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Sing us a song
Billy Joel returns to play in L.A., the city of his breakthrough single, ‘Piano Man’

Billy Joel says that if he had to do it over again, he’d un-write “at least 25%” of his songs.

“I’ve written some real stinkers I wish I could take back,” he says, starting with “When in Rome” (from 1989’s “Storm Front”) and “C’etait Toi” (from 1980’s “Glass Houses”). “I don’t even speak French,” he says of the latter, “so I don’t know what I was doing. Sometimes I’d get six or seven songs I thought were pretty damn good, then there’d be a couple of squeeze-outs at the end just to fill up the album.

“I realize now I shouldn’t have done that.”

Fortunately for Joel, the quality stuff has provided more than enough hits to power his career as one of music’s top touring acts over the three decades since he released his last pop album, “River of Dreams,” in 1993. This year — between shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where he’s held down a monthly residency since 2014 — Joel, 73, is playing stadiums with Stevie Nicks, an unlikely pairing given his reputation as a proudly uptight New Yorker and hers as a vibey purveyor of California cool.

Yet the run of concerts, which begins Friday night at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium, is also an opportunity to remember that Joel’s career actually got going in Los Angeles, where he wrote his signature song, “Piano Man,” about his experiences entertaining the patrons of the now-defunct Executive Room near the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue.

Joel, whose pop currency never quite seems to wane — see the TikTok craze over his late-’70s tune “Zanzibar,” or Olivia Rodrigo’s shout-out in her song “Deja Vu” — called from his home in Florida, where he lives for much of the year with his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick, and their two young daughters.

You moved to L.A. in 1972, after your debut album failed to make much noise. Were you excited or reluctant to come here?

I was excited. I’d never lived anywhere else other than Long Island, so I saw L.A. as this great romantic place. I was sort of in my own western. I got to live up in the Malibu hills for a while, and to me that was like being in “The Magnificent Seven.”

Then I moved to a rental house on Mulholland Drive in Hollywood — very scenic, right over the Hollywood Bowl. But everybody seemed to be in the same business I was in. If I wanted a guy to help fix my plumbing, he wasn’t really a plumber — he was an actor. And if an electrician came to my house, he was actually a writer. It got to be kind of confusing: Does anybody really do anything here? And this is when New York was having all this financial trouble, and it was gonna go down the tubes. There’s that famous headline: “Ford to New York: Drop Dead.” When I heard about that, I got my back up. I said, I’m going back home — this isn’t my place.

What was your repertoire at the Executive Room?

I didn’t really have a pat list. I just played whatever popped into my head at the time, depending on what I was drinking. I got free drinks and kind of lubricated myself throughout the night. It was probably a combination of Hoagy Carmichael, the Beatles and whatever big pop hit there was the time. “Me and Mrs. Jones.”

Did you take requests?

I did. I was working for tips. So was the woman I ended up marrying. Elizabeth [Weber] was a cocktail waitress in the bar. She’d work the room her way — the waitress practicing politics [from “Piano Man”] — and I’d work the room my way. We had to pay the rent.

What might you have played at the end of the night if you’d had too many?

Probably something patriotic. “The Star-Spangled Banner” or “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

I remember there was a fight in the bar, and to calm everybody down I played a patriotic song, so everybody stood up and saluted the flag and stopped the fight. I was a hero for a second.

What was your attitude toward L.A. after you left?

I was in some ways scornful, but I was also melancholy about leaving. I went from being an insignificant nobody to the Piano Man while I was there.

I still look back to my time in L.A. with a certain amount of romance, almost as if I was an exiled writer living in Paris or something.

How long have you known Stevie Nicks?

We met at a Fleetwood Mac gig in San Francisco probably 10 years ago. I just got to meet her backstage, but we’ve never worked together, even though we both kind of hit at the same time. So this’ll be a completely new thing for me. I’ll probably do one of her songs and she’ll probably do one of mine.

Which song of hers are you thinking about?

That’s up to her.

You ever feel lonely as a solo act compared to a band like Fleetwood Mac that has all these deep, interpersonal ties?

I did very much enjoy touring with Elton John. It was like I joined something. As a solo artist, it’s always me, me, me — gets kind of boring. But when I hooked up with Elton, I got to play his material, which was a hell of a lot of fun. I miss that.

What was your favorite Elton song to play?

Either “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” or “The Bitch Is Back.” Digging into somebody else’s inspiration is cool, especially when you’re playing the piano. Elton’s got a lot of gospel in his stuff — a lot of rhythmic piano, almost like rhythm guitar. Mine is more classical-based. But there’s not many piano players that people are aware of in rock ‘n’ roll. Randy Newman. Bruce Hornsby. Leon Russell. Dr. John. We kind of hang in the same group.

In 2018 you told the New York Times that you couldn’t see yourself playing Madison Square Garden in five years. Here we are, and you’re still doing the MSG gig as well as the tour with Stevie.

I know. It’s bizarre. At the end of every tour, I feel like that’s it for me: “OK, I’m done.” And then some time goes by and it’s like, “Let’s go out and play.”

When the time comes, would you consider a big farewell tour like the one Elton’s on?

That was brought up the other day. But I have a disdain for capitalizing on that: “Let me threaten that it’ll be the end, and then I’ll make a lot of money.” I’ve seen bands so many times announce their farewell tours and then they never go away. I’ve seen a couple of the Who farewells at this point.

Christine McVie’s passing last year was a grim reminder that a lot of folks from your generation of rock ‘n’ roll have reached a certain age. In the next 10 years …

There’s gonna be a lot of attrition. I had an idea for a tour [of mine]: The poster has illustrations of a bunch of dead insects, and the name of the tour is Dropping Like Flies. I say to my agent, “Look, go ahead and be as grim as you want.” We’re all aware of it.

One wonders if Fleetwood Mac will tour without Christine as we’ve seen Steely Dan do without Walter Becker and the Eagles without Glenn Frey. What’s your take on a band touring after a key member dies?

Depends who it is. I’d go see the Eagles even without Glenn because their material is so strong. They’ve been together so long, they’re a hard-working band.

What did you think of the Rolling Stones’ decision to go out without Charlie Watts?

The drummer they were using, Steve Jordan, he’s great. But I would have wanted to see Charlie, honestly. I mean, when Bill Wyman left, I sort of felt like that was it for the Stones. But they don’t stop. I think it’s an English thing.

You’re one of the few legacy acts that still tours but doesn’t put out new music. Has your experience seeing what audiences want to hear — which is to say, the old hits — proved that your decision to stop recording was the right one?

Well, I didn’t make that decision based on whether it was right or wrong. It just felt like it was time for me to stop writing songs. I didn’t have the same motivation anymore. You need inspiration to create good new music, and if you don’t have it, don’t bother. Get off the treadmill, for Christ’s sake.

What’s your barometer for judging whether a new song is good or bad?

You can always tell. But it also just got to a point where it was getting excruciating for me to write. The enjoyment went out of it. I just read an interesting quote by Hemingway. Someone asked him, “Why is it so easy for me to read your stuff?” And Hemingway said, “Because it was so g— hard for me to write.”

When you’re putting together a set list, do you ever think about how your songs — something like “Captain Jack,” which talks about “the junkies and the closet queens” — will be considered in the current cultural and political climate?

You mean are they woke? It crosses my mind. But “Captain Jack” has gotten real boring to me. The verse is just two chords over and over again, and it’s this dreary story of some suburban kid jacking off at home. My mind starts to wander during the song, so I don’t do it even though people want to hear it.

