1989 Interviews

[michelej1]

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY), August 18, 1989

Section: WEEKENDER

HARSH ENCOUNTER WITH REALITY LEAVES STEVIE NICKS REFLECTIVE

Gary Graff Knight-Ridder News Service

Stevie Nicks has led a charmed life. Dual careers -- both successful -- with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo act. Tunes about mystical love affairs and Welsh witches. All-star duets and collaborations. Fame, fortune and that whole song.

But this summer, reality kicked her in the stomach.

In June, Nicks' mother had open-heart surgery, forcing the singer- songwriter to rush to her Phoenix, Ariz., home at a time when Fleetwood Mac was working on a new album and when she was preparing for a solo tour to promote her fourth album, The Other Side of the Mirror.

For an intense five weeks, Nicks faced "the most emotionally trying period of my life."

Fortunately, Nicks' mom was back to cooking dinner for the family a month after her surgery. But the experience gave the singer poignant pause.

"My mother would kill you if she knew I was telling you about it," Nicks, 40, said recently. "It was such a heavy experience for me. She almost didn't make it.

"It never occurred to me that anything could happen to my mother. It's one of those things that happens to other people, but not to you, and when it does, you're not prepared. I don't think you can ever be prepared.

"I'm sure I'll write about it someday."

Don't think of Nicks as opportunistic. Since she began recording with former boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham 16 years ago, she has crafted songs from the pages of her personal journal and from her experiences. Some are direct. ("Dreams," her 1977 hit for Fleetwood Mac, chronicles her breakup with Buckingham.) Others are couched in vague, impressionistic images, but she insists all of her music comes from true-life occurrences.

"I feel that all the experiences I've had, everyone else has had, too," said Nicks, who joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and released her first solo album, Bella Donna, in 1981.

"I also feel that I've survived them, so what I try to say in my songs -- especially the ones that aren't so very happy -- is that you will survive. Sometimes all of us think, 'I'm not going to make it,' so I'm saying, 'We will come through this, no matter how bad it gets.'

"That's what I'm trying to get across. I'm not a preacher, not a politician. What I am is a philosopher. I try to spread a little sparkle dust, I guess. . . . My mission has always been to go out and make people happy, about themselves, about their lives."

It seems she's accomplishing that. Sales are one indicator: Her three previous albums have been million sellers, while The Other Side of the Mirror, now on Billboard's Top 30, seems to be making its way there. But those who have worked with Nicks say the clearer evidence comes from watching the audience when she performs live.

"Her ability to reach that many people with those types of songs is extraordinary," said Little Feat keyboardist Bill Payne, who has toured with Nicks. Perhaps that's why Fleetwood Mac never has given her the boot, choosing to tolerate her erratic schedule to keep her in the band and her songs on Mac albums. "I'm one of those people who were born guilty," Nicks said, "so I've learned to be very good at juggling."

There's been turbulence between Nicks and the group before, particularly during the making of the last group album, 1987's Tango in the Night. Work on Tango coincided with Nicks' last solo tour, and she was out of the studio for long periods. That created delays and caused animosity between her and her band mates. "They're really my second family," she said. "When I feel they're angry at me, that breaks my heart."

[michelej1]

Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA), November 12, 1989

Section: DATEBOOK

STEVIE NICKS RESPONDS TO PRESSURE
Linda Romine

The earthquake that rocked San Francisco had at least one rock singer shaken up.

Stevie Nicks, on her first solo tour in three years, was underground in a northern California amphitheater when it hit.

"The ground actually started to move back and forth under my feet like a skateboard," she said. "A few minutes later, our tour manager came in and yelled, "Everybody out!' He grabbed me and we and about 30 people went running up two flights of stairs."

Although no major damage was reported in the city of Concord, her concert there that night was canceled for fear of aftershocks, she said. As she watched the news story unfold that night on television, her thoughts turned morbid: Her brother, she said, had been on the Bay Bridge three hours before a section of it collapsed.

