New Stevie Interview with Herald Sun
 

"STEVIE Nicks' first album in 10 years had its beginnings in Australia, writes SALLY BROWNE

IT was just after she had seen the Twilight film New Moon while on tour in Australia.

Stevie Nicks was so taken by the love story that she stole upstairs to her Melbourne hotel room and wrote a five-page essay about iconic love affairs - about Bella and Edward, about Beauty and the Beast and about her own love story, with Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac.

The similarities between their story and Bella and Edward's in New Moon were uncanny.

"A forbidden love. A love that cannot work," she describes it.

She went back to see the film the next night at midnight to reflect on it again.

Meanwhile, a united Fleetwood Mac was playing sell-out shows around Australia.

When they got to Brisbane, Nicks' hotel suite contained a piano. She sat down and out poured what was to become the song Moonlight.

Having no recording equipment, she performed it in front of a video camera.

"When I was done, I got up, went in and said to my assistant, 'I'm ready to make a record now'," she says. "It was so great because had there not been a piano there, it may not have been written. So this record started in Australia."

In Your Dreams is 63-year-old Nicks' first album in 10 years.

Co-written with and produced by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame, it has received great response from critics and the public alike, going top 10 in the US.

It is an insight into Nicks' world, not only her Twilight fascination, but also her love of other gothic literary works.

Annabel Lee is based on a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

The rocking Wide Sargasso Sea is based on the 1966 novel by Jean Rhys, written as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

In the upbeat New Orleans, she sings about wearing feathers and lace, and references Anne Rice, the queen of vampire tales before Stephenie Meyer usurped her.

Italian Summer is just that - a song Nicks wrote while on holiday abroad.

The most talked-about track, though, is Secret Love which was written around the time of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album but didn't make the final cut. There has been much speculation about who her secret love was but Nicks won't be drawn on his identity.

She worked closely with Stewart, with whom she co-wrote many of the songs, the first time in her 40-year career she had sat in the same room with another songwriter.

"All the years of Fleetwood Mac I would basically just give Lindsey a tape or a CD with a song on it and say, 'You can produce it but don't change it'," Nicks says. "I had never sat across the coffee table with a guy playing guitar in front of a fireplace and recited a poem and written a song in 10 minutes.

"This was really something new for me and very exciting."

Nicks and Stewart worked at Nicks' Los Angeles home, writing and recording in less than a year, creating a lively atmosphere as various musician friends dropped by and stayed for dinner.

As well as her former lover and collaborator Buckingham, who performs on the moving Soldier's Angel, drummer Mick Fleetwood also contributed to the album.

Certainly, Buckingham has not been the only love of Nicks' life but their often turbulent relationship will always hold a special place.

When they split, a year after they joined Fleetwood Mac, it was devastating and that's why Bella and Edward's story resonated with Nicks so much.

"I think especially the New Moon story - the part when he left her, when he said, 'I'm leaving you' and he kind of lied to her and said, 'I'm leaving you because you're not good for me'," she says.

"And he was really leaving her because he was not good for her and he loved her enough to say, 'I'm going to leave her so she can have a real life'. And that really touched me, because that kind of thing happened to me once and it was so devastating."

As Nicks releases In Your Dreams, the mid-1970s era Fleetwood Mac is back on the radar.

A new generation has embraced the band's classic songs, thanks to the TV show Glee, which devoted an episode to the 1976 album Rumours and catapulted it back to the top of the US charts and as high as No. 2 on the ARIA charts.

The band has always acknowledged its Australian following and only two years after its most recent visit, Nicks is coming back for a solo tour in November. Stewart will accompany her.

"We love playing in Australia," she says. "We have a real connection, I think, and we always have the best time there."

Nicks' journey has taken her from success to cocaine addiction, from love to lost love, but she always has had an inner strength to see her through.

What would she say to her younger self now if she had the chance?

"I might have said, 'Don't ever do cocaine', but whether my younger self would have listened when the whole world was doing that, I don't know," she says.

"Nobody really listens to anything when they're that age.

