New Interview/Solo Album
 

Going her own way
February 17, 2006


Stevie Nicks is a little scary, but she's a survivor.

By Michael Dwyer.

THE voice of the oracle echoes through the palace. It rings with the secrets of ages. Pilgrims stand motionless at her hem.

"I said, 'If it wasn't for you, I would not be standing here'," Stevie Nicks intones in a half-whisper. "You, in my opinion, are the greatest singer-songwriter ever.' "

The parable concerns the only meeting between Fleetwood Mac's sorceress chanteuse and the great Joni Mitchell. "Then I gave her a hug and I just walked away, 'cause I didn't even want her to start to say anything back.

"She's a little scary, you know," Nicks concludes in a more gossipy tone, "and I think it's because she's bitter because people get angry 'cause she won't do her old songs. I'm like, 'God! What's to be bitter about? Please!'"

The lesson ends, the TV crew pays its respects and vacates the chamber. Rock's Queen Mother does not rise from her armchair, but offers an elegant hand to the next supplicant to reach the 32nd floor of Crown Towers.

Stevie Nicks is a little scary too. On a nearby sideboard, eight lacy black hats hover like ghosts of past lives. Perched above the rest is a funereal top hat, an imposing presence of weathered velvet with a wide black band.

"That's my real Fleetwood Mac hat," she says, pointing with a blood-red fingernail. "That is the genuine article."

Plenty more remains from the Rhiannon video of 30 years ago. At 57, the same pixie sparkle sits in her liquid brown eyes. They shine under the same voluminous, dyed blonde fringe. And she's still dressed in black, from diaphanous shoulder to ankle, where faux snakeskin pants meet pointy boots in a flash of pink suede.

Nicks meets the press with rare grace. She's obviously aware of the cocaine-hoovering, home-wrecking, wood-nymph caricature that precedes her, and she retells the sordid details of her rise and fall with subtle humour, just as a seasoned performer deigns to play her old songs.

"I wish someone had warned me about cocaine," goes one unforgettable tune.

"I have a huge hole in my nose! I could put a pipe through my nose! It could have destroyed my entire head! They flat-out told me, 'The next time you do coke you could have a brain hemorrhage and drop dead'."

Then there's that epic track about life in the biggest, most dysfunctional rock band in the world, ever. "Oh, the big fight? That night something just snapped in Lindsay (Buckingham)," she recalls of one classic stage moment.

"He was real mad at me. The first thing was, he just walked over and kicked me. Then he turned around, took his guitar off - this was during Go Your Own Way - and he just threw it at me!"

She excels at star-crossed love songs. "I fell in love with Mick here," she sighs. "And that was just an accident. That was a late-night party where everybody was totally drunk and partying with the Australians, up very, very late. All of a sudden there's only Mick Fleetwood and I in the room, and need I say more?"

So much for her early stuff. She blames a Los Angles psychiatrist for her darkest years, a slow spiritual death by prescription that in effect erased her life between 1988 and '94.

"Cocaine was killing me physically but Klonopin almost killed my soul," she says.

"When I came out of Betty Ford (rehabilitation clinic) I felt fine, I looked good, I was happy, but my whole world was terribly worried I would go back to coke."

Same psychiatrist, six years later: "I said, 'Were you trying to kill me?' " she thunders. " 'Did you not notice that I went from 125 pounds to 165 pounds? Did you not notice the light went out in my eyes? Did you not notice that I was not writing songs any more, that I was just a miserable fat person?' "

Nicks agrees that the title of her latest solo album, Trouble in Shangri-La, might have been better saved for an autobiography. But for all her liaisons, addictions and wardrobe choices, music may be the thing for which she is best remembered if her ultimate ambition should come to pass. She's writing a series of "very long, formal, Iliad-style poems" based on the ancient Welsh mythological texts known as the Mabinogion, which comprise The Books of Rhiannon.

"When I allow myself to stop for a decent period of time, I'm really excited about sitting down at my piano and putting these to music," she confides.

"I don't think anyone has ever done anything like this before. I think the Rhiannon thing could end up being my ultimate solo record."That's cool. As long as she still does her hits.

Stevie Nicks plays the Rod Laver Arena tomorrow night with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Good stuff. I'm likin' it! :thumbsup:

thanks. it's great to see a little more positive news from Stevie.

Exactly! She sure has been a true Gemini lately, hasn't she? I can't wait to hear about the show saturday night!
Oh, and thanks to who posted this article! :thumbsup:

Ha ha scary Stevie, I love that!

You go girl, too bad she didn't really say that out loud to Joni. Now why don't you do some more of your old songs Stevie instead of the same ones over and over?


I want to see this outfit! And what's up with Stevie and snakeskin pants? A bit eighties wouldn't you say? How about those red ones she wore not long ago, heinous. Fire that stylist!


If I hear this one more time I'm going to **** bricks! Does she ever get sick of listening to herself say the same thing over and over? Although she does change it up a bit. Sometimes it's a belt through her nose or a pen, last time it was a ring, and this time it's a pipe. That's a new one!

