Viv brings you a brand spankin' new interview with Stevie
 

Stevie Nicks Is Looking Back, Charging Forward On New Album
Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Reigning Queen Plans Santa Barbara Concert for a Cause

Monday, July 26, 2010
By Aly Comingore



I’m a firm believer that every girl born this side of 1969 has had their Stevie Moment. It’s that time in a young lady’s life when, barring any and all scholastic goals and career aspirations, she realizes that she just kind of wants to be Stevie Nicks. Even for a day. I’d like to think my brush with the phenomenon came on post-high school, when I started driving and slowly realized that I missed the never-ending Nicks tributes that once poured from my friend’s mom’s car speakers during our daily trips to school. (She’d been having her Stevie Moment since Rumours came out, I later realized.) Suddenly void of my Fleetwood fix, I caught the bug—and came to realize that there’s just something far too cool about Stevie. It’s the flowing skirts, the mile-high boots; the fact that she could make dressing like a hippie witch look chic. It’s the way her voice, no matter what she’s saying, can send chills up the spine. Needless to say, when the opportunity to chat up Nicks arose, I had more than a moment—I had a full-on Nicks fit.


At 62, Nicks is a not-so-far cry from the chanteuse I envisioned during those drives.
In conversation, she’s giddy, passionate, and assertive in a way that forces you to pay real close attention. She is her own hype machine. This Wednesday, Nicks returns to the Santa Barbara Bowl as part of a short six-city tour. The jaunt also acts as a reprieve from Nicks’s current project, which will be her first album of new material in almost 10 years. I recently spoke with Nicks from her home outside of Los Angeles about the tour, the record, and why her S.B. stop is much more than “just another concert.”

How did these concert dates come about?

This was very unplanned. I’m in the middle of doing a record, so I really wasn’t planning on touring this year, but I got some offers to do five or six shows. My manager said, “Well, if you stop doing your record for one month, you can go out and do five or six shows, and it will be like you worked all year!” [Laughs.] But I decided to add the show in Santa Barbara because I have a little friend named Cecilia who’s eight years old, who I’ve known for almost five years, and she was diagnosed a couple months ago with a very, very rare cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma. It’s a rare soft tissue cancer. … She has one more week of radiation, and she’s looking down the road of almost a year of chemotherapy. Needless to say, this has been extremely devastating to her family. So when I found out this was all happening, I called my manager and said, “So, what can we do?” And he said, “We’ll figure it out.”

So the proceeds from the show are going to her?

She’s getting my salary for the night, basically. I lost my best friend to leukemia in 1981. Robin was 33, so when I saw the picture of Cecilia, I’d already seen it. When you spend a year at a cancer ward, you kind of understand. I’ve been drawing since Robin died; I think that was her gift to me. I never took an art class in my life, and when she was sick I started drawing these little things—pyramids, stick people, just these funny little drawings that she could hang on her wall and look at when I wasn’t there. … So I’ve picked one, a really sweet little drawing, and I’m going to have it made into a T-shirt for Cecilia. It’s a two-fold thing. It’ll be nice for my fans to have a piece of my art and it will be nice to be able to have a piece of art that is drawn from a situation like this, which makes it so much more special.

After these shows, what comes next? Can you tell me anything about the album?

I think it will go down in history as my greatest work. I have written nine songs with [The Eurythmics’] Dave [Stewart], and I feel like I’m part of a writing team—like Lennon and McCartney or something. I have always been so closed to the idea of writing with anybody, and my eyes have been so opened now.

Stylistically, how would you describe the stuff you’ve done so far?

It’s very diverse. There’s really, really rock ’n’ roll things, then there’s a song called “Italian Summer” that’s just a beautiful, beautiful love song I wrote when I was in Italy last year. It wasn’t even about anybody. It’s just the feeling you get when you go to Italy is just so romantic, so I wrote this song about this country that I just so fell in love with. Then there are the suffering Stevie songs. [Laughs.]

How did you and Dave team up?