'Pretty Shook Up'

"It's got me pretty shook up," Nicks said during a lengthy phone call to her home town from Mountain View, Calif. "It makes you stop and take stock of your life.

"I drove up and down that shore freeway too many times. That's when Lindsey (Buckingham) and I were first starting out. I went to college in San Mateo, and all of these memories come flooding back to me."

The mystical blond singer, whose razor-edged alto has defined the sound of the supergroup Fleetwood Mac for the past 14 years, is touring in support of her latest solo album, "The Other Side of the Mirror." Since August she has been on the road - only occasionally making it back to "my beautiful desert" and home in Arizona.

'Serious Pressure'

She talked openly about the stresses and pressures of the music business, and of the story behind one of her album's most heart-breaking songs, "I'm Doing the Best That I Can."

"I was having a lot of serious pressure on me where I was having to go into my bedroom, lock my door, sit on my bed, close my eyes and think," she said. "That happens a lot. I just go away into my own little space."

The constant demands are multiplied with Nicks, who juggles her entire life to keep a solo career as well as her role with Fleetwood Mac intact. "I never thought at 27 years old when I started this business that I'd still be going on with two careers, having thousands of people depending on me," she said. "I've got thousands of people on my solo career side depending on me, thousands of people on the Fleetwood Mac side.

"What am I gonna do - quit?"

Millions of Records

The gypsylike singer plans to do just that - at least temporarily - a year from now. After completion of her current solo tour, the recording of Fleetwood Mac's next album (due out next spring) and a subsequent Australian tour, she is coming home for 12 months of rest and relaxation in Phoenix.

"It's been a long time in coming," she said with a sigh.

In the past 14 years, Nicks' distinctive, vibrato-rich voice has sold millions of records worldwide, from solo and duet efforts such as "Edge of Seventeen," "Stand Back," "Leather and Lace," "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and the recent "Rooms on Fire," to Fleetwood Mac-backed blockbusters including "Rhiannon," "Dreams," "Sara" and "Gypsy."

Still, the success most younger singers would envy has come at great personal sacrifice, the 41-year-old entertainer said.

"The hardest thing is to have given up having children," she explained soberly. "You have to kind of accept the fact.

"I have no social life, no time to myself. Not that I haven't had lots and lots of wonderful relationships. But they always say: "I can't deal with your life. You're always leaving. You're always going off with Fleetwood Mac or going on tour. I'm lonely, and this isn't working.' "

The singer made no mention of Buckingham, her former love, who left Fleetwood Mac after recording "Tango in the Night" with the band more than two years ago.

Woman Pioneers

At the time Nicks entered the business in 1975, the only prominent women pioneers previously in rock were Grace Slick and Janis Joplin, two singers she said she admires. And if today's flock of young new female pop singers is looking up to Nicks, she has plenty to say. "Bless 'em for trying. This is not easy," she said. "They'll learn real fast. They'll learn this is a hard and heavy life and what they'll be giving up is a lot more than they could possibly dream."

[michelej1]

[Well, this isn't 1989, but I thought I'd throw it in while I was uploading]

Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 31, 1991

Section: ARTS & LIVING


NICKS ENCHANTS BLOSSOM TONIGHT
JANE SCOTT PLAIN DEALER ROCK REPORTER

THE PLAIN DEALER

"The Voice" is back.

Song enchantress Stevie Nicks will be back at Blossom Music Center tonight with three new songs, her special black suitcase and will be the thinnest she has been in years.

The former co-lead singer of Fleetwood Mac is 43 and proud of it.

"People know that I joined Mac when I was 27, so there is no use hiding my age. Actually I love my age," she said in a telephone interview.

What she didn't like was her growing weight, up to 142 pounds a few years ago. "Some people can carry a lot of pounds, but I'm only 5 feet 1. I have a little heart valve that is slightly off. It doesn't close perfectly. So I couldn't use weight-loss systems."

That's where the little black bag comes in. She calls it her kitchen suitcase.

