Stand back, Stevie Nicks fans: The legendary songstress makes her much-anticipated appearance on “American Horror Story: Coven” at 9 p.m. Wednesday on FX.

The longtime Fleetwood Mac rocker, famous for her singular voice, signature shawls and on-stage twirls, has a guest-starring gig on this season’s 10th episode, titled “The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks.”

In the show, swamp witch Misty Day (Lily Rabe) is obsessed with the singer. Misty gets to meet her idol in Wednesday’s episode when Fiona (Jessica Lange) invites Nicks to the young witches’ New Orleans home.

Nicks talked about her “AHS” debut during a phone interview Tuesday from her house in Phoenix (edited Q&A below). Nicks hasn’t seen the episode yet; she wants to be surprised when she sits down to watch it later that night after performing a concert in Vegas with Fleetwood Mac.

“I’ll be walking around telling everybody, ‘If you’ve seen it, don’t tell me what happens — or I’ll have to put a spell on you,” Nicks said.

You became friends with “AHS” and “Glee” co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk when “Glee” did its Fleetwood Mac episode. What did you think when they asked you to be on “AHS?”

In my stupid mind I’m thinking I’ll wear a long black dress and walk through the beautiful white house and just say, ‘Hello witches!’ and keep on going.

Were you nervous?

My assistant read the script out loud to me and at the end I’m like, ‘They do know I’m not an actress, right?’ I didn’t sleep too good that night. I was seriously worried I was going to suck. Strangely enough, I walked into that big, gorgeous white house — it’s incredibly similar to my house — and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, it’s my house on steroids.’ I just said, ‘Stevie, you’re going to have to focus and listen to what they say. Listen to your director Alfonso [Gomez-Rejon] who’s amazing and listen to all the girls. They’re going to help you.’

You perform two songs in the show. Did you pick them?

They decided everything. I was pretty sure ‘Rhiannon’ would be in it. It’s Misty’s anthem. It’s Stevie’s anthem. I was really glad because that’s probably the only song I sit and play whenever I walk into a hotel that has a piano. I hadn’t played piano in eight or nine months. I’m like, ‘Not only am I going to be terrible at reciting lines but I’m going to make lots of mistakes on the piano because I haven’t played in so long.’ I didn’t [make mistakes], actually. I was even able to look up once in a while. It was pretty great.

Are you worried your appearance on the show will resurrect the witch rumors that have dogged you for so long?

No. Everybody is smart enough to know that I wore black for one reason. Why do we all wear black? Because it makes you look skinnier, of course. When Ryan asked me, he knew about all [the rumors]. He said, ‘I know you kind of had a problem with it.’ I said I don’t have a problem with it. I am a) not a witch and b) even if I was a witch, it’s my life. I’m 65 years old and I can do anything I want. I’m not going to not do stuff because there might be a crazy little bunch of wacko fans out there that are going to take it the wrong way.

You hadn’t seen previous seasons of “AHS” when they first asked to use your music. What did you think when you saw this season’s premiere?

I’ve never been to a horror show in my life, ever. When I saw the first episode I was a little shocked, honestly. I was like, ‘Oh my God, if my mom was still alive, what would she say?’

Why did you let them use your songs in the show?

They basically told me my music was needed because there was a character who was a witch that wasn’t part of the coven, who lived out in the swamp and basically heals people and animals and was really nice. She had no friends, no family. My songs were like her go-to self-help book. That’s how I hope my songs will affect everybody — the same way they affect Misty in the show. So I was thrilled. Misty was going to singlehandedly take my music to a whole new generation of people who probably never heard of Fleetwood Mac or me. That’s that age-14 to age-40 group. What a gift that is for me as a writer to know that my music would be picked up by a whole other generation of young people.

You give Misty your shawl in the episode. Did you give anything to the actress, (Northwestern alum) Lily Rabe, who’s a big fan of your music in real life?