“Only the Good Die Young” is a tough sell.

It’s occurred to me recently that I’m trying to talk some poor innocent woman into losing her virginity because of my lust. It’s kind of a selfish song — like, who cares what happens to you? What about what I want? But on the other hand, it was of its time. This was written in the mid-’70s, and I was trying to seduce girls. Why bull— about it?

You lost something like 50 pounds during the pandemic, right?

Yeah. It wasn’t even conscious. I mean, I’m glad I lost the weight because I was getting pretty heavy there. But I’ve gained a fair amount of it back. I found what I lost — or it found me.

You drink these days?

I stopped a couple of years ago. It wasn’t a big AA kick. I just got to a point where I’d had enough. I didn’t enjoy being completely inebriated, and it probably created more problems in my life than I needed.

There’s no instinct to have a drink after a show?

I don’t need it now. I used to get offstage and be so wound up and adrenalized that I needed something to calm down to go to sleep. But I realized when you’re drinking yourself to sleep, you’re not really sleeping. You’re just passing out.

What do you do when you get offstage now?

I go to sleep. It takes all my strength these days just to get through a performance because it’s hard work. I leave it all on the stage.

Who in your life calls you Bill?

Everybody does. My wife calls me Bill, my friends call me Bill. That’s my name. Billy is a little kid’s name: “Mrs. Joel, can Billy come out and play?” That’s what it sounds like to me. But the problem with Bill Joel is there’s nothing to it. It’s like a doorbell.

Anyone call you William?

My wife does from time to time, and I know it’s a sign of trouble.

What do you do on a day when you don’t have a gig?

I wait around for the kids to come back from school. I love hanging out with my children. They’re 7 and 5 now, and they’re so much fun and so interesting to me. I get to be a stay-at-home dad. That’s how I enjoy my life these days.

When Olivia Rodrigo joined you at MSG last year, you said as you introduced her that your kids like her music. Are you interested in what they’re into?

Very much so. They like all the big artists like Olivia and Taylor Swift. But recently they’ve discovered the Beatles, and now they ask for us to put on the Beatles channel [on satellite radio]. It’s so much fun hearing those early Beatles tunes and watching my kids respond to them.

What do you think of Taylor Swift?

Very good, conscientious writer. She knows music, and she’s productive — she’s working her ass off. She gets some shots just because she’s so popular, which must be tough to deal with. But I have a great deal of respect for her and for other artists from that same age group. They’re attuned to the craft of songwriting. They’re harkening back to the Gershwins.

Last thing: You recently wrote a letter to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame urging the nominating committee to put the late Warren Zevon on this year’s ballot. He made the cut. You take any pride in that?

Well, he was my first vote.

If he gets in and the Rock Hall asks you, would you do the induction?

I’m working this year, but if I’m in the right place at the right time, I would do that.

Which of his songs would you perform if asked?

“Lawyers, Guns and Money.” Love that song.

Mikael Wood / Los Angeles Times / March 9, 2023

Additional Credits
- Caption: PHOTO: BILLY JOEL will play SoFi Stadium on Friday with Stevie Nicks. He remembers L.A. “with a certain amount of romance.”
- PHOTOGRAPHER: Myrna Suarez
- PHOTO:1984: Billy Joel at home in Los Angeles. He wrote his hit song “Piano Man” based on life at a local bar.
- PHOTOGRAPHER: Richard E. Aaron Redferns
- PHOTO: 2022: A meeting of singer-songwriter generations as Olivia Rodrigo joins Joel at Madison Square Garden.
- PHOTOGRAPHER: Kevin Mazur Getty Images
- Credit: POP MUSIC CRITIC
March 9, 2023
Stevie Nicks, timeless as ever at the Hollywood Bowl

The iconic singer’s performance was full of classic hits, touching tributes, and yes, lots of shawls.

MOST PEOPLE WERE winding things down on Monday night in Los Angeles yesterday, but the streets near the Hollywood Bowl were buzzing with thousands of fans doing their best Stevie Nicks impressions. They wandered toward the venue, paying homage to the rock star’s many eras, wearing outfits that captured her effortless Southern California Seventies glam or showing off examples of her witchy drapery, capturing the style and spirit that make Nicks a timeless icon.

Those fans were there to attend her sold-out show at the historic venue on Monday evening. The performance was part of a tour she kicked off earlier this year, which she’s scheduled in spurts between festival sets and shows at select US cities.

Nicks’ longtime friend Vanessa Carlton opened the night with a brief set that, of course, included a venue-wide sing-along to “A Thousand Miles.” Shortly before 9 p.m., the stage lights dimmed and Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream” blasted from the sound system. It would be the first of many touching tributes to Petty, who made Nicks an honorary Heartbreaker. It’s an gesture she’s taken seriously ever since.

Nicks’ setlist focused heavily on Bella Donna, The Wild Heart and her Fleetwood Mac classics, a decade-long stretch of career home-runs that showed she was a living legend before time had the chance to do so itself. After opening with “Outside the Rain,” she got “Dreams” out of the way, prompting a beautiful bit of harmonizing from the audience.

Any fan of Nicks knows that she’s a natural born storyteller, and on stage and in interviews, she’s more than happy to share long-winded tales of her life, her songs, and her famous friends and lovers. Early on, Nicks made a promise that she would rein it in for the night with her stories, even though this particular show had an audience full of some of her closest confidantes.”I have so much to say,” she promised. Some fans giggled and would have been happy to bask in as many tales she would have liked to spin.

She made good on her promise to keep it short and sweet, though: Before “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” her hit 1981 duet with Petty, she recalled how her producer and then-boyfriend Jimmy Iovine (who was seated in the crowd) told her she needed a single for her solo debut. He then clued her in on the Petty-penned track. Just as she launched into her recently released cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” she sang the praises of songwriter Stephen Stills. And she prefaced a twirl-filled “Gypsy” with some life advice about pulling your mattress off the bed frame to remind yourself who you are. Later, she dedicated In Your Dreams’ “Soldier’s Angel” to the people of Ukraine, singing it in tribute to one Ukrainian woman, in particular, named Julia who had sent Nicks a paining of sunflowers that she displayed on screen as the song began.

As Nicks sang her way through her past, she continued to breathe new life into some of rock music’s most classic and enduring songs. She belted “Wild Heart” as effortlessly as she did nearly 40 years ago (after dedicating it to comedian Kathy Griffin, naturally). During “Gold Dust Woman,” she embodied the same feverish, frenetic stage presence that made her Seventies performances of the song so iconic, moving as if possessed by the guitar solo while wrapped in a golden shawl (one of four she pulled out during the night, including the blue one she wore on the back cover of Bella Donna).

The final stretch of the show was an unrelenting series of hits. “Landslide” was dedicated to her many godchildren as well as John McVie, her close friend and “therapist.” The main set concluded with an extended cut of “Edge of Seventeen,” before the encored kicked back off with a cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’.” The song fit her like a glove, a true tribute to one of her best friends and musical heroes, whose likeness was displayed on a slideshow behind Nicks as she sang it. She ended the song by staring at some lingering shots of the him and her together, performing on stage later in his life.

Unlike other shows on this tour, Nicks skipped frequent show closer “Rock and Roll” (a cover of the Led Zeppelin classic) in favor of her own “Rhiannon,” a more fitting finale. The Bowl’s attendees ranged from teens to Boomers, and in that moment, like many before it, it didn’t matter how or when Nicks’ songs found their way into your life. The show erupted into one final, loud, sing-along before the truly timeless star twirled off into the California night.