"I think everything came off exactly the way it was supposed to."

In Your Dreams is out now.

Stevie Nicks, with Dave Stewart, November 19, Myer Music Bowl; November 20, Mornington Race-course. Book it: 136 100 from July 6."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/sun...-1226081744179

Wouldn't the time that someone left her for her own good be Joe Walsh, tho? :shrug:

2 australia dates :thumbsup:

I thought the same thing reading it.
In at least one earlier interview, she's referred to that having happened to her twice. It matched her story with Joe, of course, but does LB really fit? She's never said anything about him ever leaving her for her own good. Huh.
I guess she's decided the "OMG! Bella/Edward = Stevie/Lindsey!!" angle is simpler or just more marketable. Probably the latter.

That's all, really? Personally, I'd never want to make a 16 hour flight just to perform in two shows.

SERIOUSLY. I don't usually say this,but she pisses me off talking about this. its not about lindsey, she tries to say that "it's about Lindsey" its just her cop out answer.:mad: we all know and have known when it was that she just sat on the floor just staring for months because "the lovew of her life" left her because "they were not good for eachother" and that was not freekin buckingham.

^^ Unless she could be referring to The Dance era which she's never spoken about. When we think of Stevie and Lindsey, we think of the Rumours era when she broke up with him. For those who believe they were together during The Dance era, I think it can be assumed that he left her, judging by the songs that came out of that time period.

You say you're sorry...
Now you should walk away
But it's so overwhelming,
You have nothing left to say
You can sit outside his door and wait
Well, you can dedicate your pain to him
Oh, thrown down... like a barricade
Maybe now he could prove to her
That he could be good for her
And they should be together


:shrug:

Hi Phoenix,:wavey:

Can I ask you a serious question? I lurked here a long time before ever posting. I always noticed you're one of the most positive, nicest and friendliest posters on the board. With one excpetion. Now my question.

Why are you always so hateful posting about Lindsey Buckingham?

I find it out of character for you to shout down Stevie as if you know more than her who the love of her life is. That's not like you from what I usually read. :shrug: You must really hate Mr. Buckingham a lot to be this hateful and always only about him. I find it sad one of Stevie's best fans hates someone she loves so much. :sorry:

Did you miss her April 6 radio interview where she threw both Joe and Mick under the bus in the "love of her life" contest? She labeled them as only days of drama not worthy of an afterthought. Did that interview piss you off too when she said she felt very respectful and loving toward Lindsey now? Is she copping out in that interview by saying so?

Phoenix, I really respect reading your opinion on most things. I started to ask you about this sore spot in a previous post but I deleted it. I didn't want to hurt your feelings or make you mad by asking. I don't want to start a flame war either. It's just...I really want to know why this subject gets under your skin and I can't help asking. I hope I did it with respect and no offense. :angel:

I believe Stevie thought she loved these guys at the time for whatever reasons, but they really didn't deserve it. Lindsey always loved her and she knew that and he apparently came to her side when she needed him the most above anybody else so I think she must of respected him because of this!

I wish I could find the article where she said that her and Joe were equally addicted to drugs and that they couldn' t help each other because of this! Wasn't "Long Way To Go" written after she left Joe? Something about her leaving him because he kept her "Rock A Little" acetate! :shrug:

I always thought the story was that Joe told one of Stevie's friends (Lori?) that he was leaving Stevie because they were gonna die if they kept what they were doing up.

Joe & Stevie: Got to thinking and did a little, "googling" found this "gem" of a discussion:
Wow.......

http://www.eaglesonlinecentral.com/f...p?t=209&page=7

Lots of interesting info in that discussion.

She's said both at different points, and there's probably truth to both. There are a bunch of stories of how it ended and it was a long break-up, so all of them probably took place, but may not have been the absolute final straw.
In the end, though, I think the story of him leaving her to save them both is, if not necessarily %100 accurate, the one Stevie most believes. I don't think Moonlight is entirely about Joe, but I'm convinced that her mind went to that break-up when she saw New Moon.