I did give Lily a really beautiful black skirt and velvet jacket that is just fantasmagorical. I just made that word up. She has done me a huge favor by being that girl that takes on my spirit and sends that music out into the world to a whole other generation. There is no greater gift. I thought a beautiful black outfit was the least I could do for Lily Rabe. She lost her mom [actress Jill Clayburgh] not very long ago, one year before I lost my mom. When I wrote her the note that went with her outfit I said, ‘I know you lost your mom and so did I. I’m around if you need me.’ We’ll probably be friends forever.

Television can entail long hours on the set. Was it tiring?

[My routine is] I go into makeup at 5, I go on stage at 8, I come off at 11. I change, get in an airplane, fly to the next city and order room service. This is my life. By the time we got through six or seven hours and they’re like, ‘One more time,’ I’m like, ‘Are you insane? Again?’ Sixteen hours in, I thought I was going to turn into the old crone witch any second. I’d been wearing my high-heeled Stevie boots all day long. I couldn’t have been more tired if I tried.

Would you do it again?

This is a step into a whole other world for me. It does not mean that I want to be an actress. It means that there are other things out there for me to do beside just touring and just singing. I look forward to seeing what happens to me after this. I feel like this is going to change my life in a lot of really good ways. It’s proven to people I can step out of the mold.

Before we hung up, Nicks asked how we were coping with the brutal cold in Chicago. Her parents lived here for three years in the late ’60s while she was in college.
“It was the only move I didn’t make with them,” the Arizona native said. “I went there when they were looking for a house. It was so damn cold I said I don’t think I can live there. And I love Chicago.”

“I know you guys are suffering,” she added. “I just want you to know I’m blowing hot wind toward you.”

Lori Rackl / Voices – Chicago Sun Times / Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The White Witch has arrived! As promised, tonight’s new American Horror Story: Coven will feature a special guest turn from rock legend Stevie Nicks. It’s shaping up to be an exciting episode for Fleetwood Mac fans and Lily Rabes everywhere: Nicks will not only cross paths with her biggest fan, the supernatural swampstress Misty Day (Rabe), but she’ll also perform a certain witchy Fleetwood Mac classic.

Plus, she’s bringing a new course to Miss Robichaux’s Academy: Shawl Twirling 101 (which you can catch a sneak peak of in the video below). EW talked to Nicks about her AHS: Coven debut, meeting Rabe and the gang, and the presents she brought to the set. And if you’re worried about those old rumors about her being an actual real-life witch resurfacing, don’t be: “Don’t you know? I have powers now!” she says.

EW: Ryan Murphy had told us that when he first pitched you to be on the show, you were hesitant. What ultimately made you decide to do it?

STEVIE NICKS: When they called and asked me if they could use my music, they just explained it a little bit: there’s a character, and you’re a muse because she listens only to you — and she lives out in the swamp. And that was good enough for me! I’m like, sure you can! So whether it was a Fleetwood Mac song or Stevie Nicks song, they were going to choose a song that fit into their story. I thought, fantastic — as a songwriter, you could not ask for anything more. And I’m pretty close to them because of Glee, of course. So I said, sure, take my music — absolutely.

We [Fleetwood Mac] were in Europe at that point, but we were able to pull up the first couple of episodes [of Coven]. And I was a little shocked, because I hadn’t seen the first two seasons. So I was kind of like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Of course, I fell into the spell, so during the tour we would do whatever we could to find that week’s episode.

I had five weeks [at] home, and I was like, you know what? Call Ryan. This is what I said, seriously: Can I just do a walk-through? I’ll just wear a long black dress, really super-super high heels, and be shot from above. I would just walk through and go, “Hello, witches! Goodbye, witches!” I really thought that was going to be it. I had no idea that I’d be written in until I got to New Orleans. I got into the hotel, the script came at 2 in the morning, my assistant read it out loud to me…. Then I walked [onto the set], there’s this spectacular house that’s very similar to my house in a lot of ways. I was like, “Oh my god, did they see my house before they built it?”

How much did you get to dig into the role?

Well, I did these scenes with Jessica [Lange], and I got to really watch an amazing actress act. Because, you know, we’d do something, I’d play piano and then be like, “Well, that was great – we’re done!” Nope. Fifty times later, after they’d filmed from under the piano and hanging from the ceiling and every possible angle, I realize, boy, this is a lot of work. This is much harder than what I do. I get on, I’m on for two and a half hours, I get off stage, I get on the plane and go to the next city and order room service. This is not like that.