"Anyone can do this," she said. "I pack a tea kettle and herbal teas and instant oatmeal. All I eat otherwise during the day is chicken and asparagus and salad with dietetic Italian dressing."

Nicks has been working for months on her upcoming album, "Timespace," the first collection of her best solo work over the past 10 years. The album is due in stores next Tuesday.

Then she got two unexpected song offers, by Jon Bon Jovi and Bret Michaels of Poison. Bon Jovi's song, "Sometimes It's a Bitch," wound up as the single.

"I wasn't too keen on adding a new song, and I never would have used that one word," Nicks said. "And how could he write about what I had experienced in the past 15 years?. But when I heard the song, some of the sensitive lines got to me."

For instance, there's the line "I've laid down with love and woke up with lies."

"That's a perfect comment on relationships with people and with the record industry," she said. Back in 1972, a record label gave her and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham studio time and a big time producer, but later dropped the album.

She wouldn't have accepted Michael's "Love's a Hard Game to Play" if it had been heavy metal, but it was a pretty song, she said. "And I've got a special one on the album for the troops, `Desert Angel.'

It has been 10 months since Nicks and co-singer Christine McVie left Fleetwood Mac, at one time the top rock band in the world.

"Yes, it was a wrench," Nicks said. "Think what it would be like if you had been in an office with six people for 15 years and then left."

No, she said, drummer/leader Mick Fleetwood's recent gossipy autobiography detailing personal relationships within the band had nothing to do with her departure.

"Because I haven't read it," she said. "Why should I? I've been there. And it would just have made me upset when we were onstage."

What really determined her departure was a serious argument with Fleetwood, she said. "He wouldn't let me have a song I had written, `Silver Springs,' for my `Timespace' album. That song had come out on the flip side of `Go Your Own Way' in 1976. So I said, `Then I guess we have nothing more to say to each other,' she reported.

Arizona-born Nicks was the one who brought the struggling British group Fleetwood Mac into the limelight with her mystical song, "Rhiannon." Critics still write about the magic and enchantment of that song with a gold moon lit suddenly on the back of the Coliseum stage and the limbs of a dark tree silhouetted against it. Nicks appeared in layers of chiffon and black velvet, her voice almost a whisper at times. "Rhiannon" is based on an old Welsh myth.

"Actually I wrote it in Colorado on the piano, in about five minutes," said Nicks, who lives in Phoenix. She brought Fleetwood Mac its only No.1 song, "Dreams," in 1977.

Tonight she will bring bassist Mark Andes of Heart on stage as well as guitarist Les Dudek, percussionist Peter Michael (brother of Sheila E.) drummer Scott Craigo, guitarist Michael Lennon and two keyboard players, Cat Grey and Eddie M.

Her future? "I want to write; I want to paint, and I do photography. In another 10 years I may gracefully slip into serious writing," she said. "If I write a book it won't be about who goes with whom. It won't hurt anybody."

[Enchanted_Stevi]

These are awesome interviews!!
I never read these before!
Thanks:blob1: :thumbsup:

[ontheEdgeof17]

I have a little heart valve that is slightly off. It doesn't close perfectly.

Well. That's something about Mama that I didn't know. I'm surprised it hasn't been repaired by now. It usually gets worse with age.

[Tango]

^^^

There was an article somewhere /sometime where she stated she had a mitral valve prolapse. I think it was where she was mentioning both her mother and father's past heart surgeries.

[michelej1]

I don't think I knew Stevie did photography. We've seen some of her drawings, her art, but have we seen any of her photography before? I think I saw one picture that she may have taken of herself in the mirror, but that's all I can remember.

Michele

[HejiraNYC]

I don't think I knew Stevie did photography. We've seen some of her drawings, her art, but have we seen any of her photography before? I think I saw one picture that she may have taken of herself in the mirror, but that's all I can remember.

Michele

There are probably untold hundreds... thousands of reels of film that Stevie has taken of herself in the can.

