michelej1
07-09-2013, 02:26 PM
[Some captioning from the show]
and just barely into '71, which was the best part of san francisco music ever. so we were right in the middle of the woodstock years. and we played everywhere, and we opened for every big band that was up in san francisco at that time -- from jimi hendrix, janis joplin, frost amphitheater, the fillmore, avalon ballroom, winterland, and everything in between. it was a marvelous time to live in san francisco. winterland, and everything in between. oprah: you're watching "master class" with stevie nicks. nicks: lindsey's dad was the president of a coffee company up by the cow palace in san francisco, and he let us have a little room in his coffee building. we could go there at 9:00, and we could stay there from like 9:00 to 3:00 and work on our music. and we had an ampex four-track that's like the size of a washing machine today. so we'd drive up there every night. i'd sit on the floor and crochet, and lindsey would work the magic on the thing, and then he'd say, "okay, here, sing a vocal." you know, and i'd, like, put my crocheting down, and i'd sing a vocal, and then he'd take the mike back and then he'd play the guitar, on the guitar, and then he'd play another track and then we'd sing backgrounds, ...
so she was always talking to me about life -- always. she taught me about rules. even though i don't love rules, i understood that there were rules, and i followed them because i didn't want to get in trouble and didn't ever want her to be mad at me. so i learned that there are things that you could do and things that you couldn't do. my mom just passed ay wa in december. she got emphysema and pneumonia, and she passed away very unexpectedly. and, so, i thought d - rltto ask he, and then she was gone, and i didn't get to. it wasn't because di and talk to her about her life. it was just because i just didn't think she was going anywhere. i have really been soul-searching about the fact that there's a lot of stuff that i'm never gonna know because i didn't sit down with her and ask her. and that's been a very hard lesson for me. so my advice to everybody that still has their parents is make sure that you sit down and talk to them about what they did when they were kids and when they were first married and all those things because you really lose out if you don't. ti waits for no one and things can end tomorrow, so if there's stuff you want to know, find out. i got a guitar when i was 15 1/2, almost 16. and i wrote a song, and that was my -- and i, you know, i gathered my parents in my room. "listen to this." played the guitar, played my song, and they were both like, "you know, that's a really good song." and, so, from that moment on, they were -- i think they went, "you know what? that's what she's gonna -- she's gonna go in that direction." i met lindsey buckingham at a gathering in my senior year at menlo-atherton high school in san francisco. i went to this party that i don't really remember what it was, and lindsey was sitting in a chair over in the corner playing his guitar, and he was singing "california dreamin'." and, of course, i knew that song. and i brazenly walked over and burst into song. and i think he was a little surprised because it was kind of a - it really was kind of a gutsy thing to do. but luckily, i'm a good singer, and i knew the words. and i'm a really good harmony singer. so i was able to just whip up and i' xelle phillips/mamt harmony singer. in a second, and so we sang, you know, 3/4 of the song, sang it out. and then i think i walked away, or i probably said, "hi, i'm stevie nicks." and he probably said, "hi, i'm lindsey buckingham." he tells a different story. he says that i actually reached down and, like, kissed him on the cheek or something. i don't remember that. but he says that happened. so maybe it did. maybe it didn't. then i didn't see lindsey again until his band -- his drummer actually called me, and they asked me, "well, lindsey remembered, you know, that night "where you sang with him at that party. "would you like to be in our band? we're looking for a girl singer." and i said to myself, "what kind of band is this?" 'cause, you know, a phone call like that -- it could be any kind of a band. and, so, the guy who was the drummer, who was very, very funny and very dry, he said, "stevie, this is san francisco. it's a rock band." and i'm like, "yes!" i'm thinking, "okay, i can do it. i think i can do it. okay, i can do it." i mean, i have walked around with my brush singing "take another little piece of my heart" with janis joplin around my house, so i can probably do this. so i said, "yeah, sure. i can do it. i'd love to do it." and i asked my parents, and they said, "you can be in a band, "and your father and i will totally let you do that, "but you also -- you have to go to college. "you can't just quit school. if you stay in school, we will support you." so i found out then that lindsey lived in the same gated community that my mom and dad and me and my brother lived in. so on monday, i showed up at his house at 5:30, and the whole band -- all five people in the band, including me -- were there, and i just started learning songs. i was able to go to practice from 5:30 to 10:30 every night, and then i was able to play a gig on friday and saturday night, and then i was able to have, you know, sunday to study, and then i would study when i would get home at 10:30 until 2:00, or 3:00, or 4:00, and get up and start again. as long as i did that, my mom and dad were fine. lindsey and i both had a boyfriend and a girlfriend, and we really weren't interested in each other at all. we were in a band together. it was really great. and we were the two lead singers standing right there. and it was a really good band. and that was, you know, '68, '69, '70, and just barely into '71, which was the best part of san francisco music ever. so we were right in the middle of the woodstock years. and we played everywhere, and we opened for every big band that was up in san francisco at that time -- from jimi hendrix, janis joplin, frost amphitheater, the fillmore, avalon ballroom, ...