I had met Dave a long time ago, and a couple years ago, he did a pilot for an interview show with Jimmy Iovine. So he kind of interviewed me, then we went to the piano. We sat down and I played “Rhiannon,” and he got his guitar out—because he’s never without it—and he sat down next to me and started playing along, and we did like a 15-minute rendition of “Rhiannon,” and it was so spectacular that I said to myself, “Okay, the next time I do a record, I’m going to ask Dave Stewart to produce it.” He’s very similar in a lot of ways to Lindsey [Buckingham] in the way he plays. He’s like a peer of Lindsey’s; he’s one of those great guitarists. … The girl always gets all the attention—Annie Lennox got all the attention—but the fact is, after spending four months writing with him, I know how important Dave was to all those Eurythmics records. They wrote those songs together, and that’s why they were so fantastic.

If you had to compare this to a past record, which would it be?

Well, probably Bella Donna, because that was my first solo album. I could go back to Rumours, but we didn’t know how great Rumours was. That was just a record that we made that we thought was good, but we had no idea Rumours was going to become one of the biggest records of all time. We had no idea. We made the record, and then we went on the road. The second we came off the road, we went straight in to make Tusk. There wasn’t really much celebration time there. I think I was sitting in my apartment, and I heard one of the songs come on the radio, and it was played, like, after a Beatles song, or after a Who song, or a Led Zeppelin song, and I thought, “Oh my God. One of our songs has just been played right after Led Zeppelin. We’ve made it. We’ve hit the big time.” That moment is forever in my mind—and that’s kind of how I feel about this. I feel an intense kind of slow burning excitement about this that I have not felt in a long time.

4·1·1:
S.B. Bowl
1122 N. Milpas St., Santa Barbara
805-962-7411. More Info
Stevie Nicks plays the Santa Barbara Bowl (1122 N. Milpas St.) on Wednesday, August 4, at 7 p.m. Call 962-7411 or visit sbbowl.com for tickets and info.

http://www.independent.com/news/2010...rward-new-alb/

THANK YOU, VIV!! :]

OMG... SO much good news! GO STEVIE!! :D:D:D

OOOhhhh this is soooooo GOOD! I was right when I was guessing this might be compared to Bella Donna! :blob2::blob2::blob2::blob1::blob1::blob1:
Wonderful article!

I think it will go down in history as my greatest work.
I feel an intense kind of slow burning excitement about this that I have not felt in a long time.

Mama Nicks got her groove back!

I read this on FB- it's fantastic!

Yeah Baby!
 

Oh, what a fantastic surprise for a Monday!

Loooooove hearing her talk about her new songs and working with Dave and her artwork. I hope this is just the very beginning of a wonderful ride!

:D:D:D

Woot! Thanks, Viv! :blob1: :blob2:

I'm excited that she's excited. It's hard to imagine someone who has seen it all and done it all to get excited about anything at this stage in her life. Nine songs plus the one from Mike Campbell seems to be enough for a full disc already. Maybe one or two more songs (the New Orleans song + one from the vault) should round it out nicely. WOW. This is actually happening. Given her excitement, it's hard to imagine that she will want to sit on this one for very long.

It is five shows, right? She said 'five or six'

Maybe there's a possibility of a sixth. I'd guess between the West and the East coast dates.
She said that she's donating her salary from the Santa Barbara concert to the sick child. So she has four gigs she'll get paid for, then. Maybe she will add two dates, you know, to fall into the 'five or six' her manager told her would be like she'd toured all year!
Reno, maybe? Niagra Falls? Ahh, Toronto. I bet she adds a Toronto date.

The excitement builds!! :D Did you get the impression that she would also be selling those shirts at the shows?

That's the impression I got! :nod:

I am buying one, maybe two just of this design. Hell, maybe 3 I can frame somehow or put in my display case. I agree, I know there was a fear this project might get shelved or delayed and delayed, but with a fire like this burning... It just has to get released in a timely manner, especially with press starting to report on it.

I wonder if this means she will also be bringing "Cecilia" out of the vault for this album.

Yes I did. I am so excited about this new album and mini-tour. I know I will be glued to my screen on Aug. 4th when someone reports to us what the song list is.

I'm not sure what was more intoxicating, that new interview, or the new pic you have up of Vivica Fox. Jeez! Thats going straight on my fridge! :laugh:
I'm so happy for Stevie. I really hope this brings her the current glory she deserves!

We all have waited for so long for this kind of excitement and energy from Stevie.
Go Stevie !!!! :blob2::blob2::blob2::blob1::blob1::blob1:

Sweet! A very sexy Ledgie made that for me.

