Stevie Nicks Reveals a 'Horrible Wrench' Was Thrown into Her 1983 SNL Set.

[BLY]

Go to…People.com

(Sorry couldn’t copy a link)

[bwboy]

Thanks for the heads up, but OMG! The People website is a freaking hot mess of ads and pop ups that I will never bother to try to navigate again!

Basically, Stevie said when she was on SNL 42 years ago, Sandy Stewart was supposed to sing Nightbird with her, but she panicked and so Lori Nicks sang in her place.

The really interesting thing in the article was that Stevie confirmed she will be singing her new song the Lighthouse. Nothing was said about the second song she’ll perform.

[Nicks Fan]

https://people.com/stevie-nicks-reveals-how-sister-in-law-saved-1983-snl-set-exclusive-8725848

[bombaysaffires]

Stevie Nicks Reveals a 'Horrible Wrench' Was Thrown into Her 1983 SNL Set. How Her Sister-in-Law Saved the Day (Exclusive)

The rock legend is slated to return to perform on 'Saturday Night Live' for the first time in 41 years on Saturday, Oct. 12

By Jeff Nelson

Jeff Nelson is the Senior Music Editor at PEOPLE.
Published on October 11, 2024 10:00AM EDT

Stevie Nicks SNL 1983
Stevie Nicks performing on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1983. PHOTO: RM LEWIS JR./NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK VIA GETTY IMAGES


Stevie Nicks will be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on Oct. 12
The performance comes two weeks after she released her new song "The Lighthouse"

When she first performed in 1983, Nicks' sister-in-law Lori joined her to sing backup last-minute

Before Stevie Nicks returns to Studio 8H to perform for the first time in 41 years, she's looking back on her first Saturday Night Live performance.

The rock legend — who recently released her new pro-choice single "The Lighthouse" — will take the stage as SNL's musical guest on Saturday, Oct. 12, alongside host Ariana Grande, marking the Fleetwood Mac singer's first performance on the show since 1983.

"That was about 2 1/2 years into my solo career, so it was nerve-wracking because it was not Fleetwood Mac; it was my solo career, so it was very scary to go on the show when you've been in a huge band and now you're going on Saturday Night Live as a solo artist," Nicks, 76, tells PEOPLE exclusively in an email interview.

In December of 1983, Nicks performed two tracks from her sophomore solo album: "Stand Back" and "Night Bird."

"You know, we practiced and practiced, and everything went well. At the time, I had my friend who wrote 'Stand Back,' and she was gonna do the second song, which was called 'Nightbird' — and she freaked out and had terrible stage fright, so she couldn't do it," Nicks says.

Instead, Nicks found a last-minute replacement.

"So one of my singers, who ended up being my sister-in-law Lori, she said, 'I'll do it,' and she's crazy, but she said, 'I'll do it,’ " Nicks says of her longtime backup singer Lori Perry. "This is literally right before we went on, and so we went on and we did it, and it came out perfect!"

Despite the impromptu lineup change, "It was one of those shows, that even with that horrible wrench that was thrown in the middle of it, it came off beautifully," Nicks adds. "I've never been so proud of anything as I was of that night. It was a magical show, and I was thrilled, and it definitely kicked my solo career up."

Now, more than four decades later, Nicks still has nerves, despite her iconic status.

"Well, performing on Saturday Night Live is now as it was then. It’s just about the biggest thing you can do, bigger than a stadium show because it's going to go out all over the world," she says. "So if you wanna talk about being nervous about something! It doesn't matter how many shows you've done or how much you practice, you're going to be nervous!"

Adds Nicks: "You can never say that Saturday Night Live does not help you to gain lots of new followers, younger people, older people, etc. And so to be asked to do it again ... I never thought I would do it again — so to be asked to do it again has thrown me into an absolute nervous frenzy, but I'm really excited. I'm really excited to play the new song."


When she returns to SNL, Nicks is expected to play her new song "The Lighthouse," which she wrote as a call to action after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.

“I find it very sad, at 76 years old, I had to see Roe v. Wade taken away," Nicks recently told PEOPLE exclusively. "Two years ago, when I realized the consequences of women’s rights that are vanishing, I watched a lot of news, and I was like a sponge — it just went into me.”

Women's reproductive rights are a personal subject for Nicks, who in 2020 revealed to The Guardian that she "would have had to walk away" from Fleetwood Mac if she hadn't gotten an abortion in 1979. Without the procedure, "I’m pretty sure there would have been no Fleetwood Mac," she added at the time.

“All the stories that we tell about the necessity for women's healthcare and the necessity for a safe and legal abortion option for women is absolutely necessary," she recently told PEOPLE.
__________

So.....Sandy Stewart wrote Stand Back??? :eek:

[UnwindedDreams]

We know Sandy played on Stand Back. Stevie has one of the worst memories in rock music.

[tothegypsy]

I think that has to be a typo or a misspeak or something...her memory may be fuzzy but there's no way she suddenly thinks Sandy Stewart wrote Stand Back. Maybe something got jumbled with the fact that Sandy co-wrote Nightbird?