So they shagged on the floor drunk and high and the rest is history? How romantic.

Blah blah blah...as awsome as this would be, I'm not getting my hopes up about another solo project although I do think it's possible. Man, this woman changes her tune more often than Paris Hilton dances on tables.

Putting aside how utterly ridiculous this woman is with her days-apart career-redefining inconsistencies:

I can't say I'm terribly interested in the idea of a "Rhiannon" concept album, at least on paper, though of course she could very well pull it off. What amazes me, though: Stevie Nicks writing formal Homeric poetry?! I'll believe it when I see it. But I do hope to see it.

Yeah, great. Thanks for that.

Stevie cracks me up with her refusal to take any personal responsibility for her drug problems, cocaine or Klonopin. And I say this as someone who has beaten my own addiction.

Anyway, I can see how she might have gotten grouchy in that other interview. Sounds like she's giving interviews nonstop and they are all asking the same questions.

Hope the poem project turns into an album! Thanks for posting the article.

Ah no. They were cool! A little confusing. But cool!

Im lovin all the interviews!!!

I think the more appropriate question is, do reporters ever get sick of asking her the same thing over and over? If you were asked the same question in every interview you ever did since 1987, wouldn't you come up with a stock answer? I mean, how many different ways can she say she had a cocaine problem?

AMEN to that!!!

Don't forget it's been 20 years since she's been back to AU solo, so maybe these reporters haven't had a chance to ask her anything... Maybe these reporters were wee little kiddies at the time... who knows. It's probably fresh material for them to ask her face to face instead of reading all the reports through the years... But then I guess in the reseach you would hope that these reporters would have done, they would have realized it's questions that have been asked over and over... But anyway.. to hear it from her directly probably gives them some sort of thrill...

I don't think so. I feel fairly positive that the majority of people in these recent interviews have never interviewed Stevie Nicks before so it is a first for them. And the same goes with a lot of the American reporters/interviewers with the exception of the regulars like Jim Ladd, etc.

Please, no. :eek:

Well, a rockstar talking of her drug problems gives you an article. She knows it, she knows exactly all the elements she has to give to have a reason ably long article and not just a "she's here, in these dates...".

Besides, I liked the interview Stevie's mood was great and the journalist obviously liked her.


Romy

am i the only one who found this interview creepy?

like, uh...it's sounding like Stevie needs to come back to earth and start getting a life again. it's as if she's just milking the nostalgia for all it's worth.
who cares about the cocaine story? it's really old news.

i wish she would get involved with some new creative musicians to make something totally new and interesting. i want to hear stevie nicks talk about music again. all those old stories are getting a little pathetic.

Exactly. Here we go again...:lol:

Really, huh, I'm trying to eat my lunch here. :lol:

me too.

I remember a long time ago some critic talking about artists who've done everything and have no direction anymore (I think they were talking about Celine Dion)...they said the only thing left to do is a duet with Streisand...it wasn't 2 months before their duet was released. :lol:

Over on the Streisand board I belong to they were talking about songs they think Barbra should cover and believe it or not someone suggested EO17. Hmmm?:shrug:

Ooh, is this the first clue we have gotten to the precise beginning of their relationship? According to The Fleetwood Mac Legacy, they were touring Australia from November 9th to November 19th, 1977. I guess that is when it started. I like knowing precise dates like this, and piecing together timelines.

But this is a concept that has been on the backburner for almost thirty years! If she is finally going to do this, that's great! I suppose these "Iliad-style poems" would be added to the songs of Rhiannon that she already has. In one old thread, we were trying to figure out what all the "ten songs of Rhiannon" were, and this is what we came up with:

Forest of the BlacK Roses
Maker of Birds
Blue Water
Planets of the Universe
Rhiannon
Sorcerer
Stay Away
Mistaken Love
Lady From the Mountain
The Tower

Since she has already released a lot of these, it is good that she is creating some new ones.

I'm relatively new to this concept of "Rhiannon songs" and the "Rhiannon project" thing .... I'm confused. How do songs like Planets, Sorcerer and The Tower fit that bill? Can you explain for me?

But yes, it sounds like it could make a very very cool album. You listening Stevie? Go for it!

WHERE DID THIS INTERVIEW COME FROM?? Are my eyes not seeing it?

They toured AUS & NZ through November 27.
I do too. I love dates! But this isn't the first clue as to when the affair started. You gotta read Mick's book. He says: "It was in Australia (on the Rumours Tour) that I fell for Stevie Nicks." But then he adds: "Our affair really began in L.A. even before we left for the Pacific. I'd sneak away from home to spend most of my time with Stevie, picking her up in one of my cars & driving along Mulholland. She was seeing a record executive & I was married & my parents were living with me, so everything was very secret ... In Australia, this blossomed into a full-on love affair. ... It started up in New Zealand. Late one night, after the concert, a Samoan limo driver took me & Stevie for a long cruise along mountains & ridgebacks at dawn."

That must have been October '77 then, they had that month off before they headed to Australia.