Worth considering, but wouldn't that break-up have been more for Will's own good than Stevie's?
I do think, though, that the end of possibility with LB probably left her shattered. I can believe that Moonlight is mainly about the two of them (she's said so many times). I'm just skeptical that the "he dumped me to protect me" angle really refers to LB. :shrug:

Why is it more believable Joe (she was nothing but a road f*ck with saggy boobs) holds the kind of character to do something like that for her own good, but Lindsey (he loved me the most of any man in my life) rates skepticism?:shrug:

'Cause Stevie has said that Joe did that before. :shrug:

Did what before? :confused: The only man evidenced to have done anything for Stevie's benefit more than his own is Lindsey.

Stevie said Joe told Lori that their cocaine abuse was becoming so destructive that they were going to die if they didn't stop, so he was leaving Stevie.

How was that for Stevie's benefit rather than his own?:sorry: to disagree.

The way Stevie has always told the story, was that he left her for their own good. I was just explaining how the part in New Moon that she related people could make someone think of the Joe Walsh situation. I don't even like Joe Walsh at all, or give to flips about him, I'm just repeating what Stevie has said :lol:

Exactly.

Why is "Moonlight" speculated to be about Joe anyway? She's always said that song was a parallel between her and Lindsey and the Bella & Edward characters. When the girl is dumped and is shown sitting by the window or whatever she said that something similar happened twice in her life. Everyone is assuming that's about Joe? I took it to mean that happened with her and Lindsey. :shrug: And, maybe more than once... Of course if you think they totally broke up in 1976 and were never together again that theory wouldn't work. When she said that the guy lied to her it did remind me of the line in Lindsey's song, "Treason" - "closed my eyes, told you lies, out of my hand."

You know, if Stevie says this song was about Lindsey...this song was about Lindsey. I think the woman--if she's gonna reveal what a song is about--is honest about it. If she doesn't want to do so, she doesn't.
So, Joe Walsh...pffftttoooey.
(IMO, YMMV, etc, etc).

And, I have to say, I've heard dozens and dozens of Lindsey interviews (probably hundreds, now that I'm thinking about it). In times of anger, etc, he may not have been glowing about Stevie, may have said they didn't get along, weren't compatible, didn't speak at the moment...and she's said far worse about him, frankly, but he's never been disrespectful of her the way Walsh was. So, whatever layers you want to peel back to find the angelic version of Joe Walsh, feel free. Me? If I know of a woman who has gone on record calling someone one of the loves of her life--and he turns around and calls her nothing but a road fu*k, he's a jerk. No layers to peel. No songs to write.

No, no one is saying Moonlight is about Joe. Moonlight is about Lindsey - heck, all but that one verse and the chorus/bridge was written before she even dated Joe. It was just being pointed out that in the article in the OP, Stevie talks mentions that she once had an experience like Bella in New Moon, when someone and she was all depressed for months and stuff, which sounds very similar to the way Stevie described Joe leaving her, but in the article, they attributed it to her relationship with Lindsey. That's all anyone's saying. Stevie never even said a name in the article - it was the interviewer who assumed she was talking about Lindsey.

In true Nicksian fashion, I do believe you are right and that she's changed her story a bit - I now recall another interview where she said it happened two her twice in her life. Perhaps one was Joe, and the other was Lindsey at some point over the past 40 years. There's been plenty of opportunity, for sure.

Guys, I don't like Joe Walsh! I think he's kind of an ass and I don't even know anything about the dude, aside from all the horrible things he said about Stevie. I was just making an observation.

:nod:
I can't say it any better, so I won't even try.

Also, I didn't realize until just now that the author attributed that break-up to Lindsey, without Stevie saying so specifically. I probably created some confusion earlier in the thread with that one:sorry:

Just because Lindsey and Edward inspired the song doesn't mean that every single word, in every sentence, in every line is about either of them. I think she can pluck different emotions she felt at different parts in her life and use them to create a lyric. The song may be mostly about the people she has mentioned, but that doesn't mean parts of it don't apply to other areas of her life.

Michele

Stevie left Lindsey back in the day, not the other way around.