(Stevie Nicks performs during 2022 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on June 19, 2022 in Manchester, Tennessee. ERIKA GOLDRING/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES)

Brittany Spanos / Rolling Stone / October 4, 2022

October 4, 2022
Stevie Nicks brings back memories at the Shoreline

So much has been written about the turmoil of Fleetwood Mac and for many, a Stevie Nicks show is the closest they’ll actually get to hear a song or two from their impressive catalog. But last night at the Shoreline in Mountain View it was Stevie, and Stevie alone, who shined bright like a diamond on a stage that she considers home. “This is the house of Bill Graham. This is where we started. This is definitely my hood,” she declared at the show’s start.

One by one she played some of her biggest hits like “Stand Back”, “Edge of Seventeen”, and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” But also a few obligatory Fleetwood Mac classics like “Landslide” and “Dreams”. Backed by an eight-piece band of seasoned pros they all sounded powerful, emotive, but above all genuine.

Early in the set, she introduced us to this little girl named Robin, the daughter of a late friend of Stevie’s. The audience pointed her out in the audience and shortly after Stevie dedicated a song to her. She also mentioned that to this day the child calls her “Grandma Stevie.” It was an endearing moment and one that set a warm tone for the rest of the night.

Tonight was sentimental. Like when the icon sang a cover of “Free Fallin’” in honor of her friend Tom Petty who passed away a few years ago. Or when images of Prince were displayed on a backdrop that was filled the entire night with gorgeous displays of creative imagery. We also got to see some candid Polaroids of Stevie from a career that’s spanned close to 60 years now (all taken by her, she so proudly professed).

Of course, no show would be complete without some of the iconic singer’s famous trademark twirls, which she executed with style and grace. And yes, the capes. There were many including the original from Bella Donna. She told us a story of how her mom gave her grief about how much she’d spent on those. “Mom, a cape that’s worth 5,000 dollars that I’m going to wear for 60 years,” she giggled, “That’s like 10 dollars a day!”

And therein lies the appeal of Stevie Nicks. Although relatively small in stature, her voice and presence command attention, but it’s her quiet charm that puts you under her spell from the moment she steps onto that stage. It’s the magic of her shows. Not sure how she does it, maybe it’s got something to do with those mystical spins of hers.

Louis Raphael
With a discography that includes albums on Digital Nations (a Steve Vai imprint), music critic Louis Raphael has always kept a pulse on the San Francisco music scene. After years as the San Francisco Music Examiner for Examiner.com and AXS.com, he decided to start Music in SF® as a way to showcase what the San Francisco music scene really has to offer.

Louis Raphael / Music in SF / June 13, 2022

June 13, 2022
Stevie Nicks made people cry as she topped a day heavy on female acts at Jazz Fest

Erykah Badu, Lauren Daigle also headlined stages on Saturday at the Fair Grounds

The Revivalists saluted the Foo Fighters at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Saturday by covering “Times Like These.”

But they didn’t make people weep the way Stevie Nicks did by dedicating the bittersweet ballad “Landslide” to her pal Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters’ late drummer.

That extremely intimate moment played out in front of a massive crowd at the main Festival Stage. The crowd was even denser than the throng that watched the Red Hot Chili Peppers fill in for the Foo Fighters at the Fair Grounds last Sunday, even spilling onto the dirt track.

Maybe it was pent up demand. Nicks first performed at the festival with Fleetwood Mac in 2013. Fleetwood Mac was supposed to replace the Rolling Stones in 2019, only to bow out as well.

Then Nicks was booked for both the 2020 and 2021 Jazz Fests, which were scuttled by the pandemic. She finally made it to the festival on a hot, sunny Saturday.

Rory Block, Samantha Fish

Saturday’s schedule was dominated by female artists.

Rory Block grew up as a student of the blues. At the Blues Tent, the 72-year-old sat alone with a guitar and the ghosts of long-gone blues guitarists. She told tales about, and revisited the songs of, Muddy Waters, Son House, Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson in her country-blues style. She picked and pulled at the guitar strings with power, but her whole show needed to be louder. Her song introductions and stories were mostly inaudible toward the rear of the tent, and even much of her guitar work was lost.

Volume was not an issue for Samantha Fish. Sheathed in bold white and black stripes at the Festival Stage, she and a brawny three-piece band powered through a set of blues-rock custom-built for big stages.

Since three calendar years have elapsed since the previous Jazz Fest, she played a song that expressed her feeling: “Hello, stranger, it seems so good to see you back again/How long has it been/Seems like a mighty long time.”

She delivered one hearty guitar solo after another on a succession of electric guitars, as her band’s keyboardist filled in arrangements driven by the band’s drummer. In “Better Be Lonely,” Fish’s solo followed the song’s melody line. Elsewhere, she sheered off bluesy tones and gritty riffs, totally in command.

Rickie Lee Jones goes local

Rickie Lee Jones, a New Orleans resident of recent vintage, has been waiting to play at Jazz Fest. At the Shell Gentilly Stage, she and an ensemble anchored by drummer, percussionist and vibraphonist Mike Dillon eased into the set.

That set took flight with “Young Blood.” All poetry and playfulness, her voice skated atop the keyboards and horns. She strummed an acoustic guitar for “Chuck E’s in Love” as Dillon’s percussion provided structure. Heading into the refrain, the horn section from local jazz-funk band Naughty Professor gave the arrangement a Van Morrison feel.

Jones switched to grand piano for the “Pirates” title track. In “Danny’s All Star Joint,” she sang of coffee and coins and butcher knives and a chicken-in-a-pot over a jazzy electric bass.

On the day before Mother’s Day, she celebrated motherhood. She was focused but clearly having fun. As her 2021 memoir “Last Chance Texaco” made clear, she has lived a remarkable life, with extreme highs and lows, but is comfortable where she is now: “It’s nice to have lived so long to have a history with great musicians.”

Daigle, Badu, Nicks bring it home

Saturday’s female headliners included Mavis Staples filling in for Melissa Etheridge in the Blues Tent. (The Zac Brown Band will substitute for Willie Nelson on Sunday.) Erykah Badu casting her spiritual soul sister spell for a big crowd at the Congo Square Stage.

A relatively modest crowd bore witness to Lauren Daigle, the contemporary Christian pop star from Lafayette, at the Gentilly Stage; it was far smaller than Elvis Costello’s crowd the previous evening.

Covered in glitter and sporting a fabulous hat, Daigle welcomed Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and members of the Wild Magnolias and the Black Hatchet Mardi Gras Indian tribe to help out on “Hey Pocky Way.” Daigle delivered a benediction via her hit ballad “You Say.”

At the opposite end of the Fair Grounds, Nicks opened her first show in nearly three years with “Outside the Rain.” “I have been home watching miniseries, wearing really comfy pants and teaching my dog how to shake hands,” she said of her pandemic activities. “He doesn’t quite have it yet.”

Getting back to work, Nicks cruised through Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” and her own “Enchanted” and “Stop Dragging My Heart Around,” with guitarist Waddy Wachtel also lending his voice to the latter. Between “Gypsy” and “Rhiannon” she showed off the original cape she wore on the cover of the 1981 album Bella Donna, part of a multi-layer ensemble she wore in defiance of the day’s heat.

All the familiar characteristics of her voice were present. She prefaced “Landslide” with, “Taylor, this song is for you.” Set against Wachtel’s acoustic guitar accompaniment, she caressed such lyrics as, “I’ve been afraid of changing, cause I’ve built my life around you/But time makes you bolder, even children get older/And I’m getting older too,” which took on a different meaning in reference to Hawkins.

