New Great Article that answers the solo album question!
 

"Stevie Nicks Puts Vacation on Hold"

She'll bring her hits and those of Fleetwood Mac for Reno show

by Neil Baron
7/28/2005

Stevie Nicks returns to Reno July 31.

When Stevie Nicks performs July 31 at the Reno Events Center, she'll
do it with a show that shouldn't exist and an opening act that makes
her cry.

"This tour wasn't even supposed to happen," Nicks said by phone
during a tour stop in Laguna Beach, Calif. "I was supposed to have
this whole year off."

So much for rest. When Eagles frontman Don Henley invited Nicks on a
co-headline tour, she accepted (Henley is not performing in Reno).
Nicks then was offered four dates to perform in Las Vegas at the
Celine Dion Theater in Caesars Palace.

"I would like to be able to play Vegas a couple times a year because
then I don't have to travel," said Nicks, who lives in Los
Angeles. "So I said, `OK, I'll put my summer off. Let's go do this.'
But this is a show that we would never have put together had it not
been for going into Celine's theater that is like 110 feet wide with
300-foot IMAX screens. You just can't take your band in there and
play. You have to build a world, and we did. We spent two months
doing it and it's an amazing world. So we came out of Vegas with an
outrageous show that we never would have had otherwise."

Without giving away too much, Nicks' concert features lots of film
and video from the vaults of the past. She also got permission to use
the art and paintings of her favorite painter, the late Sulamith
Wulfing.

"This has touches and moments of, say, Fillmore West or Winterland or
the Avalon Ballroom," Nicks said. "It reminds me of an amazing show
from 1971."
Nicks would know. In 1971, she was a 23-year-old musical neophyte.
Now, she is arguably one of the most influential and recognizable
female artists in rock `n' roll history.

With her sultry good looks and gypsy-like appearance, Nicks helped
Fleetwood Mac in 1977 create, "Rumours," one of the best-selling rock
albums of all time at more than 17 million copies.
When she branched out to release her debut solo album, "Bella Donna,"
in 1981, it was an instant hit. Buoyed by the top 20 hits "Stop
Draggin' My Heart Around," "Leather and Lace," and "Edge of
Seventeen," the album reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

After 35 years of entertaining audiences, some might say that Nicks
owes her fans little more than to show up, sing her hits and go home.
But the 57-year-old chanteuse couldn't disagree more. During every
show, Nicks takes 10 minutes to walk slowly across the stage to shake
as many fans' hands as possible while her band continues to play. For
some artists, such a gesture would seem staged and bogus.
But not for Nicks.

"It's physically very hard on my back," she said by phone during a
tour stop in Laguna Beach, Calif. "But it's something that I've
always felt was important to do. And I love it because then I have
that emotional connection every night with the people that come to
see me.

"We also do meet-and-greets every night except for when we have to
leave right away. It's something Fleetwood Mac has always done and
I've done it in my solo career. It's a thing that's good to do. It
gives you a minute to have some personal time with your fans. And I
have the greatest fans in the world."

If record sales are any indication, she's right. Every album Nicks
has released has gone platinum, she said. The only exception is her
2001 release, "Trouble in Shangri-La," which is soon to go platinum,
she said.
That album, Nicks first studio release since 1994's "Street Angel,"
is one of her favorites. She spent nearly four years pouring her
emotions into her words at a time when she was having doubts about
her songwriting skills.

When it came time to record, Nicks recruited the vocal talents of
Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks,
each of whom performed on one song. Nicks' main collaborator was
Sheryl Crow, who credits Nicks as one of her main musical
inspirations.

"I really felt that was my masterpiece," Nicks said. "But considering
what happened, I can't be too upset."
Like many albums released in the summer of 2001, "Trouble in Shangri-
La" got lost in the madness that was the aftermath of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks. Nicks said she is unsure if she'll release another
solo record.

"I really don't know what to do," she said. "I'm totally writing. I
could go into the studio tomorrow and start a solo record. I think I
get better as a writer every day because I work on it constantly. So
it's not like I couldn't do it, but ..."
Her voice trails off. Why bother when it has little chance of playing
on the radio, which means fewer people have a chance to hear the
record?

Nicks doesn't lament the current state of radio as much for herself
as she does for those she'll likely never know.
"There's a lot of amazing talented groups and solo singer-songwriters
that are never going to make it because there's nobody to give them a
chance. I know they're out there, but whether or not we ever get to
know they exist is another question."

Nicks is helping to change that in her own small way by offering
Vanessa Carlton the opportunity to open the show.
"She is my baby chick," Nicks said. "I adore her and I think she is
one of the best singer-songwriters to come along in a long time. Like
many others, if she has some people behind her that nurture her and
let her spend time to develop who she is, I think that she'll be
around in 30 years, like myself.
"She kills me every night. Sometimes, I can't watch her because she
makes me cry. She makes me think of me when I was 24 and it chokes me
up. It chokes me up so bad I have to leave. I can't watch her. That's
the biggest compliment I could give to anybody. She's amazing."