1. Not a far cry from the chanteuse at.....62.

2. Her own hype maching??? When did this happen?

3. $$$.

4. Very nice thing for her to do for Cecilia. More stars should do these type things.

5. Her greatest work ever.........um.... we shall see.

6. Bella Donna - she's setting the bar pretty high isn't she?

1) To me, this is saying Stevie has changed very little through the years, time hasn't watered her down.

2) She is her own hype machine by saying this new album will likely be remembered as her best, up there with Bella Donna. If that's not self-hype, I don't know what is.

3) Indeed... but I suspect she's having to do these shows to finance the recording of her new album. She's likely getting next to no advance, if she's getting one at all. Let's remember the state of the music biz currently, and Stevie's place in that stratification.

4) Agreed... it's nice to see Stevie being so charitable this past decade with her Soldiers Angels program and such.

5) Sounds like a tall order to fill indeed. I guess we'll see in time!

6) See above ^ I also think it's great Stevie's feeling so passionate about her recordings. Passion is exactly what this woman has been missing for, how long now?

1. Sounds like the interview was from a rose colored glasses fan.

2. Stevie a hype machine? There was a little sarcasm in my statement.

3. You're right about the probability of her getting little advance money. But
the greenbacks she's getting for those shows could finance more than her solo CD.

4. Hope we all agree on number four.

5. An impossible task, but she's got to believe that......I guess.

6. How long has she been missing the passion? Oh I'd say since about 1986.

It does seem unlikely that someone in their 60s is going to top their seminal work ..an album of songs written when she was at her 20s and early 30s peak.(and we all know that those years were her songwriting peak)I am however excited that she is excited and I am hopeful for a good Stevie Nicks album.Which is more than I could have expected just a few months ago.

1) Ehh, it's nice to finally be hearing kind words said about Stevie in the press. It seems like especially during the height of her career, she wasn't taken seriously at ALL by journalists. Recognition for her mark on pop/rock music (and probably more importantly, pop culture) has only started to filter into journalism the past dozen or so years. Even that is often backhanded... it's never been cool to be a journalist/music critic and heap praise on Stevie Nicks. I enjoyed the flowery nature of this article... it was refreshing! :p

2) Stevie's always been her own hype machine. Just look back to the Tusk Doc when she's bragging about being the only band member who knows how to make coffee! Girlfriend's always been rather proud of her skillz... no matter how mundane! :lol:

3) True... girl's gotta pay for all those ipods she's been giving out, too! :angel:

4) And let's hope this is just the beginning... I suspect it will be with her getting older.

5) It seems I remember Stevie saying quite a few times she felt Trouble In Shangri La was her masterpiece, too. 10 years later, I don't necessarily think that's the case... but it's definitely a solid album, and far better than anything she'd recorded since the '80s. I think she's capable of topping TISL with this next record, though. Can Stevie one up Bella Donna this day and age? I just don't know... it seems to me like ego and insecurity (two things which sound like they shouldn't be able to coexist, but somehow DO in Stevie's case) would prevent her from being able to accomplish that. I do think the old gal still has a few tricks up her sleeves, though. We'll just have to see!

6) 1986 is what I'd say, too. Though she did pull out some rather passionate performances for the Street Angel tour! She just hasn't matched that charisma in the studio since the '80s, though, you're right.

Stevie is so funny. GREAT interview. Thanks for posting this, Vivfox. It's fun to get excited again.

To me, it sounded more like she meant it compares to the way she felt when recording the Bella Donna album, not really the album itself.

:laugh:....and then I remember how much I adore Stevie....:laugh: ;)

thanks Viv, great interview.

Thank you Viv; thank you Stevie! Now this is the kind of communique I was waiting for! It's VERY Stevie--playful, even making fun of herself, "Suffering Stevie." Great stuff! Okay, Viv. You've proven yourself. Now find us a new AUDIO interview! ;)

Thats the impression I get too, if so I am soooo getting 1 or 2 t-shirts. Wonder if theses will just be sold at the S.B. show?

I am so glad I decided to go to this show as well as the Tahoe show! I'm calling it my Stevie'cation! I'm taking that week off.