A persistent “boom, boom” bedeviled and distracted her throughout the show. She couldn’t pinpoint the source, but it may have been the bass from Badu’s stage.

Nevertheless, she pressed own. She covered Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” another tribute to a fallen friend. She revived “New Orleans,” a song she wrote after Hurricane Katrina.

Her finale was a charge through Led Zeppelin’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll.” It had indeed been a long time since Nicks rocked and rolled.

“It was a journey,” a relieved Nicks said of her Saturday show.

A journey that concluded in front of a staggering crowd at Jazz Fest.

Keith Spera / Times-Picayune (New Orleans) / May 7, 2022

May 7, 2022
The Weeknd, Radiohead, Stevie Nicks join massive social media rally to aid Ukrainian refugees

The Global Citizen-organized event will take place ahead of a key pledging summit organized by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen

An array of stars, from the Weeknd and Billie Eilish to Stevie Nicks and Radiohead, will take part in a social media rally organized by Global Citizen urging governments and institutions around the world to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and elsewhere.

The Stand Up for Ukraine rally will take place on April 8, one day before a pledging summit organized by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen. The aim of the summit will be to garner money to help those displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Funds will also be directed to helping those in other conflict zones around the world, such as Yemen, South Sudan, and Afghanistan.

The social media push ahead of the summit will feature an array of stars, including Madonna, U2, Elton John, Celine Dion, Billy Joel, Hugh Jackman, Green Day, Juanes, Garth Brooks, the Jonas Brothers, Kacey Musgraves, Pharrell, Ozzy Osbourne, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tame Impala, Chris Rock, Jon Batiste, Alejandro Sanz, Demi Lovato, and Pearl Jam.

The pledging summit and rally come after a call from support from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. “On April 8, the biggest online event Social Media Rally will support people who were forced to flee Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a statement. “I’m inviting everybody: musicians, actors, athletes, businessmen, politicians, everybody. Everyone who wants to join this movement and Stand Up for Ukraine.”

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left more than 12 million people in need of support. Over 6.5 million people have been displaced within Ukraine, while over 3.2 million people have fled the country since the war began at the end of February. The refugee crisis in Ukraine — compounded with other humanitarian crises elsewhere — comes as the UNHCR system faces a $10 billion funding shortfall, hindering its ability to provide aid and relief around the world.

“More than three million refugees have fled their homes, with millions more likely on their way,” said Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans. “Global Citizen has a history of responding rapidly to humanitarian crises, and this is no different. We’re calling for an immediate end to this crisis, and the provision of immediate financing to support refugee relief efforts not just in Ukraine but around the world.”

Jon Blistein / Rolling Stone / March 28, 2022

March 28, 2022
Stevie shares lessons learned from battling drugs, her own ego
AMM Inspiration with Stevie Nicks: Finding encouragement from others who have faced their TRUTH

As most of us know, being grounded isn’t easy. It takes concentration, effort, and a sense of overall balance—in addition, it also takes time.

Beloved singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks wasn’t always grounded—she has faced much self-imposed adversity in her life and career. In fact, she advises, “people, especially young people, should know that ego can be just as dangerous as any drug.” It is our ego that often throws us off balance, as Nicks learned the hard way. However, we can learn a lot about how to find that grounding in our own lives, by hearing Nicks speak about her own experience.

Nicks has long been open about her personal struggles and heartbreak. Her music, both as a solo artist and as part of Fleetwood Mac, has chronicled her pain throughout her long career. Stevie remembers recording her first song, “I Loved and I’ve Lost,” on a cassette player on her fifteenth birthday. That song (sadly lost long ago) foreshadowed the tone of her turbulent life and songwriting career. The raw honesty that marks her deeply personal lyrics shows in her willingness to share some of the wisdom she’s gained along the way. No one can describe her journey better than Stevie Nicks herself. So here, in her own words, is Stevie’s story:

“A lot of people would expect me to say that drugs have been the biggest obstacle in my life. And in a way, it’s true. That’s because, like way too many people of my generation, I paid a very high price in my life for the drugs that I took. Cocaine was one of the great lies my generation fell for—and we fell hard. They told us that cocaine was a drug without consequence, but that turned out to be a very big and wildly destructive lie. I know because that particular lie cost me at least a million dollars and put a hole in my nose that could have killed me. Now if that wasn’t bad enough, cocaine use inflated our egos beyond reason—making it even more destructive.”

It is our ego that often throws us off balance.

“In the eighties, I fell for the lies regarding the drug Klonopin (clonazepam, a medication used to treat convulsive disorders and anxiety). That drug nearly brought me down when it was completely overprescribed to me. This tranquilizer not only caused me to lose weight, it actually resulted in me losing interest in my work. And that was a total disaster because it essentially stopped me from being me. After years of sacrifice to focus on creating the best music I could, I was suddenly tranquilized right out of being true to myself and my music.”

“But ultimately, the truth about drugs is how they are usually a symptom of an even bigger problem—in my case, an ego out of control. Sometimes the biggest and most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves. With fame comes the danger of thinking that you are bigger and better than anyone else, and that you can live ‘above it all.’ Letting your ego get out of control can often bring you crashing back down to earth. Like a drug, your ego can stop you from listening to your true self.”

“My true self is someone who writes and sings songs. Then I get to perform those songs—bringing them alive for other people! It’s such an honor to be able to do that: to go around the world and see how your songs—your children in a way—are so deeply loved, understood, and appreciated by others who only know you through your words and music. Sometimes it feels like a lot of work, but ultimately it’s a privilege. Too many of us who have succeeded in the popular arts have somehow forgotten that.”

“So my best advice goes well beyond just staying away from drugs. Check your ego too! If you’re lucky enough to figure out what you are meant to do with your life, follow that passion. For me it was music, but I had to act on that passion to make my dreams come true.”

Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie’s prolific solo career, have produced over 50 hit songs and sold over 140 million albums. Along with her fellow Fleetwood Mac band members, Stevie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Stevie says it was one of her proudest moments.

Even though the journey wasn’t always easy, Stevie Nicks found success, balance, and learned to ground herself in her life and career. When someone has overcome great obstacles, we can learn a lot from their journey.

STEVIE’S EMPOWERING THOUGHT

“If you’re lucky enough to figure out what you are meant to do with your life, follow that passion.”

DO IT DAILY
- Keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. Don’t let your ego run out of control and convince you that you’re better than anyone else.
- Don’t be afraid of the tough decisions. Trust your instincts and listen to your heart, not to those things that distract you from your inner-voice!
Jerry Gladstone is the author of the International Best Selling Book The Common Thread of Overcoming Adversity and Living Your Dreams. Jerry is a success and life coach as well as a corporate speaker. TheCommonThreadGroup.com

Jerry Gladstone / Arts Management Magazine (AMM) / December 2020
December 19, 2020
Stevie Nicks reflects on her quiet life in isolation

Group chats with Fleetwood Mac, listening to Harry Styles and more snapshots from Nicks’ quarantine life

Stevie Nicks had always intended 2020 to be a relatively quiet year, but not quite this quiet. She’s been battling a case of Epstein-Barr virus since January, and has been safely holed up in one of her California properties with three friends and her dog Lily for weeks now. She was in good spirits in a late-night phone conversation not long ago, where she answered our quarantine questions and more. “You really do start to understand, maybe, what our parents went through in World War Two,” she says. “You start thinking of all the things that have happened that have caused people’s lives to just turn upside down.”