[vermicious knid]

The article is falsely labeling pictures from her Solid Gold appearance as having been Saturday Night Live. It was Solid Gold where Stevie and Lori looked AMAZING together, Stevie in white and Lori in red. It was black that Stevie wore for Saturday Night Live (https://www.reddit.com/r/FleetwoodMac/comments/1cr0wyq/stevie_nicks_nightbird_snl_1983/).

Too bad Sandy got stage fright, as it seems to have set the precedent for it to be Lori instead of Sandy. But Lori rose to the occasion. Speaking of outfits, I wonder what color Sandy was wearing that night she backed out. That would have been well planned out. Purple might have worked. With Stevie in black, maybe Sandy in black too, putting the night in Nightbird?

[bombaysaffires]

The article is falsely labeling pictures from her Solid Gold appearance as having been Saturday Night Live. It was Solid Gold where Stevie and Lori looked AMAZING together, Stevie in white and Lori in red. It was black that Stevie wore for Saturday Night Live (https://www.reddit.com/r/FleetwoodMac/comments/1cr0wyq/stevie_nicks_nightbird_snl_1983/).

Too bad Sandy got stage fright, as it seems to have set the precedent for it to be Lori instead of Sandy. But Lori rose to the occasion. Speaking of outfits, I wonder what color Sandy was wearing that night she backed out. That would have been well planned out. Purple might have worked. With Stevie in black, maybe Sandy in black too, putting the night in Nightbird?

I wonder if Sandy pulling out of the gig was part of their falling out. They had a real falling out for awhile... Sandy was just OUT. Maybe Sandy initiated it, getting away from all the drugs and insanity that surrounded Stevie.:shrug:

[bombaysaffires]

I think that has to be a typo or a misspeak or something...her memory may be fuzzy but there's no way she suddenly thinks Sandy Stewart wrote Stand Back. Maybe something got jumbled with the fact that Sandy co-wrote Nightbird?

Or maybe it was a Freudian slip, and Sandy wrote most of it and Stevie wrote....a word or two....kinda like Seven Wonders....:shrug:

[HomerMcvie]

We know Sandy played on Stand Back. Stevie has one of the worst memories in rock music.

D.E.L.U.S.I.O.N.A.L. It's ALL a blur to her. That's kind of amazing, in and of itself. What was she busy doing? :woohoo:

[Macfan4life]

I think she meant to say Sandy wrote Nightbird (with her). Lori sang live in Dec 1983 and again on Solid Gold 2 months later. Lori singing these parts left a false impression she sang the parts on the album. But it was Sandy.
The SNL version is so superior to the album track mostly because of the real drums and it grooves better. Solid Gold had live vocals but they were sung to the album track.

While the SNL performance was good, Stevie is so embellishing that it "kicked her solo career up." Nightbird was a bad choice of a single and no SNL performance was going to save it. Wild Heart was sinking and Nightbird sort of drove the stake into it. If anything, it dragged her solo career down. She never performed the song live ever again. She never included it in her Enchanted Box Set nor Timespace even though it was a low top 40 hit.

Total rubbish

[WatchChain]

I actually love "Nightbird".

More interestingly, I would LOVE to hear Sandy Stewart's side of the story regarding the SNL experience. It could be that everyone in Stevie's camp was so intoxicated and inebriated out of their mind, that Sandy feared it would be a disaster on LIVE TELEVISION. There are no cuts and retakes on Saturday Night Live, you get one take.

At the time, Sandy had a new record deal with an album about to be released. Surely, she would have wanted the face time on national television to boost her profile. UNLESS, she feared it would be a disaster of intoxication.

[tothegypsy]

While the SNL performance wasgood, Stevie is so embellishing that it "kicked her solo career up." Nightbird was a bad choice of a single and no SNL performance was going to save it. Wild Heart was sinking and Nightbird sort of drove the stake into it. If anything, it dragged her solo career down. She never performed the song live ever again. She never included it in her Enchanted Box Set nor Timespace even though it was a low top 40 hit.

Total rubbish
Nightbird is on disc one of Enchanted

[bwboy]

The article is falsely labeling pictures from her Solid Gold appearance as having been Saturday Night Live. It was Solid Gold where Stevie and Lori looked AMAZING together, Stevie in white and Lori in red. It was black that Stevie wore for Saturday Night Live (https://www.reddit.com/r/FleetwoodMac/comments/1cr0wyq/stevie_nicks_nightbird_snl_1983/).

I don’t think the site is being lazy or deliberately misleading, I suspect they used the pictures from the Solid Gold performance because it’s all over YouTube and easier to find pictures, whereas SNL is vigilant about making sure any performance clips from their show are removed as soon as they go up. It was probably just easier to show the photos from Solid Gold, which also featured Lori.

[aleuzzi]

I am glad her new song responds to the overturning of Roe V Wade. It’s a good song and she sings it with a certain urgency that was entirely lacking in the embarrassing misfire Show Them the Way.

Lighthouse really feels genuine and I get the energy from her. First time since “Lady.”

[BigAl84]

I wonder if Sandy pulling out of the gig was part of their falling out. They had a real falling out for awhile... Sandy was just OUT. Maybe Sandy initiated it, getting away from all the drugs and insanity that surrounded Stevie.:shrug:

LOL...Poor Sandy. She flushed all her chances of having a long career, running Stevie's teleprompter (Like Mary Devito) down the drain that night. :laugh::laugh: