"Nicks is hoping to get time to work on another solo album."
 

http://www.ripitup.co.nz/music/stevie-nicks/

Stevie Nicks
2pm | 29 October | Jamie Wynn

It's a miracle Fleetwood Mac are still together and touring. A musical soap opera of tangled love lives and drug and drink-fuelled breakups has lasted since the seventies, when the best-known lineup of the group formed.

But it's always been about the music. Surviving the breakup of two couples - Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and John and Christine McVie gave the band their multi-million selling 1977 album Rumours.

But their love of their band and their belief in its music has helped them to endure and today they’re as popular as ever, currently in the middle of a mammoth world tour.

Rip It Up meet Nicks in LA, where the band are in rehearsals. And the legendary singer says: "This band is the longest relationship any of us have had. It’s more than our individual issues.

“When Lindsey and I split and Christine and John were about to break up, we were all in a room, saying, 'Well, I'm not going to quit so you quit'.

"Mick was in the middle saying 'Well, is anybody quitting? If not, can we just carry on?' "And that's exactly what happened. No one was willing to give up Fleetwood Mac - it just wasn't an option.”

The band have endured what would have killed most other bands.

The breakdown of Nicks and Buckingham’s five-year relationship and the McVies' divorce during the making of landmark album Rumours became part of the Fleetwood Mac story. And even today, forty years after their split, it’s when Nicks and Buckingham get close on stage,that the crowd really erupt and cheer.

“I guess fans are still fascinated by us,“ she admits in her famous husky drawl. “It’s part of the story and whatever happened between me and Lindsey or the others, the power of the band and the music meant more."

After her split with Buckingham, Nicks embarked on a two-year affair with band drummer and Fleetwood Mac founder Mick Fleetwood who was in the middle of a divorce with wife Jenny Boyd.

And it wasn’t just the band’s love lives which were full of drama. The band's intake of drugs in the Seventies and Eighties is also part of their story.

Nicks says she first tried cocaine when she moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco with Buckingham.

“Everyone did it then,” she confesses. “And if Lindsey and I had stayed in San Francisco there would never have been any drugs. We probably would never even have had a drink."

Nicks moved to LA with Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac in 1974 - establishing a new line-up that remains the line-up of today - apart from Christine McVie who quit in 1988 but recently rejoined the band on stage at London’s O2.

"Chris was a tough girl but she never really told us just how afraid she was of flying,” says Nicks.

"She'd started having panic attacks about it. We did the Grammys and then she turned to me and said, 'I can't do this any more, I'm quitting.' I said, 'You're leaving me? Abandoning me?' "She goes, 'I'm sorry, honey, I just can't do it.' So she went home, sold her beautiful house in Los Angeles, her piano, her truck, and she was gone in three weeks.

"We never saw her again until we played Earls Court in London in 2004. You just have to respect her wishes but we’ll always be close. We’ll always be friends though it's been very hard to try Christine's songs in rehearsals. Lindsey and I have tried singing some in harmony but we were just disappointed with it.

"Christine just can't be replaced."

After Rumours came their experimental album Tusk which Nicks says saw her use of cocaine “go into overdrive”.

By the time it came to making 1987’s Tango In The Night, Nicks was an addict and also “a mess”.

“I had a hole on my nose,” she says honestly.

“I checked into Betty Ford for two months and a plastic surgeon looked at my nose and told me it would collapse if I carried on. My vanity made me stop the coke.

“I went to see a doctor who said the only way to stay off the drugs was to take a tranquilizer. If I didn’t then my nose was going to collapse. He prescribed Klonopin and I thought it was going to be the end of this chapter.”

However, what Nicks wasn’t told was that Klonopin was also highly addictive and left her a wreck.

She says: “I couldn’t move. I certainly couldn’t work and I was useless in the studio.

“For Tango In The Night I couldn't do anything. I just lay on the couch, called the deli and drank wine - and that went on for eight years. I lost eight years of my life - my forties - because of that man.

"I went to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Marina Del Rey, LA, to wean myself off it.

"It was hell. I thought I was going to die, I was in so much pain. I was really sick. To this day I will haunt the psychiatrist who gave me Klonopin. One day somebody is going to find out who the bastard is and I will be there."

As well as Fleetwood Mac’s world tour, Nicks is hoping to get time to work on another solo album after 2011’s In Your Dreams album that she made with former Eurythmics starDave Stewart.