How are you holding up emotionally through all this?

I had planned to take this year off. We’ve been on the road one way or another, whether it was me or whether it be with Mac, since basically since 2009. I had seven months off in 2016. That’s the only vacation I had, and I worked at home doing all kinds of different stuff during that seven months. It’s been solid touring ever since. So last year I made a pitch to everybody that when this Fleetwood Mac tour is over. I’m taking next year off because I want to work on my “Rhiannon” book/movie [based on the original Welsh myth that inspired her song]. And I want to maybe work with some different producers… I don’t know what I want to do! I just know that I don’t want a tour! So I think it’s not as hard for me as it is for the bands that had a tour coming up this year. Because they’d be getting ready to go into rehearsal right now. So not only is your tour canceled and your rehearsal cancelled, but you’re quarantined to your house?

How are you spending your days?

Well, so like I said, I’m really tired from this thing. And I don’t get to sleep until six or seven every morning because I just can’t sleep anymore. So I go to sleep about seven o’clock [in the morning]. And then I have somebody come in and wake me up at two o’clock, and it takes me an hour to wake up because I haven’t had enough sleep. And then I get up and go to the big TV room and I and I sit in there and watch the news. And I watch [the NBC medical drama] New Amsterdam, which I really love, and is very inspiring for me. I could write an entire album, just on the New Amsterdam show.

We Have to Believe

And then I have some Rhiannon poetry that I have written over the last 30 years that I’ve kept very quiet. I’m thinking, “Well here I have all this time and I have a recording setup.” And I’m thinking I’m going to start doing some recording. I’m going to start putting some of these really beautiful poems to music, and I have the ability to record them. So that’s on my to-do list. Me and my three roommates were laughing, going like, well, it doesn’t really matter if you don’t go to sleep until seven in the morning! Because you don’t really have to get up until five if you don’t want to. Because you’re not going anywhere.

What all we have right now, if you’re home in quarantine, is time, unless you’re taking care of kids. So, really, you could do anything you wanted that you’ve been wanting to do your whole life. So that’s how I’m trying to look at it.

It does sound like you’re not used to having time off.

Yeah, even though I didn’t have a tour planned, my brain doesn’t know that yet. My brain is like, okay, you came off the road, and usually you would be going to rehearse. And that’s not happening. It’s still bugging me that I should be getting ready for something. And I’m not. So I’m like, well, what’s wrong with this picture? This has never happened to me ever in my life. Because the second I come off the tour with one career, the phone’s ringing off the hook from the other career saying like, “Oh, are you ready to put together a new show and do something cool?” This is the year I was going to take off and I was going to you know, talk to everybody about making my movie and do some recording and meet new people. And well, you’re not going to meet any new people. Because you can’t leave your house. So you have your dog and your three friends.

I was going to ask you what music you’ve been listening to, but I know the answer is Harry Styles’ Fine Line.

To me, it’s just like the summer of Crosby, Stills and Nash, where I listened to nothing but [their debut album] for six months. And then it’s the same way I felt when Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark came out; I listened to nothing but Court and Spark for six months. Harry is recounting a lot of experiences that I had in my own life, beautifully. And making me remember stuff, and bringing back memories that I really didn’t love and memories that I did love. For me to hear a record made by somebody in his mid-20s that says a lot of things that I haven’t gotten around to saying yet blows my mind.

What do you want to say to your fans right now?

We have to believe, right? We have to believe that this is gonna go away. We have to believe that the government of the United States is going to, at some point, completely turn around and do the right thing. I mean, I get a stomachache every day from it. I have a really good friend who whenever I leave, she says, “ring of angels.” And I want to say that to everybody. You have angels around you. Because everybody’s gonna have to keep themselves safe. And right now it seems to me that the government doesn’t know what they’re doing. And nobody’s on the same page. That scares me.

You have to toe the line right now. That’s what we all have to do if we want this to go away. Otherwise, it’s just gonna keep coming back. It’s just gonna reappear. And every time people say like, “Oh, it’s getting better now, now you can all go out for basketball on the beach,” it’s like, “No, you can’t.” Boom, it comes back. That’s what’s gonna happen. I just want people to try to think straight about it.

And try to watch movies, read some books, try to get some exercise. Keep your health. Just don’t turn into an invalid. Because I think it’s very easy for people to just sit around. So you got to keep going somehow, even if you have to do cartwheels in your living room or something.

Have you talked to your bandmates?

Yeah. We have a special name for it, which I can’t tell you, but it’s it’s a conference thing. There are messages that go to everybody.

A Fleetwood Mac group chat!

Yeah, if I write to Christine, it goes to everybody, right? We are all keeping in touch. Mick [Fleetwood] has gone back to Maui. He loves his island, so he’s happy there.

I’m in touch with Waddy [Wachtel], too. Every couple of days, he writes to me says, “Well, this really sucks.”

I keep thinking about how some of the people we’ve lost would’ve reacted to this, like your friend Tom Petty.
Tom has a studio in his house. I think Tom would have buried himself in his studio, and he would have just written songs. And Michael [Campbell] could send him stuff back and forth over the internet. Yeah. Because he was not just Tom Petty, the singer and songwriter, but he was an engineer.

And it sounds like you’re planning on doing the same thing, making some music.

Yeah, totally. And going to journals from like 2004 and pulling out what I think is some beautiful poetry. If I never write another poem, it would be okay. Because I have that much poetry. I have enough poetry to write a really big poetry book if I ever wanted to. As soon as I get a little bit of energy back, that’s what I’ll start doing. And everybody wants me to that’s living here: “Let’s go down and let’s start recording, let’s just go to the piano!” And I’m like, I love this word you use, “let’s” or when you say “we.” It’s like, you’re not really the “we” and you’re not really the “let’s.” [laugh] I can’t just go to the piano, sit down and go, “song on its way!” I have to think about it a little bit, and groove into it a little bit. So that’s what I’m trying to do.

Brian Hiatt / Rolling Stone / Thursday, April 30, 2020

April 30, 2020
Sean Parker celebrates 40th birthday with private Stevie Nicks show

Sean Parker celebrated his 40th birthday with an epic bash featuring a performance from Stevie Nicks (Dec. 16). And whereas Parker’s legendary wedding had a Lord of the Rings theme in 2013, this time around guests were invited to an “immersive, inter-dimensional world” with the dress code billed as “whimsical (past, present or future).”

The billionaire Facebook investor turned the big 4-0 on Dec. 3 and Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Nicks serenaded guests with hits, including “Landslide” and “Dreams.” Friends including Olivia Munn, developer David Alagem, consultant Jordan C. Brown, and Scooter and Yael Braun turned up, as did October Gonzalez, wife of Lauren Sanchez’s NFL-veteran ex, Tony.

Click on the arrow icon on the right side of the picture below to see clips of Stevie’s performance.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6MFbTOJB00/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Parker and wife Alexandra Lenas, who have two young kids, dubbed the party a fun “joint 70th” we’re told. (Lenas turns 30 in May.)

Pals were invited to the party at the couple’s California home on Monday with a note featuring a quote from William Blake, that read: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.”

Yael posted a photo on Instagram of her and her music-manager hubby in white costumes, writing: “When your friends ask you to dress up for their joint 70th, you dress the F up.”

It still doesn’t match the Parkers’ infamous wedding in Big Sur, Calif., which prompted controversy when a local conservation group complained that the ceremony had caused environmental damage.

Parker, the co-founder of Napster, who was played by Justin Timberlake in the film The Social Network, canceled his honeymoon to deal with the fallout and paid $1 million to the California Conservation Corps, alongside $1.5 million to help build campgrounds for underprivileged children.

Parker added at the time: “The ceremony was spiritual, intimate and private — really only intended for our friends and family. We did not want this media spectacle because we felt it would compromise the very essence of what we were trying to communicate.”

Sara Nathan / Page Six / Saturday, December 21, 2019

December 21, 2019
Billboard ranks 10 best songs of Stevie Nicks

Critic’s Picks: Ahead of her second Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Billboard ranks Stevie’s top solo tracks

As of this Friday (March 29), Stevie Nicks will have the honor of two spots in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — but to hear her tell it, one small step is not a giant leap for womankind. “It’s 22 to zero,” she deadpanned to Rolling Stone in 2019. “Twenty-two guys who have gone in twice to zero women. So maybe this will open the doors for women to fight to make their own music.”

If the music industry has a long way to go for equal gender representation, we’re lucky to have Nicks leading the charge. Fleetwood Mac began as a blues-rock boys’ club in 1967 — but conquered the world in the 1970s with powerful songwriters of both sexes.

Fleetwood Mac’s internal disharmony made the Mac a less-than-utopian ideal — to graph out their various interband trysts would be to weave a tangled web. But crank up their still-intoxicating “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams” or “Rhiannon,” and for a moment, you believe. She proved she didn’t need the boys to achieve commercial success in her own right, topping the Billboard 200 with solo debut Bella Donna in 1981 and continuing to release hit albums throughout the ’80s. She never stopped making great music: earthy later albums like 2001’s Trouble in Shangri-La and 2011’s In Your Dreams stand among her finest work.

Many rockers of her generation are on the final legs of their farewell tours; she’s still slugging it out on the road with an updated Fleetwood Mac. Still, she knows what she’ll do when she finally hangs up her shawls. “I will fall to my knees on my cushy white rug and look out at the ocean and go, ‘I am finally free,’” she told Rolling Stone. But she’s still onstage, casting her singular spell — one that’s landing her in the Rock Hall one more time.

In honor of her second induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, here are her 10 greatest solo cuts, ranked. (Her 1981 duet with Tom Petty, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” is excluded from this list because she wasn’t involved in the writing.)

10. “Beauty and the Beast” (from The Wild Heart, 1983)

The Wild Heart is Nicks’ most opulent album — and for its final track, “Beauty and the Beast,” she pulled out all the stops. The tune was to be recorded live with a symphony orchestra and grand piano; she and the background singers wore long, black gowns and served champagne to a throng of guests. (“It was like we had gone back in time,” said Nicks.) The song itself flips the Jean Cocteau film into a long, languorous ballad about the shackles of time and the meaning of love. In spite of itself, “Beauty and the Beast” works. Leave it to Stevie.

9. “Planets of the Universe” (from Trouble in Shangri-La, 2001)

Originally a demo from the Rumours days, “Planets of the Universe” confronts a heavy subject: her publicly doomed relationship with Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks doesn’t deal in crocodile tears, but celestial language. “The planets of the universe go their way / Not astounded by the sun or moon,” she sings, as if breaking up can be chalked up to Newton’s law of universal gravitation. Few writers are this unafraid of changing.

8. “Stand Back” (from The Wild Heart, 1983)

Fleetwood Mac stretched out and got weirder in the early 1980s, but Nicks was busy kicking up some new-wave dust on her solo albums. (She barely appeared on Tango in the Night.) “Stand Back,” a loving rip of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” she wrote after her wedding to Kim Anderson, is a funky, infectious example of this, with the newlywed Gold Dust Woman purring like a cat over period synth arpeggios.

7. “Blue Denim” (from Street Angel, 1994)

Recorded during her exit from Fleetwood Mac and in the throes of a nasty Klonopin addiction, Street Angel is her least-loved LP by some margin, stalling out at No. 45 on the Billboard 200. Shame, since it features “Blue Denim,” which captures Nicks beautifully in her element even as it evokes Chrissie Hynde. “It’s a song about this guy who came into my life, but left just as quick,” she told WDVE, referring to Buckingham. “And his eyes were that intense.” The music is just as bedazzling.

6. “For What It’s Worth” (from In Your Dreams, 2011)

In Your Dreams is Nicks’ version of James Taylor’s October Road, Graham Nash’s This Path Tonight or Van Morrison’s Keep Me Singing: rich, autumnal listens in which a 1970s troubadour audited their history from the vantage point of a new millennium. “For What It’s Worth” is a touching tribute to Tom Petty, and the gem of the bunch. “What you did was you saved my life / I won’t forget it,” she sings, referring to a tour with the Heartbreakers. The song vaulted to No. 26 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

5. “Rooms On Fire” (from The Other Side of the Mirror, 1989)

In the early 1980s, Nicks romanced British music producer Rupert Hine; instead of just exchanging numbers, the two headed to a Dutch castle on top of a mountain. “We made an agreement to make a magic album,” said Nicks of this unconventional courtship. Their collaboration was “Rooms on Fire,” a spectral jam about being spellbound by a lover in the halls of a candlelit palace. Few songs feature so many windchimes.

4. “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You?” (from Rock a Little, 1985)

In 1974, Joe Walsh tasted tragedy. His daughter, Emma, was involved in a car accident, passing away at only three years old. A decade later, Walsh and Nicks drove through the mountains of Colorado together; when Nicks complained about a trivial matter from the shotgun seat, Walsh responded by talking about Emma’s death. This knee-wobbling shift in perspective produced “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You?”, one of Nicks’ most beautiful ballads. It’s a tribute to Walsh, Emma and anyone who ended up without a song.

3. “If Anyone Falls” (from The Wild Heart, 1983)

“If Anyone Falls” constructs a vivid, three-dimensional scene of bodies in space. There’s Nicks, ear pressed against a wall listening to a man’s voice. (“Feels good, sounds good,” she sings.) Until she hears another voice through the door — a man’s, and it throws Nicks for a loop. “There was a time in which I was falling out of one love and into another,” explained Nicks, remembering her moving on from Walsh to musician Waddy Wachtel. Like the Pixar film Inside Out, in which emotions are given personhood and personalities in a girl’s mind, “If Anyone Falls” lets Nicks’ romantic hang-ups play out in a theater of the mind. Only she could pull it off.

2. “Edge of Seventeen” (from Bella Donna, 1981)

Ever inspired by conversational minutiae, Nicks caught one of her greatest songs from a chat with Tom Petty’s wife, Jane. When she mentioned she met her husband “at the age of seventeen,” Nicks misheard “edge of seventeen.” With one slip-up, she was off to the races. She took the phrase to not just mean coming of age, but the enormity of death: her uncle Jonathan had recently died of colon cancer, her colleague John Lennon shot and killed. “The white-winged dove in the song is a spirit that is leaving a body,” she told Rolling Stone. “I felt a great loss at how both Johns were taken.” The result is the greatest, most distinctive rocker she ever penned; its tense 16th notes, uneasy bass line and ascending piano line will lift you to that same heavenly plane.

1. “After the Glitter Fades” (from Bella Donna, 1981)

No Nicks song captures her voice like “After the Glitter Fades.” It begins ruefully looking out from the Hollywood Hills — she “never thought she’d make it” in Tinseltown. She considers King Midas: when did his golden creations lose their luster? A lonesome pedal steel curlicues like a question mark. It soundtracked a real-life memory. Nicks wrote “Glitter” in 1972, before she joined Fleetwood Mac. She wasn’t sure she could make it in music. She was fed up trying. Of course, we know how this story ends — but Nicks’ weariness still rings true. “Glitter” speaks to the end of fame, of showbiz, of everything. It’s why we love Nicks. Her songs never claimed that life was hunky-dory; they’re about how life goes on. We can all relate. This glitter hasn’t faded.