Now, what I would still like to know is when did it end?! We've heard 'couple of months', 'a year'. So, which is it?

Btw, interesting how he makes into something wonderfully romantic, and she just says they got drunk and shagged on the floor. :laugh:

There are ten (or eleven) songs that Stevie has grouped together, and she thinks of them as the Songs of Rhiannon.

From a 1998 interview:
I believe that the reason she first got her solo record deal was to make a soundtrack of the songs for a movie version of Rhiannon, but she didn't like any of the scripts.

Truthfully, I don't know if those ten songs I listed are the real ones. Here is the old thread I referred to. Different people made up different lists.

Regardless, as you said, these reporters should have done a little research, realized thatStevie had answered this question dozens of times over the years, and ocme up with something more original and interesting. But then, that's not really what the general reader wants. The "You could fit a [blank] through my nose" line is a good one, no matter how many times it's been repeated. And most people outside us die-hards don't know that it's a recycled answer.

But just to make a point: good reporting, good journalism is supposed to be about finding out new information, not simply thinking, "Well, I myself have not personally asked this person this well-documented question before, so it will be thrilling if I ask it, despite the fact that the answer has been published dzens of times." Journalism is supposed to be about the report, not the reporter.

---

Seriously, though, nobody else finds it the least bit incredible that Stevie Nicks claims that she is writing formal Homeric poetry?! David, surely you have something wity to say on this subject.

Wow, this is just so weird to me!

I've often wondered this, too. I also wonder how long it really lasted and if it was ever rekindled (Red Rocks tour).

:eek: argh Stevie and the word "shagged" just seem to hurt my brain!!

Well, if those words are in the same sentence with the word 'Mick', then yes, I feel the same way.

Stevie loves to perpetuate her own myths & urban legends...TRUE!

Ew, you can't be serious.:(
Can't say I'm a Streisand fan, but I can think of at least 20 other songs that would be more suitable to her voice.

Hmm........

So is she perhaps planning to have the legendary "Rhiannon album" be her final album??!!!!!!!!

(I certainly don't object........

................though I still wish we could've had that damn country album~ produced by Jack White, of course:xoxo: )

I don't think that Stevie has ever really been in the position to really do the "rhiannon" project before. for various reasons Producers wanting her to do other things, the record company wanting other things, ect. but I believe that she feels like now could be the right time for this to happen. For example, Bella Donna ,could not have been "the rhiannon album". NO ONE would have ever let her get away with that. they would have said she was relying on her hit from Fleetwoodmac too much, but now, I think that she feels like she can get away with it. Does that make sense does anybody get what I am trying to say? Great article by the way.!!:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

wouldn't that make loretta lyn a bit jealous. :cool: :lol:

Nice article. Thanks for posting.

I wonder what his response was?

She has been talking about the "Rhiannon project" for at least 30 years.... forgive me if I don't believe in it anymore.

The cocaine story is getting old but maybe they don't know about that in Australia. However.... even back in the 70's we all knew that drugs were bad for you, except for pot :laugh:

She could have told the shrink to cut back on the Klonopin. She asks him:"Did you not notice the light went out in my eyes? Did you not notice that I was not writing songs any more, that I was just a miserable fat person?'. She noticed that herself and she could've done something about it or somebody close to her could've done something about it.
I'm sorry but I find the other interview - The Age - much more believeable, bad day or not, it's much more realistic.

Thank you!

I do not see WB or any label accepting an album of Rhiannon only songs. None wanted it when she was a mega star..now? :o

I've removed the original posting, because I posted it in the wrong interview thread.

Her answer to that would be no one told her she could have done something about it!:lol:

Stevie's given Klonopin a bit of a bad rap. I take a drug in the same class, as prescribed, on a very limited basis. She keeps saying things like "don't let your doctor give you Klonopin" when it should be "don't abuse Klonopin, and if you think you are, then seek help from another doctor if your current one is aiding your addiction"

Yeah, her refusal to take the blame for her addictions is really kind of ridiculous. She has said over and over that she knew she was fine with the cocaine problem, but "everyone around her" was so worried she'd go back to coke, she went on the Klonopin to appease them, apparently. Now, couldn't she have said no, I'm clean and sober now, and don't want to take a tranquilizer? When she had to increase her dosage, didn't *she* realize she had a problem? This is a woman who went to Betty Ford for cocaine and alcohol addiction (though she later changed the story to just cocaine addiction.) She'd been through the program and didn't recognize that taking another pill could cause her problems?

Even about her weight, it's always "I gained another ten pounds somehow" or "cocaine screwed up my metabolism" or "the Atkins diet is stupid." I'm surprised she hasn't said "No one told me overeating could make me gain weight!" :rolleyes: :lol: I am sure all those years of partying did screw up her metabolism, and as a petite woman I know how hard it is to keep weight off when you're only 5'1", but you don't gain weight by eating sensibly. Especially when you can afford the best foods, cooks, trainers, whatever you want. I'm glad she lost the weight and kicked the habits, and more power to her, but sheesh, take some responsibility, girl.