Bryan DeSena has posted a clip of Stevie and Lady Antebellum singing “Landslide” for CMT Crossroads. The rock icon and the country trio taped the show before a live studio audience at Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles on January 29. The program is scheduled to air later this year.
As Lady Antebellum and Stevie Nicks prepared to run through Lady A’s Grammy-winning “Need You Now” again after flubbing the first take at a taping of “Crossroads,” Lady A’s Charles Kelley looked adoringly at Nicks and said, ‘You can do no wrong.” Nicks sassily shot back, “I can and I have.”
So it went with sweet and often amusing banter between Lady A’s Kelley and Hillary Scott and the Fleetwood Mac front woman throughout the 90-minute taping at Los Angeles’ Sony Studios.
When Lady Antebellum debuted with “Love Don’t Live Here” five years ago, critics often compared the trio to Fleetwood Mac for its pop-tinged sound and its dual lead singers in Scott and Kelley, so it seemed all the more appropriate to pair the two acts for “Crossroads,” CMT’s 10-year old program that unites a country act with its musical hero from another genre.
It turns out Nicks has long been a Lady A fan. “Crossroads executive producer Bill Flanagan told the audience, “We’ve been trying to get Stevie Nicks for years. She said her favorite band is Lady Antebellum.”
“I’ve been listening to their songs for a solid three months,” Nicks said, between “Need You Now” takes. “My neighbors must be like, ‘What? We thought she was in Fleetwood Mac’.”
The new group— Fleetwood Antebellum? Lady Mac?—devoted the first half of the taping to Lady A hits, including “Love Don’t Live Here” and “Own the Night” album track, “Cold As Stone,” with Nicks either singing Scott’s parts or along with her and Kelley. Occasionally, Dave Heywood chimed in for gorgeous four-part harmonies. The trio debuted a lovely new song, “Golden,” which Nicks was among the first to hear. “Half a minute into it, I started to cry,” Nicks said. “This song is their ‘Landslide’.” Who knows if the love ballad will reach such legendary heights, but it’s clear having Nicks praise it so was enough for Lady A.
Later in the evening, the foursome performed “Landslide,” which Kelley introduced as “the greatest song ever.” Nicks recounted writing the song in 1973 after her boyfriend/music partner Lindsey Buckingham had gone to tour with the Everly Brothers. “I knew it was going to be special,” she said.
Lady A and Nicks also wrapped their vocals around a stunning, haunting “Gold Dust Woman” and “The Edge of 17,” marking the first time that Nicks said she had ever performed the latter tune, written about Tom Petty, with anyone else. For trivia buffs, the title comes from Nicks’ misunderstanding Petty’s first wife, who told Nicks she met Petty at “the age of 17.” Her southern accent was so strong, Nicks thought she said “the edge of 17.”
Speaking of Petty, next came the Nicks/Petty duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” with Kelley ably filling in for Petty as he towered over the diminutive Nicks.
Nicks then bantered with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, who was seated in the audience. Tyler previously taped a “Crossroads” with Carrie Underwood. As Kelley watched the exchange, he said, “Am I dreaming?”
Yep, heady stuff for the members of the trio, none of whom were born when Fleetwood Mac’s classic album, Rumours came out in 1977 or Nicks’ first solo album, Bella Donna in 1981.
CMT has yet to announce an air date for the Lady A/Stevie Nicks’ edition of “Crossroads.”
Melinda Newman / Hit Fix (The Best Goes On) /Wednesday, January 30, 2013
When rock icon Stevie Nicks and country trio Lady Antebellum convened at L.A.’s Sony Pictures Studios Tuesday to tape an upcoming episode of CMT’s Crossroads, the most excited people in the room of a thousand or so were clearly Nicks and the Nashville trio.
In fact, it was hard to tell who was the bigger fan, with both consistently praising the other’s work. It started from the very outset: after Nicks apologized for flubbing the opening lines of Lady Antebellum’s “Love Don’t Live Here,” Charles Kelley let her know all was forgiven by shouting “Stevie Fucking Nicks!”
Though no one in the audience seemed to mind starting off with five Lady Antebellum songs, Kelley commented at least three times on the format: “You’re gonna have to suffer through a few Lady A songs first,” he joked.
Nicks certainly did not mind. She told the audience she spent three months listening to the band’s songs in preparation for this show. “These songs are amazing,” she said. “These songs make you feel like you’re in love.”
Her biggest praise came for the new ballad “Golden,” a song that Kelley explained is on their forthcoming album, which they sent to Nicks in hope of doing it on this night. She said that after a half a minute of listening to the song she was crying. She called it “their ‘Landslide.’” To which Kelley responded, “Now we might cry.”
When a piano was rolled out, while Kelley was tinkering around with Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” Nicks hung over the piano. “This is every man’s fantasy – Stevie Nicks draped over a piano,” he said. “I would like a picture of this.”
After Nicks left the stage for the upbeat “Downtown,” she and her band returned for her turn. Kelley let everyone know the cultural significance of these songs by introducing “Gold Dust Woman”: “If you don’t know this next song, you suck.”
Swept up in the night, Kelley had several humorous moments, from his attempt at the trademark Nicks twirl to recounting listening to Fleetwood Mac records in his bedroom at age 10. “Now we’re hanging out. We’re besties,” he quipped.
Maybe they’re not besties yet, though Nicks did tell the audience she had gifts backstage for Lady Antebellum’s pregnant frontwoman, Hillary Scott. “Edge of Seventeen,” one of her biggest solo hits, is a song she doesn’t like to share with anybody because it is so personal, she said.
“I’m proud to share it with Lady Antebellum, because they’re good enough to do it,” she said.
Nicks took the time to recall the stories behind each of her songs, like how she wrote “Landslide” in Aspen, Colorado in 1973 and how she felt “a twinge of something, that this song is gonna be super-important in my life.” She called it “the foundation of Fleetwood Mac,” while Kelley called it “the greatest song ever.” After a sublime rendition, Scott said, “Makes me cry every time.”
Before a raucous “Stop Dragging My Heart Around,” a song she originally performed with Tom Petty, Nicks told of producer Jimmy Iovine’s insistence on finding a single for her debut solo album, Bella Donna. If it hadn’t been for that demand, she said, she might not have had a solo career. She learned a lesson, she said, about listening to others and not letting pride get in the way. To which Kelly added, “Every person at our label has a huge smile right now.” So did everyone in the venue by the time they finished “Rhiannon.”
Set list:
Steve Baltin /Rolling Stone / Wednesday, January 30, 2013