[michelej1]

There are probably untold hundreds... thousands of reels of film that Stevie has taken of herself in the can.

At least they aren't reels Stevie has taken of herself on the can.

Michele

[strandinthewind]

There are probably untold hundreds... thousands of reels of film that Stevie has taken of herself in the can.

It's where she says she wrote the songs - the famous one - the ones you hear on the radio - I am sooooo seeing John Goodman as Linda Tripp sitting on the toilet eating a huge bag of greasy chips while on the phone to Monica saying she's eating a leaf of lettuce :eek:

[HejiraNYC]

It's where she says she wrote the songs - the famous one - the ones you hear on the radio - I am sooooo seeing John Goodman as Linda Tripp sitting on the toilet eating a huge bag of greasy chips while on the phone to Monica saying she's eating a leaf of lettuce :eek:

I could just imagine a typical afternoon in the Nicks master bathroom suite: "KAREN, can you get another roll of TP for Mama... and another pack of Polaroids too!"

[ricohv]

At least they aren't reels Stevie has taken of herself on the can.

Michele

Stop-you're killing me!!!:laugh:

[David]

You guys are too much.

I have a question for the Stevie-ites. How come you never gripe that these positive reviews are "biased" or "unfair" & that these reviewers are "hacks"?

[strandinthewind]

You guys are too much.

I have a question for the Stevie-ites. How come you never gripe that these positive reviews are "biased" or "unfair" & that these reviewers are "hacks"?

Because.

Capice :cool:

[CADreaming]

I don't think I knew Stevie did photography. We've seen some of her drawings, her art, but have we seen any of her photography before? I think I saw one picture that she may have taken of herself in the mirror, but that's all I can remember.

Michele

A year or two ago Stevie said she wanted to become a better photographer. You know, she could ask Kristen for tips... oh, nevermind she's doing interior decorating now...
:wavey:

[strandinthewind]

. . . You know, she could ask Kristen for tips... oh, nevermind she's doing interior decorating now...
:wavey:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaa -- Bless her heart

:cool:

[jld92]

A year or two ago Stevie said she wanted to become a better photographer. You know, she could ask Kristen for tips... oh, nevermind she's doing interior decorating now...
:wavey:

Lmao at Stevie asking Kristen for tips.:lol:

Well, Carol Ann does talk of how her and Stevie bonded over lines so maybe this is a way for her to reach out to Kristen....:laugh:

[StreetAngel86]

I could just imagine a typical afternoon in the Nicks master bathroom suite: "KAREN, can you get another roll of TP for Mama... and another pack of Polaroids too!"

:laugh:
nah, Stevie doesn't use the can...ever
and if she did, she would just ring a bell
and Karen would come to touch up her bootay :D


A year or two ago Stevie said she wanted to become a better photographer. You know, she could ask Kristen for tips... oh, nevermind she's doing interior decorating now...
:wavey:

:lol:
all the pics of her house she's parading to the world...she took them no? :rolleyes:

[michelej1]

Orlando Sentinel Questions, December 9, 1989

Q. Did Fleetwood Mac dump that great singer Stevie Nicks because of her drug problems? I hear she's singing solo in Europe.

A. Stevie decided to do a tour because her fourth solo album, ''The Other Side of the Mirror,'' was such a success worldwide. She recently spent a month in the Betty Ford Clinic getting over a substance-abuse problem and feels she is now cured. Next on Nicks' agenda is a yearlong tour with Fleetwood Mac. Then Stevie plans to adopt a baby and be a single mother, since she feels she's never had any luck with men and it's unlikely she'll ever marry.

[michelej1]

San Francisco Chronicle (CA), October 15, 1989

Section: SUNDAY DATEBOOK

STEVIE NICKS LUSH-LIPPED VOCALIST CAN BE DREAMY OR PRAGMATIC

RUSS DEVAULT, New York Times News Service

TOM PETTY, Bob Dylan and the Australian government were among the subjects that Stevie Nicks talked about in a telephone interview from Chicago recently.