Morgan Enos / Billboard / March 26, 2019

March 26, 2019
Interview with Stevie

Stevie Nicks on Tom Petty, Drag Queens, Game of Thrones and Missing Prince

Wisdom from the first woman to make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice

Stevie Nicks has the only kind of BDE that matters: Bella Donna Energy. The Fleetwood Mac gold dust woman is adding yet another sequin to her top hat by going into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, years after she got enshrined with the Mac. She’s the first woman inducted twice — as she puts it, “at the ripe and totally young age of 70.” She’s also hitting the road with Fleetwood Mac for the 2019 leg of their world tour, in their surprising new incarnation after a sudden split with Lindsey Buckingham.

As eloquent and witty as ever, Stevie went deep with Rolling Stone for an epic late-night chat about her 50 years as a rock goddess, discussing love, loss, female music heroes, her poetry about Game of Thrones, how “Stand Back” makes her miss Prince, drag queens, sexist hecklers, loving Tom Petty, why she wears platform boots and the joys of having two female rock stars in the same band. And also why the story of her life would be titled, There’s Enough Shawls to Go Around. Rock on, queen.

Congratulations on the Hall of Fame. How is it different going in the second time?

It’s 22 to zero. It’s 22 guys that have gone in twice to zero women — Eric Clapton is probably in there 22 times already! So maybe this will open the doors for women to fight to make their own music.

You’re one of the few rock stars with both a band and a solo career.

My solo career is much more girlie. It’s still a hard rock band — but it’s much more girlie-girl than Fleetwood Mac is. I never wanted a solo career — I always wanted to be just in a band. But I just had so many songs! Because when you’re in a band with three prolific writers, you get two or three songs per album — maybe four. But I was writing all the time, so they just went into my Gothic trunk of lost songs.

Christine would walk by me — my totally sarcastic best friend. She’d say [imitation of Christine McVie’s English accent] “Soooo. Writing another song, are we?” To this day, I write all the time. I have a poem that I’ve written about Game of Thrones, and I have a really beautiful poem that I’m writing about Anthony Bourdain.

You were always a pioneer — a female rock star at a time when that was virtually unknown.

I was a female rock star in a band with another female rock star, which was totally cool. Then I went into my own band where I had Sharon Celani and Lori Nicks — she married my brother. So I’ve always had the girls, you know? If I had been the only girl in Fleetwood Mac, it would have been very different, so I’m really glad I joined a band that happened to have another woman in it. At the beginning people said, “Does Christine want another girl in the band?” And I said, “I hope she does. When she meets me, I hope she likes me.” She did really like me — we got Mexican food and we laughed and looked at each other and went, “This is going to be great.”

But up until 1980, I had five years’ worth of songs that I knew were just never going to have any place to go. So I did the Gemini thing where you’re two different people — let’s give Stevie her solo career, without breaking up one of the world’s biggest bands. I was on a mission. Every time a Fleetwood Mac tour ended, I hit the ground running. I would already have songs ready for my next record. I’d take a week off, then I’d be in the studio. Everybody else would go on vacation.

I hope that inspires the women musicians out there. I had this hysterical talk with Haim: “OK, you need to work on your band, but at least one of you needs to start making your solo record.”

But you still never slow down. You’re in the middle of a Fleetwood Mac world tour.

At the ripe and totally young age of 70, my voice hasn’t changed. As long as I take care of myself, I am still going to be doing this when I’m 80. There’s so many things I want to do. I want to do another record. I want to make a mini-series. If the coven reforms, I want to go back to American Horror Story. I tell myself, “Do it now, because you’re spry, you’re in good shape, you can still do the splits, you can still dance onstage and wear a short skirt and high six-inch heels.”

It’s a time right now when women are changing the world and changing music. What was it like when you first joined a band?

Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick — that was the beginning. I met Lindsey in 1966. Two years later, I joined his band. That was it — that was San Francisco music, Janis, Jimi Hendrix, Buffalo Springfield. Our band, the band I was in with Lindsey, we opened for that huge-ass group Chicago, with Bill Graham standing on the side of the stage. That night was the only time in my life I was heckled—some guy out in the audience went, “Hey baby. What are you doing later? You want to come home with me?” Bill Graham walked out on the stage and screamed at this guy and told him to get the f-u-c-k out and never come back. Basically, “If I ever see you again, I will kill you.” I didn’t know Bill Graham. A good five years later, I reminded him of that night and he remembered. He said, “Yeah, I don’t let that happen.”

Who were the female singers who first inspired you?

I started singing when I was in fourth grade: R&B, all the Shirelles’ songs and the Supremes and the Shangri-Las. All those amazing songs Carole King and Gerry Goffin wrote. That was my diving board for singing as a little girl. My grandfather was a country singer, but I said, “No, I’m full-on Top 40. I’m not country.” I’m dancing to all this crazy R&B music, singing, “Sugar pie, honey bunch,” and my parents are asking, “Where did she come from? She’s an alien!”

In sixth grade, I was in a play as one of the two surviving women of the Alamo. I was so bad, I said, “Mom, never ever let me sign up for anything dramatic. No drama. No chorus. No anything. I’m not a good actress — I’m never doing that again.” But right after that, I signed myself up for a talent show. I did a tap dance to Buddy Holly’s “Everyday.” I practiced the hell out of this dance to get it right — I wore a black skirt, a black vest, a white blouse, black tap shoes and a black top hat. It’s like I had the vision already. I knew what I would wear in 30 years.

You were that woman from the beginning.

I was. When I first listened to the Fleetwood Mac recording of “Dreams,” I said, “There’s that little girl that was singing along to the Supremes.” All the amazing black musical groups who were Top 40 when I was in the fourth grade. Carole and Gerry, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill — those are the songs that I learned to sing to. I wanted to be a part of that. I’m 70 now, so I’ve been working on this for like 60 years.

‘When I first listened to the Fleetwood Mac recording of “Dreams,” I said, “There’s that little girl that was singing along to the Supremes.”’

When you were starting out, do you think it was tougher for you get a break as a songwriter because you were a woman?

No — I never looked at it that way. When I joined Lindsey’s band, we played all over San Francisco, opening for all the big groups. I got to watch Janis Joplin, who was not a super attractive girl, but when she walked out on that stage, she was amazing and beautiful. Jefferson Airplane — I got to watch Grace Slick, who was sexy and wore actual high heels — not boots, but high heels — and silky dresses that swished back and forth on the stage. She’s singing about Alice in Wonderland. It was the best school of rock ever. I took little pieces from everybody. I was just planning my world.

Everybody isn’t going to have it as easy as I did. I didn’t face a lot of the things that a lot of women have faced. I was very lucky. Christine and I made a pact the day I joined Fleetwood Mac. She and I said, “We will never be treated like second-class citizens. We will never be not allowed to hang out in a room full of intelligent, crazy rock and roll stars, because we’re just as crazy and just as intelligent as they are.” We just made that promise to each other that we would do everything we could do for women, that we would fight for everything that we wanted and get it. That our songs and our music would be equally as good as all the men surrounding us. And it was.

You somehow have this timeless appeal to every new generation of fans. Harry Styles does such a great version of “The Chain.”