...nicks: i can remember at san jose state walking through the campus in my one fantastic outfit that i bought at the velvet underground in downtown san francisco. it was like silky bell-bottoms and a silky top and really high-heeled shoes -- kind of like the ones i'm wearing right now -- and long hair and carrying my goya classical guitar and walking through and thinking to myself, "do you all know who i am?" and of course, i'm nobody, but i'm thinking, "do you know who i am? "because i am somebody. in fact, i am actually a rock star already," because in my heart, i was. oprah: everybody has a story, and there is something to be learned from every experience. jay z: knowing who you are -- that's the foundation of everything great. jay z: knowing who you are -- sarandon: i mean, in a way, i'm here because all my plans failed. brokaw: don't be afraid to do something unconventional, to take a chance, to risk something. nicks: if you want something, you can make it happen. oprah: and we're all on the same journey. sawyer: just wake up curious. fonda: we are not meant to be perfect. we're meant meant to be whole. freeman: follow your own muse, always. angelou: when you learn, teach. oprah: use your life as a class. she has the look, the songs, and the unmistakable voice. stevie nicks has always been a rock star -- always. from writing her first song as a teenager to meeting guitar legend lindsey buckingham and beginning one of rock's most tumultuous love affairs, stevie's life has been filled with stratospheric highs and crushing lows. as the lead singer of supergroup fleetwood mac, she became rich and famous almost overnight, and then the sex and drugs caught up with the rock 'n' roll. cocaine, then a serious prescription-drug addiction, took many of what stevie says could have been her most creative years. incredibly, she survived. now she continues to tour the world as part of chart-topping solo career and with fleetwood mac, and each time she takes the stage, she's doing what she loves most. and yet, just like when she was a little girl singing duets with her grandfather, for stevie, it's always been about the music. nicks: my granddad was the first person that really brought music to me, and he brought it to me very young. he started singing to me when i was really little, and i instantly took to it. he was a really good fiddle player. he was a great harmonica player, and he wrote really good songs. i can remember him coming and coming to our house and spending a week and getting out his guitar, and he'd play guitar, and i'd sing with him. and i'm little, but i would still manage to, you know, be kind of very conscious of who he was and what he was doing. and he would sing different crazy country songs for me, and we would actually be able to pump out a little duet here and there. and i was thrilled. and i think he knew from the very, very beginning that this was gonna be something that i would probably want to do, too because i just took to it like a fish to water. r wamy and whatever i wanted to do, even as a young girl. but she was also very strict with me, and she was hard on me in a lot of ways because she wanted me to be independent, and that's because she was very poor when she was young. so she really, you know, rose up above the fray to be independent at 16, and she wanted me to not ever have to depend on anyone, and she wanted me to be fearless. and i didn't get to buy really expensive clothes in high school. and my mom madeot really expensive clothes in high school. from the day she married my dad, she took care of all the money, and she took 50% out of every one of my dad's checks and put it in the bank. and my mom would always say to me, "you better be the president of your company "or the lead singer of your band or the boss because you don't like to be told what to do." and she was totally right. my mother kept me very close, so because she kept me so close and because she kept me home a lot, she continually was telling me all her little wise ways to get through life. so she was always talking to me about life -- always. she taught me about rules. even though i don't love rules, i understood that there were rules, and i followed them because i didn't want to get in trouble and didn't ever want her to be mad at me. so i learned that there are things that you could do and things that you couldn't do. my mom just passed ay wa in december. ...
