fuel to the fire, creating a grueling schedule where she balanced both Fleetwood Mac and her solo career.

Enter cocaine. Once thought of as the “rock star’s friend,” Stevie developed a life-threatening addiction to the drug. She overcame addiction first to cocaine in the late 1980s, then to a prescription medication called Klonopin in the mid-1990s. After entering rehab twice, she emerged clean and ready to rock once again.

2001 saw the release of her sixth solo LP, the critically-acclaimed Trouble In Shangri-La, which features a guest list that included Natalie Maines of Dixie Chick fame, as well as Sarah McLachlan and Macy Gray. The album saw the return of her romantic, yet cryptic, style of songwriting, with Nicks winning the Blockbuster Songwriters Award that same year.

In 2011, Stevie returned with In Your Dreams. Produced by former Eurythmics member Dave Stewart (the two had met in the 1980 and vowed one day to work together). Stewart took the music to new heights, all the while staying true to Nicks’ style. Upon release of the first single, “Secret Love,” fans and critics alike said the same thing — she has never sounded better.

Now, fast forward to the present. At age 66, Stevie is better than ever, touring with a newly reunited Fleetwood Mac, while releasing her latest solo LP, 24 Karat Gold — Songs From the Vault. With Dave Stewart once again at the producer’s helm, the album has been quite well received by critics as well as adored by thousands of rabid fans. There is no middle ground with Nicks’ fans — they worship her. The rock icon shows no signs of stopping any time soon. With a slew of tour dates with Fleetwood Mac, as well as her own album to promote, she is one busy lady.

And a very lucky one! Many of her contemporaries succumbed to drug addiction and overdose. Nicks broke the cycle, and not only survived, but thrived in a business where fame can kill. Now, after eight successful solo albums, countless tours, and even a special appearance on NBC’s The Voice, Nicks is at the top of her game. She’s planning a new album with Fleetwood Mac, as well as a tour for her own latest release. The life and career of Rock’s Chief Sorceress are fantastic once again.

Marc Farr / Playback: stl / Thursday, February 5, 2015

February 5, 2015
VIDEO: Stevie Nicks performs ‘Blue Water’

Watch Stevie Nicks perform a serene, solo ‘Blue Water’

Rolling Stone’s most recent cover story is a long, intimate look into the life of Stevie Nicks. While the issue was coming together, the Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter sat behind a piano and played a handful of songs for our cameras. Above, watch her perform “Blue Water,” a meditative track that from last year’s 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault. Lady Antebellum provide harmonies on the record, but here Nicks goes completely solo.

During the informal session, she also sang a rare, stripped-down version of “Gypsy,” and in the story she discussed everything from her past drug use to her current tour with Fleetwood Mac.

“We choose to stay,” she says of the band. “Because we can’t do anything else. None of us are ever going to stand up and say, ‘I’m going to make my own choice for the first time in my life, and I’m going away, and I don’t know if I’m coming back.”

Rolling Stone / Tuesday, January 27, 2015

January 27, 2015
‘When in doubt, be Stevie Nicks’

The iconic singer releases a record amid fierce interest in her work and persona

A night owl by nature, Stevie Nicks was unable to sleep on a recent Saturday night in Manhattan and had scheduled a late interview to help pass the evening. So 1:30 a.m. found her looking out on the terrace of her rented penthouse atop the Palace Hotel, with a hypnotic view of the Rockefeller Plaza. Amid a torrent of recollections—of her band, Fritz; of the duo she later created with former lover and Fritz guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham; and, of course, of Fleetwood Mac—Nicks began to hum a hip-hop tune. “Which rapper is it that I love who says, ‘Mo’ money more problems?’ ” she asked, pausing in the midst of Notorious B.I.G.’s biggest hit. “He spoke the truth. Don’t I know it!”

Nicks’s truth is peppered with tales of fate and near-fatalities: Fleetwood Mac’s opulent success, the long nights of work wrought with “enough alcohol and cocaine to guarantee years of addiction,” the speculative stories that followed them around for years (orgies and paganism were favoured topics).

Related: An extended web-only Q&A with Stevie Nicks

The history is relevant; her recent solo album, 24 Karat Gold, reinterprets demos written before, during and after Fleetwood Mac’s rise. In it, Nicks doesn’t simply cover her own work; she acts as a musical necromancer who resurrects old sounds and personal stories of burned love, life on the road and facing demons. The song Twisted, first released on the soundtrack for the 1996 disaster-drama Twister, flicks at the appetite for danger all five band members shared. “It was originally written about a group of tornado chasers who dedicate their lives to hunting down storms,” she said. “The parallels to Fleetwood Mac are so there.” The mix of emotion, narcotics and creative egos brought forth a bounty of songs, and turbulent romances. Nicks ended her relationship with Buckingham in 1975, and had an affair with drummer Mick Fleetwood. Christine McVie, the band’s keyboardist-vocalist, left the guitarist for the sound engineer. “After the show, we wouldn’t go out,” Nicks said. “[Christine] would drink wine spritzers and I’d drink tequila alone in our adjoined rooms. The boys were angry at us [and] we had to see them in the morning to work.”

Nicks’s record is timed to a Fleetwood Mac reunion; the group is booked for more than 40 dates in Europe and Australia, and McVie rejoins them after a 16-year hiatus. On tour, Nicks and Buckingham, who share time alone on stage during the ballad Landslide, remain uncomfortable co-workers. “Fences will never be mended with Lindsey and me,” Nicks said. “We don’t agree on anything. If something’s going on [and] I’m doing something that Lindsey doesn’t like, his manager tells my manager. I don’t care what he thinks.”

The distance is working for Nicks. The solo project, produced by former Eurythmics guitarist-producer Dave Stewart, contains some of the best recordings she has made in two decades. The work riffs on the witchy reputation she has propagated referencing Welsh mythology and wearing sorceress-style shawls, and which is enjoying something of a moment. Nicks had a cameo on the HBO series American Horror Story: Coven last year and was a guest judge on The Voice. “I could never be Madonna,” she shrugged. “It’s too much work to be a chameleon.” She will not be dressed by stylists—“They steal your personality”—or coerced by A&R people (“Nobody has the balls to tell me what to do”). Her ’70s bohemian look is referenced by fashion designers ranging from Rodarte to Ralph Lauren. Her duets with Dixie Chicks and Taylor Swift are awards-show ratings draws. The 18-year-old editor Tavi Gevinson gave this advice to her platoon of Millennial followers in a TED talk: “When in doubt, just be Stevie Nicks.”

The 66-year-old Nicks does not own a cellphone or computer, but she’s aware of the momentum behind her. She wants to record a sequel to 24 Karat Gold. She plans to launch a capsule collection of clothing, a jewellery line and a perfume. “I spend so many late nights mixing scents with cinnamon,” she said. She had advice for young, scantily clad singers she sees backstage at awards shows. “It’s degrading, and it makes women appear to be fancy little hookers. If you are not at least somewhat of a feminist, you’re going to be taken advantage of.”

Elio Iannucci / Maclean’s Magazine / Sunday, 25th January 2015

January 27, 2015