Earlier in the season, Lily Rabe had told us that if she were to ever meet you, she “might die on the spot.” Did she survive?

She did faint about 700 times when we were doing that one scene! I was afraid she was going to have to go the hospital. [laughs] She’s really a lovely girl, and she does love my music. Every time I’d play a specific song, she would start to cry. I would say to her, “You know, you don’t really have to cry.” And she said, “No, no — that’s not acting.” So I said, well, then that’s okay, you go right on ahead and cry.

I love Lily. Right before I left, I gave her an amazing black outfit that I’d had a long time. I felt that she should have something, because with her character, she’s really brought a lot of my music to a whole other generation. There’s not enough diamonds and pearls in the world that I could give her to show her how much that means to me.

You give her a shawl-twirling lesson after playing “Rhiannon.” Did you bring your own shawl?

Oh no, that was my shawl [that I wore]. And I brought a couple of really beautiful shawls for [her to wear], but she couldn’t use them because they needed to keep her in hers for continuity. But listen, as far as my signature twirl? Lily needs no coaching on twirling. In the shot, I’m playing, going on and on with the “Rhiannon” take, and I’m thinking she’s just going to drop dead because she’s been twirling for a good minute and a half! So she doesn’t need any pointers from me.

Ryan Murphy mentioned that you’d be returning for another episode later in the season, and that you actually came up with the idea for the scene. Can you tell us anything about it?

It was very serendipitous. I do get on the phone like, “Well, what about this?” I know they’re like, so what, are you part of the writing team now? [laughs] It’s just that I’m so unfortunately full of ideas that they can’t prohibit. So I give my opinion.

So who’s your favorite witch on the show?

Jessica is slinky and sexy and sultry — just the kind of witch I’d want to be. And Kathy Bates is so evil — she’s not even a witch! She’s just an evil, mean, fantastically crazy woman that did horrible, horrible things. And Angela Bassett is just so beautiful, and so voodoo’d out and vibey. She walks into the room, and you’re afraid. So really, all of those ladies.

Ray Rahman/ EW / Wednesday, January 8, 2014

In advance of tonight’s Stevie Nicks party on American Horror Story — accurately titled “The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks” — Vulture was granted a quick chat with the fairy godmother of rock-wedding officiator to talk about her acting debut. You already know she sings two songs; the obvious one is spoiled below. Selfishly, though, we wanted to hear about twirling dos and don’ts and the history of her shawl obsession first. There are other places on the Internet to go if you really want to ruin the how and why of Nicks’s involvement with the coven — suffice it to say, she and Fiona are thick as thieves. Because of course they are!

What’s the secret to doing a good twirl?

Taking lots of ballet lessons.

Really?

Really. Yeah, that’s where you learn how to twirl! When I’m playing “Rhiannon,” I do this thing at the end when the music’s going duh-duh-duh-duh-duh … to me it’s like the horses are running through the forest and the goddesses and gods are all there. It’s a really dramatic part, and when I perform “Rhiannon” myself onstage, I always twirl to it and I love it.

I don’t know if Lily Rabe, who plays Stevie Nicks devotee Misty Day, did ballet. But she seems to twirl well.

I had to watch my fingers when we were filming because I don’t play it all the time [Nicks plays the piano while singing to “Rhiannon” in the episode], and so at first I wasn’t even thinking about this poor girl twirling herself into the universe. Lily gets an Academy Award for that. You can twirl for so long and then you just drop dead. But she did it. She almost passed out at the end of every take because no one is used to twirling that much [laughs]. I thought she did great. I didn’t have to teach her how to twirl, but she had to summon up the strength to be able to twirl for a minute and a half, and get faster and faster and faster and faster and not look dorky. When you twirl, you want to look beautiful, you know? You want to have your hands up, and you definitely want to spot or you will get dizzy. I was like, “Bravo, Lily!”

She’s really been working the shawls, too. When did you first start using them?

