I had never heard any rumors prior to this that Straight Back was about Jimmy.... he says he thinks it's about somebody else. It would have come in between her doing BD and the WH....so not likely about Joe.....
Jimmy Iovine calls Dr. Dre 'great' and says 'that' Stevie Nicks song isn't about him
(DON MACCATHY/LONDON ENT/SPLASH /DON MACCATHY/LONDON ENT/SPLASH )
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, June 30, 2017, 6:00 PM
Dr. Dre is “great” and he’s also a pain in the arse.
Legendary producer Jimmy Iovine says that Dr. Dre is one of the biggest perfectionists he’s worked with, and that says a lot.
“Dre’s focus is on one thing — ‘great,’” Iovine told us at a Time Warner Center screening of HBO’s “The Defiant Ones,” which documents the two music moguls’ working relationship. It premieres on July 9.
According to Iovine, a Brooklyn native who’s also worked with John Lennon, Bruce Sprinsteen, U2 and Lady Gaga, Dre’s not about looking the part of a bigshot.
“He doesn't care about being famous, he doesn't care about any of these things,” Iovine insists. “The fact that he is so focused on the work, and yes he's born with talent, yes he's gifted, but a lot of gifted and talented people burn it out and don't follow through.”
Iovine and Dre’s most lucrative collaboration was about listening to music rather than creating it. In 2006, the pair developed Beats Electronic, whose Beats by Dre headphones have become ubiquitous.
“The market was controlled by just a very sterile sounding headphone and they looked like medical equipment so we just said, 'Let's plug that hole!” Iovine said. According to Iovine, if Dre were a diva, the two of them wouldn’t be in business.
“My father told me when I was a kid, when the s--t gets bigger than the cat, you get rid of the cat,” he said.
Iovine was famously involved with singer Stevie Nicks both personally and professionally while there were recording her 1981 album Bella Donna. They split in 1982 and she was rumored to have written a song about him called “Straight Back,” which appeared on the Fleetwood Mac album “Mirage.” The tune speaks of a “dream that is not over” but just went away.
“Anytime someone that gifted points their talent in your direction it's an honor,” he said of that tune. “I still think the song is about somebody else, but I'll take it.”
WITH NICKI GOSTIN, BRIAN NIEMIETZ