The 41-year-old singer was enjoying a few days off from her tour to promote "The Other Side of the Mirror," her third solo album since joining the irregularly working Fleetwood Mac in 1975.

A blond, lush-lipped, larger-than-life beauty, Nicks is best known for her dreamy, impressionistic songs about witches, gypsies and affairs of her heart. But she can also be pragmatic.

Discussing her friendship with Petty, who helped her record the hit single "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" in 1981, she says, "I call Tom when I'm upset or questioning my existence on this planet. He can tell me that I'm just having a bad day, to shut up and go to bed, and I'll take it. But if he tells me I'm wrong, I'm wrong. He doesn't lie, and he doesn't say things to flatter people. He just tells you the truth."

However, Dylan doesn't have to say anything to intimidate Nicks, who went along as a nonperforming guest when he and Petty toured Australia two years ago. "I got to watch them put their personalities together, and it was fascinating," she says. "I watched some -- well, not exactly rows -- but a little bit of going back and forth between them."

During one stop, Dylan unexpectedly motioned Nicks onstage. "He put me between him and Tom and started a song and then backed off so I could sing. I was completely and utterly stupefied," she says. "Thank God, my voice worked."

But when Nicks, a bit more relaxed, joined Dylan and Petty onstage a second night, Australian officials took exception because she didn't have a work permit. She says she was told that if she kept performing, she "wouldn't be welcome again in Australia."

Those and other experiences Down Under didn't work their way into the songs on "The Other Side of the Mirror," but much of what Nicks writes is rooted in her reality. Thus, "Two Kinds of Love" incorporates aspects of her relationship with Petty, and "Long Way to Go" is a stinging farewell to a former lover.

Nicks doesn't identify the person she's addressing in "Long Way to Go," and she doesn't even hint that it might be Lindsay Buckingham, her musical and romantic partner when they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975.

"I WAS really angry at the person I wrote that song about. It's a lot of fun to perform because it has a definite attitude that audiences can pick up on."

What the crowds haven't noticed during her three-month tour, which began in August, is that Nicks has been performing first with a broken foot and then a severely sprained ankle. All they've realized is that Nicks, who prefers to perform in boots that make her appear taller than her 5-feet-3, has been wearing rhinestone-decorated Reeboks.

"I broke my foot in a swimming pool this summer, and was in a cast for eight weeks. I just got out of it when the tour began," she says. "I had to have all my dresses altered because without my boots, I'm 5 inches shorter."

Nicks' tour is built on the enormous success of Fleetwood Mac and the fact that her three LPs have total sales of more than $4 million. But she's still waiting for Atlantic Records to give her a jet so she doesn't have to worry about how much luggage she packs.

"I've already been told to drop half the stuff I'm traveling with," she says, laughing, and then doing her best to sound like she's whining. "I want a jet and I want it now."

She's still laughing -- deliciously, wickedly -- when she hangs up.

Stevie Nicks appears Tuesday at the Concord Pavilion, Wednesday at the Cal Expo Amphitheatre in Sacramento and Friday at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountainview.

[michelej1]

Miami Herald (FL), September 8, 1989


REALITY DAMPENS THE CHARMED CAREER OF STEVIE NICKS FAMILY SETBACK HITS, ROCK SINGER SUFFERS

GARY GRAFF Knight-Ridder News Service

Stevie Nicks has led a charmed life. Dual careers -- both successful -- with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo act. Tunes about mystical love affairs and Welsh witches. All-star duets and collaborations. Fame, fortune and that whole song.

But this summer, reality kicked her in the stomach.

In June, Nicks' mother had open-heart surgery, forcing the singer-songwriter to rush to her Phoenix home at a time when Fleetwood Mac was working on a new album and when she was preparing for a solo tour to promote her fourth album, The Other Side of the Mirror. (The tour brings her to the Miami Arena on Sept. 30.) For an intense five weeks, Nicks faced "the most emotionally trying period of my life."