“I’m writing all the time,” she confesses. “I write down everything. Poems, notes, drawings all feature in my books which hold my life story. All my songs starts in here.”

Working with Stewart, who she also co-wrote with for the first time in her career, gave her the confidence she’d been lacking. In Your Dreams arrived ten years since 2001’s Trouble In Shangri-La after Nicks believed no one was interested in her as a solo singer any more.

“When we came off the road from Fleetwood Mac’s Say You Will tour in 2005, I was going to make a record but I was told not to bother by the powers that be,” she reveals.

“ Everybody was depressed by the downturn in the music industry and I was not the fighter I usually am. I just believed what they said, that no-one would want to hear a Stevie Nicks album and went with it. But after the Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits tour, I got my confidence back and decided I was going to hit the ground running the second I got home, and start an album and that’s what I did. I needed to do it for my soul as I’ve always made a record every couple of years.”

As soon as she was home Nicks called Stewart and asked him over to hear what she’d been working on.

“Before we knew it we were making a record. We didn’t even talk about it, we just started making it. He just said: “I’ll be back Wednesday.” It only took six months to record but making that record was the best year of my life - the most fun, satisfying and the most magical. Dave believed in me and saw something in my poetry. I keep all my poems in my journals and lock them away. They are the start of everything.

“It gave me a creative burst, the kick that I needed. And long may it continue.”

All you gotta do, Stevie, is start recording. You won't get the time until you make it or take it.

This is no surprise. She wants to relive that great experience of making In Your Dreams.

This was obviously written before this year's Fleetwood Mac tour kicked off. A lot of really monumental changes have come to pass since then. Christine spent weeks in Hawaii with Mick (& presumably John). Then Christine joined Fleetwood Mac onstage for the first time in 15 years. John was diagnosed with cancer, and the tour met an abrupt end. Who really knows what's going to happen next at this point? :shrug:

I believe they will all reunite for a final Fleetwood Mac album. Hopefully, it will be a double album like the Eagles' "Long Road Out Of Eden". :angel:

Without Christine's involvement I don't see her being that committed to a new Fleetwood Mac album ..Just look at her contributions or lack thereof to the EP.".Without You" is easily the most lamentable of her 'vault" songs ever committed to record.I would prefer another solo album any day than another Mac album with no Christine and that is if John is well enough to participate also .If not then call it a day.

"One day somebody is going to find out who the bastard is and I will be there."

Lol. We all know who he is, we have pics of her f'ing klonopin bottles with his name on it. She would be so shocked to find out just how much we know and have. I think she underestimates it big time.

I read through this thread earlier and I was driving and talking to my friend (who also reads the ledge) and we were saying the EXACT same thing. I asked my friend "hey do you still have those pill bottle pics from ebay?" She just called me and said "hey someone just posted what we just talked about"....

Stevie needs to stop mentioning this shrink in her interviews...not cool on many levels....and besides, she needs to take responsibility for her own actions... he didn't force her to take the pills. I hate when she plays the role of the innocent victim in regards to her drug habits.

I am so glad to hear that there were ABSOLUTELY no drugs in San Francisco in the late 60's.

:shocked:

It's an excuse for bad music at the time. She burned a lot of bridges through her bad decisions.

That's pretty funny. I like the song. Live I don't think it would have worked for me, without the intro that I looked forward to. I don't even mind having that song on the EP over some other demos of hers, but you have to wonder what her brain set is.

Hey, she seemed to really like the pictures of herself and Lindsey in that Youtube video she saw. So, if you have any vault songs that you really like, just create a great photo montage for it and put it on Twitter and she will record it.

Michele

When I read that I started laughing. It's like - think about what you are saying.

I hear these comments all the time, and it kind of surprises me. There are millions of people who are prescribed medications that they don't need, and that damage their health in some way. Are the doctors who prescribed those meds, and who continued to renew the prescriptions long after the patient should have been weaned from it (if they should have ever been on it at all), not responsible in any way?

No, doctors don't force people to take medications -- but if their patients trust them, they're going to "follow doctor's orders."

Klonopin is often prescribed to control epileptic seizures (which shows you how strong it can be), but due to the high risk of physical dependency, it's not recommended for long-term use. When prescribed for anxiety/panic, it's intended for use "as needed." Not daily.

Stevie, in my opinion, has every right to speak out about her doctor.