---

A random thought from Nicks
Usually in interviews, we'll ask if the artist has anything they want
to add. The answer usually is "no." Stevie Nicks had something to
add. She took time from her busy schedule recently to visit extremely
injured soldiers returning from war at the Walter Reed Hospital in
Washington, D.C.
"I spent the whole day with them," she said. "It opened my eyes to
the fact that there's a lot of kids out there that are so injured
their lives will never be the same. If you happen to be in a city
with a military hospital, get a plate of cookies together and go
visit them because they are so isolated and so lonely. It broke my
heart. It was an eye-opening experience for me. It really doesn't
matter how you feel about war. What matters is that these kids are
paying a price and they're alone and they're lonely. That's what I
would like people to do. Take some candy and spend a little time with
them. You'd be amazed what it means to them."

That totally pisses me off. I'm sorry but there are so many great artists who don't get played on the radio who still continue to make records and gain loyal fans. What a cop out. "I won't make a new album because it didn't sell as well as I had liked" sounds so childish to me. If she's proud of the music, then she shouldn't give a damn how many copies it sold. It's not like it totally bombed or got blasted by the critics.
I bet they won't play the new Paul McCartney album or the new Neil Young album on the radio either. Stevie should realise she's in a different league now; it's not about hit singles and MTV rotation for older artists because their audience isn't teenyboppers and it never will be, no matter what the music is like.

That's a great article...thanks for posting! It seems like Stevie is a little skeptical about releasing a solo record...but I say she needs to screw radio play and do it anyways. But who wouldn't say she needs to do that?

Street Angel never went platinum.

Oy. The album was released months before 9/11 and had already dropped off the charts by then. Her tour has more than half over, too.

So...she could do it but doesn't want to do it? That's what it sounds like to me. I pray that airplay isn't important to her because that would just be silly at this stage in her career. I thought recording her songs and sharing them with people was important to her. Sounds like one big cop-out.

Thanks for posting! :wavey:

She doesn't want to record a solo record again, IMO. She's going to finish out her career with Fleetwood Mac.

Stevie is quite preoccupied with sales these days. All that praying to the "commercial gods" and worrying about whether ex-dopers will buy her music as opposed to 12 year olds. To not record new music because it won't sell millions of copies is ridiculous. If more artists felt that way, we wouldn't have jack **** to listen to.

I don't believe that for a second. Fleetwood Mac is done recording, imo. Besides, Kelly said recently that she heard from friends that they're planning some sort of farewell tour for next year.

Yeah. For people with connections to the band. :rolleyes:

That's what I meant....touring-wise...not in the studio.

Bloody hell...
 

about 90% of the music I listen never gets radio airplay, So I find that excuse kinda lame...

Must be more to it than Stevie is letting on, Perhaps a new Fleetwood Mac album or who the f**k knows (Another boxed set)??? I know artists such as Rush & Dream Theater could give a donkey trot what their album sales are since they have loyal fans who clamour for each of their new releases.

I know, ain't it a shame that Toad never went through with his lovely Meet-and-Greet scheme? :laugh:

It sounds like her uncertainty about releasing another solo album is about not wanting to lose money on it or a tour afterward. I don't blame her. Just because her core fan base would happily shell out the money on her next record or tour doesn't mean it won't ruin her financially. Plus she got some pretty good reviews from Shangri-la and Say You Will, maybe she just wants to leave the party while it's still a good one, not after it's too late. I'd love a new record, but I understand not wanting to risk her livelihood and respect in her field.

It saddens me that she seems to measure how good a record is with commercial success. I'm starting to think she doesn't like Street Angel, not because it's her poorest album, but because it's her poorest selling.
Who is feeding this crap to her anyway? Stevie is never gonna be big with your average 12 year old again, she should just deal with it.
Her reaction seems to be, I'll become a nostalgia act, touring my old songs into the ground, rather than continuing to make new and artistic music. It's bull****. It makes me so sad she's essentially choosing money (which she'll no doubt make as a live act) over the artistic option (which is making music she loves no matter how well it sells).
Stevie, what has happened to you?

Maybe Stevie should swallow her pride and do something out of the mainstream for once, like touring itty bitty venues and exposing herself to a wider audience that wouldn't necessarily go see her for $100 at the Fleet Center. Strip the show down from all the extravagant stuff and make it a small, artsy-fartsy show that she could tour with without worrying about paying back the promoters and breaking her bank account. One of the big reasons many artists still sell records is because they tour small venues and build up loyal followings. Stevie already has one, but she could build another one if she tried and it could result in more record sales.

Thanks!