Fortunately, Nicks' mother was back to cooking dinner for the family a month after her surgery. But the experience gave the singer pause.

"My mother would kill you if she knew I was telling you about it," the 40-year-old Nicks says. "It was such a heavy experience for me; she almost didn't make it.

"It never occurred to me that anything could happen to my mother. It's one of those things that happens to other people, but not to you, and when it does, you're not prepared. I don't think you can ever be prepared.

"I'm sure I'll write about it someday."

Don't think of Nicks as opportunistic. Since she began recording with ex-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham 16 years ago, Nicks has crafted songs from the pages of her personal journal and from her experiences.

Some are direct -- Dreams, her 1977 hit for Fleetwood Mac, chronicles her breakup with Buckingham -- while others are couched in vague, impressionistic images, but she insists all of her music comes from true-life occurrences.

"I feel that all the experiences I've had, everyone else has had, too," says Nicks, who joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 and released her first solo album, Bella Donna, in 1981. "I also feel that I've survived them, so what I try to say in my songs -- especially the ones that aren't so very happy -- is that you will survive. Sometimes all of us think 'I'm not going to make it,' so I'm saying 'We will come through this, no matter how bad it gets.'

"That's what I'm trying to get across. I'm not a preacher, not a politician. What I am is a philosopher. I try to spread a little sparkle dust."

It seems she's accomplishing that. Sales are one indicator: Her three previous albums have been million-sellers, while The Other Side of the Mirror, currently ensconced in Billboard's Top 30, seems on its way there. But those who have worked with Nicks say the clearer evidence comes from watching the audience when she performs live.

There's been turbulence between Nicks and Fleetwood Mac before, particularly during the making of the last group album, 1987's Tango in the Night, which coincided with Nicks' last solo tour. She was out of the studio for long periods, delaying the album and causing animosity between her and her band mates.

Nicks' heart should stay intact as long as the current Mac lineup, however. Buckingham quit after Tango, and both new members -- Billy Burnette and Rick Vito -- are songwriters, as well as Nicks and keyboardist Christine McVie. Having four writers in the band, Nicks said, "means that everybody isn't tugging on me all the time."

Still, the two careers make Nicks one busy person, and that's had its cost -- particularly in her personal life. "There's a lot to give up," she said. "There's marriage, children, everything else, just to devote yourself to (music). I'm never idle; music is my life.

"But sometimes when I feel sorry for myself, I realize that maybe when I'm gone, a little of me will stay here. Maybe a few people will remember that I cared enough to give up so much to do this."

[michelej1]

San Jose Mercury News (CA), July 9, 1989

NICKS STAYS TRUE TO FORM ON 'OTHER SIDE OF MIRROR'

HARRY SUMRALL, Mercury News Pop Music Writer



STEVIE NICKS, ''The Other Side of the Mirror'' (Modern 7 91245-1, all formats) (star)(star) 1/2 -- There is no denying it. Stevie Nicks does have a distinctive voice. And if her songs seem cliched, in an ''adult contemporary'' way, it could be argued that the cliches are hers, and that she and her mates from Fleetwood Mac created them in the '70s.

Because of this, any and all of Nicks' records sound roughly the same. The voice is immediately discernible above a rolling din of mushy rock. It is not good or bad -- it is simply Nicks.

''The Other Side of the Mirror'' is more of the traditional Nicks fare. ''Rooms on Fire'' is a sauntering ballad with a rock edge, very Mac-ish, as are ''Ghosts'' and ''Long Way To Go'' and others. Nicks' voice is its usual scraping self on all of them, with an aloof emotionalism that is nervy and seductive.

She does try to broaden her horizons on several songs. ''Two Kinds of Love'' is an R&B-tinged duet with Bruce Hornsby and Nicks getting feisty with each other. On the growling ''Whole Lotta Trouble,'' Nicks gets low-down in a rock vamp that comes with tasty slide licks from Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers. And ''Doing The Best That I Can (Escape From Berlin)'' is an evocative essay on desperation and doubt.