Stevie should just start working on her next record...It doesn't really matter what happens with FM she's probably going to be blamed for something anyway...
Unless SN & LB have been hit by a bolt of lightening and are already writing songs together the way they did in the B/N days I don't see the point of a new FM record...

AMAZING news. I hope she does start on a new solo album soon. In Your Dreams still hasn't left my CD player over 2 years later.

I sure hope so that she works on a new album.

I respectively disagree.

Being a doctor is a business. Yes, doctors want to heal people yadda yadda yadda but at the end of the day I am paying my doctor for a service. He or she is working for me. I do not have to do what he or she says, I have the right to question their actions when I feel they are not in my best interest. I am smart enough to get second or third opinions when needed. For example, if i don't like the inert ingredients in a vaccination i have the right to refuse to be injected with whatever they feel would be in my best interest to be injected with. Anyone who blindly listens to their doctors without question is a fool.

Doctors receive kickbacks from the big pharm companies for prescribing certain meds. Remember the big anti-depressant era of the late 1990's early 2000's. wow, you couldn't turn on a tv without seeing those pill ads. "everyone has something wrong, there is a pill for that..." and doctors were handing out anti depressants to anyone.

Painkillers....just try to ask your doctor to prescribe codiene when you have pain after minor surgery. They will try to insist on lortab or oxy first. They will look at you like you have three eyes when you tell them you don't need a heavy narcotic for something minor. Stand up for yourself and get a mild pain killer if you know that is all you need.

Doctors hand out meds and vaccines like candy and the only ones who benefit most of the time is the big Pharms. Shame on anyone who follows blindly. Shame on Stevie for not saying no to that doctor and she should have gotten a second opinion.

I don't disagree with a single thing you wrote, except your implication that physicians have no culpability in this matter. That's a "blame the victim" mentality that does everyone a disservice by absolving doctors of the responsibility they should have to their patients.

I'm 41 and have a jaded view of doctors. You seem to hold a similar view. We've seen enough to know that a patient has to be their own advocate. My parents (who are Stevie's age) and grandparents were from a generation where you trusted your doctor without question (and priest, and policeman, etc.). If your doctor said you needed to take this pill three times a day, you took it.

To this day, people go to their physician expecting to receive the proper care and treatment. We might think that's naive -- but it's a fact of life. Those patients who unfortunately do not receive the proper care, resulting in further health issues or even death, aren't to blame for believing that their doctor had their best interests at heart.

I hear ya....i just have a hard time making the physician culpable for handing out drugs. It's like a street drug dealer. True, if they weren't on the street selling drugs, the drug addicts wouldn't be able to buy it. But can you really blame the dealer for the addiction? Do you blame the people growing and processing the drugs? I can't. I blame the person who shoots it, snorts it, smokes or swallows it. I think some physicians do prescribe drugs just because it makes them money in repeat office visits and pharm kickbacks. Conversely, I think many physicians often believe that prescribing vaccines and narcotics and antidepressants is in the best interest of the patient. They buy into the big pharm marketing BS too. If people really knew what the inert ingredients were in a vaccine who in the right mind would take any vaccine or give them to their child. But almost every doctor would swear they are safe....I just can't blame them for prescribing....I do agree that many people of an older generation blindly agree and trust their doctors, but younger people (under 65) do as well....it baffles me.....the baby boomers were the first to not trust authority.....I just hope that more people educate themselves.

Klonopine and methadone are usually prescribed to recovering drug addicts. Maybe if she wasn't taking the stuff, she would have had a relapse? I heard relapses can be deadlier because they don't realize thier resistance went down and over dose. I don't blame the dr either. Lots of people have addictive personalities. Love Stevie, but she was addicted to lots of things.

What floors me is that no one around her seemed to notice that she was in the throes of Klonopin addiction.I saw her in concert numerous times during those years and remember one night in particular at the Greek Theatre in Los Feliz on TOSOTM tour when I had second row seats..It was actually a pretty decent show for those times but when she got to the Edge walk and I clasped her hand I could really tell there was something wrong from her robotic movements to the glazed over look in her eyes.That the people around her could not have picked up on this is baffling to me.Especially the following year when she went on an entire tour with such no nonsense people as Christine McVie:shrug:

Stevie was a grown woman and she was responsible for herself. She knew what she was doing. Her acting like a robot was probably a godsend to her friends. I'm sure they probably had to worry about a lot worse in the past.

I not sure I buy my songs stank because of klonoplin thing. She had a big head and became a very lazy songwriter.