michelej1
03-29-2014, 01:16 AM
The Huffington Post (OWN)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/28/stevie-nicks-landslide_n_5045044.html
Stevie Nicks Describes The Fear and Struggle That Led Her To Write 'Landslide'
Posted: 03/28/2014 10:13 am EDT Updated: 03/28/2014 10:59 am EDT
In 1974, Stevie Nicks was waitressing tables by day while she worked on music at night with her partner, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. It was before the then-couple joined Fleetwood Mac, and times were tough. "We could not afford to buy anything, except just enough food to eat, and that was it -- and gas for our car," Nicks recalls in the above video from her 2013 appearance on "Oprah's Master Class."
At the end of her rope, Nicks says she contemplated giving up and going back to school. "This didn't do a lot of our relationship, because fear never helps relationships," she says. "And when you are kind of scared about where your next money is coming from, or really, how are you going to keep this whole boat afloat, it's really nerve-wracking."
At times, Nicks admits she had doubts about her relationship with Buckingham. "And we're going to end up breaking up, and everything we worked for is going to be done and it's all going to be for nothing," Nicks thought. "That's really want the song 'Landslide' is about."
It all came down to one question, Nicks says: Is it worth staying in this relationship to keep the music together?
"And my opinion always was, yes, it is," she says. "What we have to offer is way better than what I have to offer by myself, or what he has to offer by himself. So, you need to stay together."
michelej1
08-30-2014, 11:26 PM
Delaware Online, by Jeffrey Gentry, August 30, 2014
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/onlyindelaware/2014/08/30/gentry-stevie-nicks-oprah-winfrey/14863815/
Gentry: I believe in the wisdom of Stevie Nicks
Saturday morning I was flipping through the channels and stopped for a second to pet the needy cat that had just jumped up on me.
Five minutes later I found myself still watching the same channel as singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks talked about her life and career and choices she made along the way.
I generally don't expect to hear revealing and important things while rock stars are being interviewed, but this show was an episode of Oprah's Master Class on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Don't make fun – I didn't realize it when I stopped hitting the channel button to pet the cat. OK, that cat part just made it worse.
I should just get to the point before I'm telling you I was doing a cross-stitch and crying in my chamomile tea as I watched. Anyway, it was an incredibly revealing episode. Watch it if you get a chance.
One of the things she talks about in the episode is the unexpected death of her mom and her own regrets of not sitting down and talking to her mom about her mom's life. Asking questions about what it was like when her mom grew up, asking about her mom and dad's wedding and generally just learning about her mom.
Her advice to anyone whose parents or grandparents are still alive: Sit down with them and ask them questions. Talk to them and learn about their lives. You'll regret it if you don't.
How right she is.
I've been lucky. I live in a family of storytellers and know a lot about my parents' lives before they were my parents.
I know my Pops' fear of snakes comes from the time he stepped on a copperhead while playing near the creek at his house when he was a kid. Luckily he stepped on it right behind the snake's head and it couldn't turn to bite him.
I know Mama once got her legs whipped by Granddaddy after she disobeyed him and went to her cousin's house nearby to watch TV. They didn't have one yet at her house. Granddaddy found out, walked over to the house and got her and whipped her legs with a switch all the way across the field as they walked back home.
I even know what the T.S.T.S.T.S.A. meant on the back of the envelopes of the letters Mama wrote Pops in college.
To Someone Too Sweet To Sleep Alone.
At least that's what they told me and so far they've stuck to that.
If your parents or grandparents or all of them are still around, now is the time to ask questions.
Tomorrow may be too late.
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2026, vBulletin Solutions Inc.