None of it is particularly earthshaking, but none of it is off-putting, either. ''The Other Side of the Mirror'' sounds and looks the same as the original side of Nicks reflected in her music, these many years.

[michelej1]

Dallas Mountain News, July 2, 1989, Lennox Samuels:

Stevie Nicks, The Other Side Of the Mirror (Modern Records) -- While Fleetwood Mac creaks into the studio once again -- a wheezing supergroup propped up by an infusion of (not so) young talent -- Ms. Nicks releases her fourth solo LP and confirms her status as rock's ditsy diva.

This singer's diaphanous outfits, sometimes eccentric behavior and whirling-dervish stage antics have created for her a definite character as a kind of ethereal, mysterious rock princess. That image maintains, even though she has contributed a number of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits (Rhiannon, Sara, Gypsy, Dreams).

With this LP, Ms. Nicks attempts a more direct, down-to-earth approach. And in fact this record is more cohesive and focused than her last three solo albums. With the help of veteran producer Rupert Hine, she imbues the project with a greater sense of being grounded. Getting additional assistance from Bruce Hornsby as well as Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers, the singer gamely tries to craft soft-rock music that's at once thoughtful and stirring.

Ms. Nicks apparently intended these songs, including Rooms On Fire (the first single), Ghosts, Alice! and I Still Miss Someone (Blue Eyes), to be personal and revealing. But too often they end up being merely abstruse. It's not clear, for example, what Juliet is supposed to be about. Some songs do have appeal, notably Rooms On Fire and Doing the Best That I Can (Escape From Berlin) -- which lacks clarity but at least has the ring of honesty.

If The Other Side Of the Mirror is aiming for intimacy and punch, it doesn't succeed. For one thing, Ms. Nicks doesn't quite seem ready to come clean. In the meantime, the singer -- whose voice remains an unmusical drone -- skates close to irrelevance and anachronism, especially in these times of strong female singer-songwriters.

[michelej1]

Newsday, May 9, 1989

Stevie Prefers Other Side of Midnight

Stevie Nicks, who has developed a reputation as an eccentric songstress, definitely perpetuated that status during the recording of her new album, "The Other Side of the Mirror." Nicks, the Fleetwood Mac member who last recorded solo three years ago, developed an unusual routine while laying down tracks for the disc. Before she would enter the studio, the room would be filled with lit candles, and Nicks would only show up to sing in the middle of the night. A spokesman explained: "She said, 'When you walk into my studio, you know you're in my studio.' " Nicks will tour this summer. No word yet on the light show.

[daniellaaarisen]

Thank you for posting all of these-- I've gotten through the first batch and I'll continue to read the rest later tonight. It's interesting stuff.

Even though I should be used to it by now, its still weird to see my town and my school's town in these articles. My school is probably less than a mile from a huge venue around here and I usually forget about it until I read articles like these. Weird...

[michelej1]

Even though I should be used to it by now, its still weird to see my town and my school's town in these articles. My school is probably less than a mile from a huge venue around here and I usually forget about it until I read articles like these. Weird...

Yes, that's how I feel when I see old articles from the Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press, which were the big papers to which I had access growing up.

Reading the old interviews can be very entertaining. Stevie sounds like herself, only moreso:laugh:.


Michele

[LukeA]

Even though I should be used to it by now, its still weird to see my town and my school's town in these articles. My school is probably less than a mile from a huge venue around here and I usually forget about it until I read articles like these. Weird...

My old high school is backed up (they practically share a fence) to Compton Terrace.

By the way. For those who never had a chance to attend a show at/lay eyes upon Compton Terrace- it was a complete, unadulterated dump.. a dump that also had the misfortune to be located in a dusty outpost of hell (Phoenix). It was a ****ty ****hole that would never pass muster as a suitable concert venue TODAY for a city of Phoenix's size back then.