" her robotic movements"

I have video from the last tour and the In Your Dreams tour ... she is still robotic , I have identical edge of 17 video from the moment she turns from the mike she looks straight ahead, then drops her head down a bit throws back her hair and marches forward to when she returns is exactly the same including the expression on her face to how many steps between leaning a shaking someones hand if it weren't for the slight change in her dress you'd swear they were the same .

Her show is stagnate she's been doing the same songs almost in order for a decade, so all those "moves" are ingrained there is little or no spontaneity.

Maybe another new album will excite her to add more new music and work on some kind of new "moves" it is almost as if you can see she is thinking ok 1,2,3, spin

I have to say that the ignorance in this thread is stunning, even for the Ledge. This notion that people are solely responsible for their own medication decisions is ludicrous and that physicians are not culpable for medication errors is completely false. If that were true, why even bother going to a physician? Why bother controlling access to medication with prescriptions? Let's just make it a drug free-for-all; every man/woman/child should diagnose their own illnesses and medicate themselves accordingly.

In the case of Stevie's addiction to Klonopin, a little insight is needed. Firstly, the science of addiction medicine was relatively young at the time, and even today there is a very high relapse rate and little in the way of effective FDA-approved treatments for addiction. In the absence of treatment options, Klonopin was prescribed off-label at the discretion of Stevie's physician, presumably with the rationale that its tranquilizing/anti-anxiety effects may help to blunt her urges to resume cocaine use. As a so-called expert in his field, Stevie probably trusted him with her life. Another thing to keep in mind is that access to drug information before the internet was virtually non-existent. At best, as a patient you would be lucky to get a wadded-up string of paper containing a disorganized list of side effects in 5pt font. Unless you had a medical background, it was basically impossible to discern 75% of it. As a result, the patient basically had no choice but to heed the advice of the physician and the instructions for use on the bottle. Were there side effects of chronic high-dose Klonopin use? Of course! But at the time, very few people in Stevie's inner circle probably knew about her medication regimen. They probably attributed her flat affect, weight gain and chronic fatigue to age, the lingering effects of cocaine/alcohol abuse, heavy marijuana use, Epstein-Barr, etc. I'm sure people worried about her, but it probably took a long time for them to connect the dots back to the physician prescribing this "anti-addiction medication."

I believe she was a coke head and burnt a lot of bridges that helped her get to the top. After she was humbled and came to her senses she had to do damage control. I also think she truly felt bad for acting like a Diva. Stevie is responsible for her decisions however.

I think you are pretty spot-on with all of this (per usual!). However, there is one factor you're missing. Since Stevie had already gone to rehab for cocaine, she had to of realized at some point that she had replaced one addiction with another.

Also, the summation that prescription drugs were not recognized as addictive or used recreationally in the 1980s & 1990s is incorrect. Quaaludes were pulled from the US market in 1982 because they were both of these things.

:thumbsup: :lol::lol::lol:

Exactly! I understand people saying Stevie needs to take responsibility for herself, but why everyone is so quick to let the doctor off the hook is beyond me. It's as if he himself had no understanding of the drug or how it should be used. Why do you think Michael Jackson's doctor is in so much trouble? Because he gave a patient an anesthetic to use as a sleep aid!!! Sure Michael was messed up; that doesn't mean medical professionals don't need to be held to some standard of competence.

The doctor should have realized it much sooner.

I agree with both posts...Now let's add her handlers to the mix. The infrastructure of managers, agents, publicists, personal assistants and so on are all supposed to making decisions based on what's best for her...It's quite possible that any or all of them thought that her being under a doctors supervision was in her (or their) best interest...As Louie said Stevie may have realized she had a new problem...It wouldn't surprise me if she had said something about the Doctor or expressed her concerns about the prescription only to be told "The doctor knows what he is doing" ...

and as long as they could get her out there on the road they were all making money. Just prop her up out ther and rake in the bucks. the business is business and eats people up

This thread just goes to show there are two kinds of people....those who blame everyone else for their poor decisions (or feel the need to partially blames someone else) and people who fully accept responsibility for their actions. Both sides think the other side is wrong. I don't think that if someone is too stupid to know the dangers of a med is an excuse either. People have been wise to snake oil salesmen and the dangers of meds for 100 years.

'Nuff said.