He’s Mick [Fleetwood]’s and my love child. When Harry came into our lives, I said, “Oh my God, this is the son I never had.” So I adopted him. I love Harry, and I’m so happy Harry made a rock & roll record — he could have made a pop record and that would have been the easy way for him. But I guess he decided he wanted to be born in 1948, too — he made a record that was more like 1975.

What’s it like to hear the new female pop stars who idolize you?

That makes me happy because I didn’t ever have children, but I feel like I have a lot of daughters. I love Vanessa Carlton. She’s like my younger, younger, younger sister — like if my dad had divorced my mother and married a really younger woman, then had Vanessa. I’m so much older than her, but yet there’s such a little silken thread between the two of us when it comes to music. I have that with Natalie Maines, LeAnn Rimes, Hillary Scott from Lady Antebellum.

When you were coming up, did you have rock mentors giving you a helping hand?

Lindsey and I started out as starving musicians — I do mean starving, with no money. We made great music, but we were still starving and terrified. When we joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, that’s when we started meeting other artists. I got to go on the road with Tom Petty and be a part of the Heartbreakers for three months, and it was awesome.

Tom gave you that star you wear on your top hat?

He did, and he gave me “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.” Had he not given me that song, let me candidly tell you, Bella Donna might not have been a hit. That song kicked Bella Donna right into the universe. My biggest sadness about the Hall of Fame is that Tom is not here to enjoy this with me, because he would have been the proudest of me of anyone.

Your career’s had so many amazing phases. I have to confess, my favorite song is “Ooh My Love,” from The Other Side of the Mirror in 1989.

I stole that from Tom Petty — accidentally! I picked up the wrong cassette at Tom’s one night, a tape of Mike Campbell’s instrumental demos. Tom would get them first, and then the ones he didn’t want, Mike sent them to me. I accidentally arrived home one night with a cassette — I thought it was mine, but it was Tom’s. It just said, “24 Demos from Mike Campbell.” It had the song that inspired “Ooh My Love,” which became “Runaway Train” for Tom. I took it into Fleetwood Mac and sang my lyrics over it. We started to record. I loved it so much, I called Tom and said, “Listen to this!” What an idiot, right? Let’s play him the song you stole over the phone! Tom just starts screaming at me on the other end of the phone. I’m realizing, “How stupid are you, Stevie?” So I had to go in the next day and tell Fleetwood Mac, “Guess what, we can’t do this song. ” “Why can’t we do it? ” “Because I stole it from Tom Petty, and I’m absolutely a total criminal and a thief.”

That’s tragic.

These are the ups and downs of being friends with other songwriters. So we erased it. Then way later, years down the road, I sat down at the piano and tried to recall it. I wrote “Ooh My Love” on the piano: “In the shadow of the castle walls…” Of course, I don’t know near as many chords as Mike Campbell does. All I remembered was that distant enchanted melody.

Yet it’s a song that sounds like quintessential Stevie.

Me and Tom and Mike Campbell, we’re like quintessentially three parts of one person.

I loved how you did “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” on your last solo tour — as a duet with Chrissie Hynde.

She’s not great at harmony. But neither was I. We never actually sang the song — we would just look at each other and giggle like two girls in the theater. I became really good friends with Chrissie Hynde, which is unbelievable because I was told, before I met her, Chrissie’s not a girlie-girl. But she IS a girlie-girl — she loves her makeup and her beautiful clothes and her eyeliner. When we sang that song, that gave us that moment every night where we could just be ourselves and hang out onstage for eight minutes.

Then you have “Stand Back,” which is such a soul song.

The saddest thing of all is Prince and I never played that song onstage together. And that just breaks my heart. I guess we all think we’re immortal — I always thought we had plenty of time. I should have told Prince 10 years ago or 15 years ago, “Hey, Prince, we should do this song onstage together — some night, some city, call me.”

But you know, I feel like Prince is with me. When I’m nervous, I’ll talk to Prince. In my solo act, when I do “Moonlight,” I wear this white wolfy coat — I put this coat on and I try to transform into a Dire Wolf from Game of Thrones. And before I go on, I always say, “Walk with me, Prince.”

You always seemed to have this affinity with him.

We were strange friends. “Stand Back” was inspired by “Little Red Corvette.” I called him and said, “Can you come to the studio and listen to this song? I’ve sung over your song and written another song and you may hate it and if you do, I won’t do it.” He came over to to Sunset Sound and he loved it — he played piano and guitar on it. Then he was gone — he was like a spirit then. We always had that crazy respect for each other. I feel that connection is still there, maybe more now than before he died — with Tom and with Prince.

You and Prince both had your own unique style. You never look or sound like anyone else.

I wear this serious French corset onstage. If you want yourself to drop dead a couple of hours sooner than you would normally, just squeeze into that corset. I could never go onstage in street clothes because it’s not who I am. I could never go out there in a pair of jeans and a denim jacket. I mean, I don’t do casual very well. Even my normal life, I’m in cashmere pants and a cashmere sweater and cashmere thoughts.

I don’t put the boots on until right before I walk up to the stage. But when my little foot goes into that boot, it is like Cinderella. All of a sudden I become me. I become six inches taller. I walk like an African queen. Halloween is my favorite day, but I never have to wonder: What am I gonna be for Halloween this year? A witch, of course. Wearing my Stevie Nicks clothes.

Where do you keep all your shawls?

I have my shawl vault — they’re all in temperature-controlled storage. I have these huge red cases Fleetwood Mac bought, all the way back in 1975 — my clothes are saved in these cases. All my vintage stuff is protected for all my little goddaughters and nieces. I’m trying to give my shawls away — but there’s thousands of them. If I ever write my life story, maybe that should be the name of my book: There’s Enough Shawls to Go Around.

Maybe that’s why you’re so popular with drag queens. Last fall, I went to a punk rock drag ball and at the end of the night everybody sang “Landslide.”

I hear the “Night of a Thousand Stevies” ball is going on this year — in New Orleans and New York. I’ve threatened everybody that one day they won’t know it, but I’ll be there. I’ll be in such fantastic makeup that I’ll be able to float around. Nobody will know it’s me, until I walk on stage and start singing “Edge of 17.” Everybody will faint and they’ll have to call ambulances.

But everybody can dress up like me, because there’s so many different mes. You can be any me you want. My cousin made me a book for Christmas that has all the different mes from 1975, and I’m only a third of the way through this book with a magnifying glass. All these pictures she collected from all over the Internet that I had never seen, because I don’t have a computer.

You don’t?

I like my flip phone. But I don’t like what the Internet has done to people and I don’t like the fact that it’s nailed romance to the wall. I think it’s hard for people to find love these days. That makes me sad as a songwriter, because I want to write about love — I write about my friends’ relationships. People who call me up and say, “Oh my God, I met this gorgeous man and I totally fell in love with him,” and and I’m like, “Tell me more!” But it’s not happening near as much. Girls, don’t take it personally. It’s not you — it’s the Internet. There has to be romance before there can be love and it’s very hard to find romance in this hardcore high-tech world.

I’m not in a relationship and haven’t been in one for a long time, because I have chosen to follow my musical muse all over the world. When I was 20, 30, 40, I always had a boyfriend — always. But I have decided I’m just going to be free and follow my muse and do whatever I want, because I’m 70 years old and I can. That’s my choice. But if you do want to find romance? Throw away your fucking phone.

This article appears in the March 2019 issue of Rolling Stone.

Rob Sheffield / Rolling Stone / February 28, 2019

February 28, 2019