When In Doubt, Be Stevie Nicks
The iconic singer releases a record amid fierce interest in her work and persona
By Elio Iannacci // Maclean’s Magazine
Source
On tour, Nicks and Buckingham who share time alone on stage during the ballad Landslide, remain uncomfortable co-workers.
“Fences will never be mended with Lindsey and me,” Nicks said. “We don’t agree on anything. If something is going on and I’m doing something that Lindsey doesn’t like, his manager tells my manager.
I don’t care what he thinks.”
The distance is working for Nicks. The solo project, produced by former Eurhythmics guitarist-producer Dave Stewart, contains some of the best recordings she has made in two decades. The work riffs on the witchy reputation she has propagated referencing Welsh mythology and wearing sorceress-style shawls, and which is enjoying something of a moment. Nicks had a cameo on the HBO series American Horror Story: Coven last year and was a guest judge on The Voice. “I could never be Madonna”, she shrugged. “It’s too much work to be a chameleon.” She will not be dressed by stylists - “They steal your personality” - or coerced by P&R people (
“Nobody has the balls to tell me what to do”). Her ’70s bohemian look is referenced by fashion designers ranging from Rodarte to Ralph Lauren. Her duets with Dixie Chicks and Taylor Swift are awards-show rating draws. The 18-year-old- editor Tavi Gevinson gave this advice to her platoon of millennial followers in a TED talk: “When in doubt, just be Stevie Nicks.”
The 66-year-old Nicks does not own a cell phone or a computer, but
she’s aware of the momentum behind her. She wants to record a sequel to 24 Karat Gold. She plans to launch a capsule collection of clothing, a jewellery line a perfume.