Ps- in regards to the Michael Jackson comment made in a post above, you are comparing apples and oranges, MJ DIED while the Dr. was supposed to be monitoring his vitals instead of talking on the phone (with his girlfriend) outside room MJ was in. Big difference. If MJ had not died he would not go to jail for Manslaughter. The issue wasn't the prescribed meds (it was totally legal to give propofol intravenously at home) it was the negligence of walking out of the room to take a phone call for approx 5 minutes while he was under.

It is not about letting the doctor off the hook. It is about not letting Stevie off the hook which people are too quick to do. Stevie didn't survive drug addiction--she survived herself and her irresponsible decisions.

Stevie doesn't need to do anything shes been sober for 20yrs. Her process just like anyone else is their own journey to sobriety. There isn't a right or a wrong way to do it as long as the end result is the same.

it is NOT legal OR ethical to give propofol to anyone anywhere as a sleep aid. period.

OMG, I for one (among many other fans here) Just want one more album from the FAB 5 even without a full tour with Chris. It's time the band take stock (and yes, even cash in on what they have going for them.)

As grown adults here, we all know time is against the band and all of us. Special Speedy to John....I HOPE I am wrong. Yes I would like another SN album at this point...BUT NOT before another 5-piece MAC album. She can do that later in her own time.

And while I'm at it, I might as well say it....so tired of comming to the ledge for comfort and comrodairy and hearing about "I Know Someone who Know's Someone that ONCE cut Stevie's Dog's hair" and by their calculations' this is what is best for Stevie and the Band right now.....BLAH< BLAH...bluck.

Can we all RIGHT NOW just come together and HOPE/PRAY for the best of ALL Members Past and Present?

PEACE OUT the Ledge and it's members...best wishes for all members and the band as well....hope it is NOT the end forever.

Yes, actually it was legal. Propfol usage, at the time of MJs death, was not regulated, meaning it could be administered by a doctor, who was not an anesthesiologist, for use outside the operating room.

Christine quit the band turned her back and walked away...Why should she be allowed to return??? As far as Stevie goes she has a limited amount of time left in her career and she has even said she has to be careful with what projects she chooses to spend her time on...If FM does one last cash grab record and tour Stevie would be almost 70 by the time her next record comes out...Sorry for the comments but is "Mama's sandbox" the place to whine about Christine or another FM record???

I'm thinking Stevie will go with her heart and do another solo album, but that her and Lindsey will work on new tracks for BN. FM is too time consuming. However, Lindsey and Stevie are working on rearranging a track for American Horror Story, so who knows.

Are you forgetting that Stevie also walked out on Fleetwood Mac after 1990? That Lindsey Buckingham did after 1987? Should they not have been allowed to return, either? :shrug:

Christine, Mick, Lindsey, Stevie, and John ARE Fleetwood Mac. They're the most successful lineup of one of the best known bands of all time. Any one of them should be allowed to return to the ranks whenever they please.

Regarding another solo album from Stevie... I don't see that happening before another Mac album now that John has been diagnosed with cancer. I think John's getting sick will probably change all of the Rumours folks priorities.

Fleetwood Mac fell flat on it's face without Stevie & Lindsey (remember "The Time" years) on the other hand FM has done quite well for it's self without Christine...Is Fleetwood Mac the same without her??? No...If the band is going to record again it should be for the right reasons not the wrong ones...The only reason I see for them to get back together is because when they were all in the same room recently something clicked and they said "Let's make another record"...If they are making another record because "we might not get another chance" or "we could make a lot of money" then those are the wrong reasons...Please don't bother...The last time they recorded an entire album as "The 5" was Tango 26 years ago...Will bringing Christine back return them to the 80's glory??? Not likely... I just don't like the way this whole thing is unfolding...While John's situation is terrible and completely unexpected everything else about this reeks of Mick's sneaky underhanded "I do what I have to do" band politics...Stevie has kind of put it out there that she doesn't want another FM record...I'm sure Mick thinks if he can get Chris on board (which explains Chris coming out of hiding) Stevie will change her mind...I can hear Mick now "Hi Christine...Stevie says she'll make another FM record if you will"..."Hey Stevie I talked to Chris and she says she'll do another record if you will"...Not to mention the fact that Mick now has the "this is our last chance" card up his sleeve and can't wait to use it... Who's to say it wont just be more of the same??? Lindsey whines because he has to use his "solo" stuff for FM and he has to "fix" Stevie's songs...Stevie doesn't like what Lindsey does with her songs or the album in general...I just don't think Lindsey can get out of Stevie what Dave did...