I know Jess Nicks owned it- all that makes him is a slumlord. Jess knew nothing about concerts/music industry; he leased land on an Indian reservation, built an "amphitheater" (more like some rickety bleachers, a wooden stage, and a PVC-piped proscenium) and gave it prestige by steering his daughter there. Barry Fey/Feyline (the REAL promoter of FM's Phoenix area shows) just partnered with Jess once it became apparent that Stevie would become a concert fixture.

[vivfox]

San Francisco Chronicle (CA), October 15, 1989

Nicks doesn't identify the person she's addressing in "Long Way to Go," and she doesn't even hint that it might be Lindsay Buckingham, her musical and romantic partner when they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975.
"I WAS really angry at the person I wrote that song about. It's a lot of fun to perform because it has a definite attitude that audiences can pick up on."


Nicks' tour is built on the enormous success of Fleetwood Mac and the fact that her three LPs have total sales of more than $4 million. But she's still waiting for Atlantic Records to give her a jet so she doesn't have to worry about how much luggage she packs.

"I've already been told to drop half the stuff I'm traveling with," she says, laughing, and then doing her best to sound like she's whining. "I want a jet and I want it now."

She's still laughing -- deliciously, wickedly -- when she hangs up.


Ok first of all stevie, you NEVER performed Long Way To Go in front of a paying audience.
Second of all her three LP's have total sales of more than four million dollars?? What was this idiot writing about? What he meant to say was over four million copies sold, but it would have to be more than that considering Bella Donna alone sold 4 million copies.
And thirdly I love the way the interviewer ends the article saying, "she's still laughing wickedly when she hangs up."

[vermicious knid]

I was deleting some old emails, and came across a message I never shared. I was reading a Kate Bush forum, and someone mentioned he had interviewed Stevie for a magazine that didn't exist anymore. He said she was a "total bitch" also, but he still enjoyed her music.

I sent him an email asking for more information and this is what he wrote me:

I can tell you that the interview was done by phone just after the start of The Other Side of the Mirror tour. She was in Chicago. Stevie had broken or severely sprained her foot having tripped near a swimming pool. She was pissed that she was having to wear high top black tennis shoes instead of her trademark boots for some of the tour, including her stop in Atlanta. I attended that concert and actually sat with Sheila E. (who's brother was playing percussion in the touring band). Sheila E. went up on stage and did percussion and sang backing vocals on Edge of Seventeen that night. Absolutely brilliant. Stevie masked her injury well...probably only a few of us actually even noticed the tennis shoes.

As for the actual interview, it was short actually. She didn't want the info about her breaking her foot getting in the interview and she was quite brusk and obviously was tired of hearing the same old questions. She was doing a round of phone interviews and other press and probably wasn't having a good day. I was quite young (I think 19 or 20 at the time) and was absolutly starstruck that I was actually on the phone with her.

Better five years late than never

[vivfox]

She was pissed that she was having to wear high top black tennis shoes instead of her trademark boots for some of the tour, including her stop in Atlanta. Sheila E. went up on stage and did percussion and sang backing vocals on Edge of Seventeen that night. Absolutely brilliant. Stevie masked her injury well...probably only a few of us actually even noticed the tennis shoes.

I bet everyone noticed.

[Oooh Missionary]

These are great... thank you for taking the time to share them and keep them coming!

[peer_gynt10]

Thank you for sharing these interviews! I'm surprised that there are hardly any references to her first stint at the Betty Ford Clinic in these interviews, especially considering that TOSOTM included songs like "Alice" and DTBIC. Does anyone know if and when she talked about her first rehab?

[ragrsrocalot]

I bet everyone noticed.

I did. :thumbsup:

[Travisevian]

Thank you all for sharing these articles. I didn't realize that Stevie broke her foot or that Mrs. Nicks had to have open-heart surgery. Nineteen eighty-nine was more of a difficult year for Stevie than I could possibly have imagined.

Well. That's something about Mama that I didn't know. I'm surprised it hasn't been repaired by now. It usually gets worse with age.

I wasn't aware of this either. Is that a hereditary condition or could it have been caused by drug use?