That's called creativity, darling. Do new stuff more than once every ten years, and you'll get to experience that feeling a lot more frequently!

Wow, just wow!
 

I don't know about you guys but my eyes welled up with tears when she mentioned Bella Donna. This is going to be a masterpiece and it's the first since I've been a die-hard fan that Stevie has released a new solo album (I started in early 2002 so I just missed TISL). After reading this I feel fairly confident she will give us a taste of the new material on the upcoming tour dates. All I can say is I'm going to see the Goddess that is Stevie Nicks in 8 days and I can't wait! Oh and yes, I will be buying that t-shirt if it's for sale. :blob1::blob2:

New pic: Stevie with musician Ricky Peterson. She looks skinny!

She just has a glow about her in this picture.

Awesome photo! Thanks for posting...

Sandy ~

Thank you ..it really seems like Stevie has gotten her groove back!:blob1:

Exactly what I was thinking. I think some ledgie's may be taking this too literally. I also interpreted Stevie's answer comparing the new record as "intense kind of slow burning excitement about this that I have not felt in a long time" - to the way Stevie felt about the passion & stimulation in essence of recording her 1st solo outing - Bella Donna. I mean this is Stevie were talking about, and she often will answer a broad question from an emotional & "I feel" perspective, rather than overly analytical & pragmatic that for example Lindsey would. So I don't think she is talking to the fact that the record will "sound" like Bella Donna, in fact when asked: Stylistically, how would you describe the stuff you’ve done so far? she answer's, "It's very diverse"......

As far as her viewing the record as going down in history as her greatest work!! I can see the potential for that for sure. I am not talking commercially or having the most hit's, but from a songwriting highpoint of consistency throughout the record, which arguably has not happened since "Bella Donna". I have alway's been of the mind that Stevie has it in her to construct her best recording yet. The fact that she is writing the material with Dave from the ground up is a new thing for her, as opposed to a musician sending her a music track, with her laying down lyric's and a melody on top of that. The whole "writing team" thing is exactly what I feel Stevie needed, in the last 10 years she has penned alone some good song's, most notably; Destiny Rules, Thrown Down, Fall From Grace & Trouble in Shangri~la, but they still fall in her same chord progressions and limit her ability to really fly out of her comfort zone, still they are great songs. But she need's to progress to the next level, for example (barring lyric's and syrupy arrangement) look where Stevie's voice can go when given a more complex chord structure as with "Call On Me For Magic", her voice just dazzles & dances on top of that track. I think (fingers-crossed) Dave is going to provide more musical variety to her writing and it seem's that she has also found her musical soulmate in Dave, which hasn't happened since perhap's Sandy Stewart (Nah!) & Lindsey Buckingham (more like agitated inspiration!) before that - even though they wrote next to zero song's together, and it now appears that there is wayyyy too much tension between them to ever collaborate from the ground up as they (Lindsey) hinted at after SYW.

This is ALL very exciting!!!!! I know we have all been saying that over and over but WOW!! and at the very least I expect this new record to be better than TISL easily. :p

Thank God she dosen't answer questions like Lindsey does!!

Very exciting! I'm a bit confused though :confused: Stevie thinks that her greatest album that will go down in history is the one that half (or more) of the songs on it were co-written. Doesn't say much for her writting :shrug:

pretty sure that's camera flash. :laugh:

this interview cracked me up. she is so self unaware it's funny. what album HASN'T she called her greatest work ever? she said it about f*cking soundstage, for f*ck's sake! :laugh:

:laugh: you took the words right out of my mouth!

First of all: Dave Stewart is no Lindsey Buckingham. Second of all: doesn't Stevie see that she just made an argument for doing an album with Liddy Buck?! Why go with a second-rate Liddy Buck (which is better than the usual third-rate Liddy Bucks for whom she settles)? In other words, I don't mind Dave Stewart doing a Stevie album, but if someone told me that Lindsey was producing and playing guitar on an Annie Lennox album, I'd throw up. I probably wouldn't even buy the thing. So, Stevie wins. Again.

THERESA!!!

furthermore, this is a pile of bullsh*t:

yes, stevie, just like all the attention you've received is because you're a f*cking girl and not because you're a "poet." which is it?? also, i thought she couldn't get any respect because she was the girl in the band. i'm so confused.