A celebrity _ rock star
Still Stevie The return of the gold dust woman As Fleetwood Mac’s long-standing hippy rock goddess, Stevie Nicks has certainly carved out her spot in music history. A strong and prolific songwriter, she has always combined her distinctive, sorrowful vocals with lyrical candor and a theatrical stage presence that her fans relish. With Fleetwood Mac now on another world tour, and a new solo album and documentary made in collaboration with Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart (both called In Your Dreams), today Nicks is very much back in the spotlight. And at 65, she remains as eccentric and enchanting as ever. Speaking at the British premiere of her documentary, Nicks reflected on a life in music, and revealed that when she gets bored at home in Los Angeles she likes to dress up in shawls and a witch’s hat; just as you’d hope, really. On Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, her former lover and partner. “Lindsey and I sat down and had a talk in October 2011, and I’m just sorry we didn’t have that talk 20 years ago. Because I think sometimes that men – and believe me, I love men – but men sometimes just don’t get it. It’s not their fault. I sat down with Lindsey and I said, ‘Do you remember who we were when we first joined Fleetwood Mac? How cute we were, how sweet we were? How funny we A 200
were? And how we could walk into a room and be so charming and be our own power couple? Lindsey we have to go back to being those two people, or we should never do this again.’ He was very quiet. He looked at me and nodded his head, and he went home. And he listened to me. I think men will always listen to you if you sit down in a good situation and tell them, without yelling at them, how you’re feeling and why. I think he did listen. And that conversation we had means that now on stage, every night, he is a different person, and when we walk out on stage together hand in hand, he is listening.” On the new generation of Fleetwood Mac fans. “When we did The Dance [in 1997] we’d been apart for a long time, and most of the audience was our age, which really scared Lindsey. We were looking out at a sea of gray hair every night. I said to him, ‘Those people are the people who started out with us and our age, and those people have kids who are growing up listening to Fleetwood Mac, and those kids will start showing up to Fleetwood Mac shows.’ And sure enough they have.” On making her solo record and documentary, In Your Dreams, at her home. “I’m so glad we stuck to our guns and made the record we wanted to make, not the record the record company wanted us to make. The documentary includes crazy music videos for the songs. Dave [Stewart, her co-writer and film director] made it all magical. His two little girls play the little
vampire children in one of the videos, and we had an amazing tame tawny owl that was in my house for about 12 hours. One day I said ‘I wish we had a beautiful white horse’ [for the album cover photo]. Well don’t ever suggest anything to Dave Stewart, because it will happen. I get up one morning, and I’m looking out at the fir trees and sycamores, and there’s the most beautiful white horse you’ve ever seen just standing there. The sunlight is streaming through the trees and sparkling on its mane.”
On discovering new artists. “Right now my favorite song is ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry. I’m so proud of her and think that’s such a great girl power song, and I’m so happy that she’s sending out messages to ex-husbands through music, without a harsh word. I like Lady Gaga’s song ‘Applause,’ and I like that sad, suicidal song by Lana Del Rey, ‘Summertime Sadness.’ I wish people would make me tapes because I would love to be part of today’s music, but I’m always busy.”
On her lifestyle while recording the album. “I would wake up about 11am and sit and drink coffee, then jump in the bath, throw on some makeup, get dressed, take the rollers out my hair and run downstairs just in time to open the door to Dave [Stewart]. In the evenings, after he had left to go home to his family, the girls [her backing singers] and I would work on our vocals until 3am. And if we all got bored at any point, I’d just go upstairs and take down all the scarves and witches hats – I always have Halloween stuff – and I’d just make everybody put on something.”
On being inspired by a Twilight movie. “I saw New Moon and started crying in the movie theater because it was my story. When the love of her life walks away from her. I was Bella. That happened to me and inspired my new song ‘Starlight.’ You should know, that happened to Stevie Nicks, the love of her life walked away and she survived it.” The documentary Stevie Nicks In Your Dreams is available on DVD, and the album In Your Dreams and the four-CD box set Fleetwood Mac: 25 Years – The Chain are out now.
©Kristin Burns
By Sophy Grimshaw