Well, first of all, when I used to be 105 pounds and five-foot-one-and-a-half-inches, I could be pretty much dressed in floor-length shawls at all times. They’re a way to make big movements look huge. You have to be a showgirl when you’re up there on that stage, and if you stretch out your hand, you have to really stretch it out, and be seen from the back of the place. Shawls enhance that. They allow you to be a bigger person than you are. I just thought they were fun in the beginning.

I remember really getting into them after someone brought me one from Colombia or Peru or somewhere and it was sort of like what I wear but made out of a more wooly material. I loved the way it looked, and when I got it, I thought, Boy, if I ever make it in this business, I’m going to re-create this shawl in silk chiffon. And that’s what I did. I said to my designer, “I want you to make square ponchos.” I also had ones that didn’t have a hole in the middle, that were just solid, and when you twirl in those it’s really magnificent. It just became a part of what I did. Then I had this other designer who was able to find the fabric from all over the world, and every time I’d go out, she’d make a new one. I have a vault of these shawls that never fall apart because they’re made out of the silk chiffon that they make sails out of. They never disintegrate so long as you keep them in an air-controlled place.

Did you bring your own shawls to wear in the episode?

I took a couple with me, yes. I was going to give Lily one, a red one, to wear as Misty, but we couldn’t swap it out. It would have screwed up the continuity of what she’d been wearing in other scenes. I’m like, “But, but, but, I brought … ” The one I wear is mine. I gotta tell you, it was so cool to be in that house with them. It’s so beautiful. More ornate than my house, but similar.

Similar how? 

It has the same white fireplaces, the oval fireplaces, the same kitchen, a very similar living room. When I walked in I was like, “Did you guys see my house? Am I in your dreams?”

Possibly in Ryan Murphy’s dreams! He said you were hesitant to appear on the show at first, not because you’d never acted, but because of crazy Wiccans assaulting you.

In 1977 probably, because I wore black — and why did I wear black? because it’s the thinnest color — I started getting some really stupid wacky mail from witchy weirdos. I didn’t like it. I’d only been famous for two years, and it scared me. So I had some colored outfits made. I wore red and green and salmon for a year, and then I said, Well, this is not going to work for me, so I’m going back to black, and I did.

What happened was when Ryan asked for my music, I said yes. I’d been watching the episodes diligently, and later I called Ryan and said, “I would love to just do a walk-through where I’m in a long black dress and I look amazing and a fan is blowing my hair and I could just be really tall. I could just walk through and say [pitches her voice higher], “Good morning, witches! Good-bye, witches!” And then I’m gone. I could be like a vision: She comes, she’s gone. Deal. Well, when I got to New Orleans very, very late in the day, we got the script and my assistant read it out loud to me and I’m pretty horrified, honestly. I’m going, “This isn’t just a walk-through.” I’m terrified. I didn’t sleep very well. I’m thinking, Oh my God. Do they know I’m not an actress? Have I not told them that already? But when I got to set, everyone of course was just open arms and so loving and like, “You can do it! Don’t worry about it. If you don’t get it, we’ll do it again. Nobody gets it on the first time.” That gave me a safety net. I tried to let all that fear go and think to myself, This is probably the funnest thing you’ll ever do. Also, this is taking my music to a generation of kids from 15 to 40 that have never really probably been associated with it.

You’ve had problems in the past with people thinking you’re a real witch, and on the show you’re referred to as “The White Witch.” Did that bug you at all, or are you over it?

I looked at it differently. I looked at it as my being Misty’s only hope. I was her friend. Like all of us do when we’re upset, I go and put on my favorite treadmill song and I rock out in my bathroom. Twenty minutes later, I feel like a new person. That’s how I looked at it: I was there for her, and for goodness’ sake, she lives in a swamp with alligators! She has no friends, no parents. She knows she’s crazy because she’s got witchy powers, but she doesn’t know what that is, or why. I was her blanket, and I love that relationship. I hope that’s what everyone feels about my music. That’s why I write it. Misty is just a personification of the person who I write for, and that doesn’t have anything to do with her being a witch. It has everything to do with her being a human being like all the rest of us who have hard times and music gets us all through it.

Denise Martin / Vulture / Wednesday, January 8, 2014