Stevie Talks Crow, Winehouse (new article)
 

06.10.2008 9:29 am
Stevie Nicks talks Crow, Winehouse on way to Chaifetz Arena Friday
By: Kevin C. Johnson

Stevie Nicks has somehow managed to escape my interview clutches these past 20 years I’ve spent writing about music, and my chat with her last week was worth the wait.

Nicks, a longtime favorite of mine who performs at Chaifetz Arena on Friday, called my home office last week in the midst of a tornado warning that made national news. She was watching the news reports while at a tour stop, asked if I was OK, and said if I needed to hurry off the phone at any point because of the weather, it was cool. (I wonder if she asked him if he liked to be Twisted...sorry, couldn't resist.)

She was a great interview, chatty, revealing and forthright. The interview runs in the Post-Dispatch in Thursday’s Get Out, and will be online at www.stltoday.com, but her comments on Sheryl Crow and Amy Winehouse are only found here.

Crow made some headlines recently when she suggested she’d fill in for Christine McVie on the Fleetwood Mac tour next year. But Nicks shot down the idea of her friend joining her on the road with the veteran band.

“Sheryl and I discussed this in the nicest of ways. Sheryl has a new baby, and a new baby is all encompassing. We decided it wasn’t the best idea,” says Nicks. “I had to explain to her the ups and downs of being in a band like Fleetwood Mac. You sign your name on the contract and it’s like being in the Army. You don’t have your own life anymore. That’s why I went solo.”

There will be no second female vocalist with Nicks on the Fleetwood Mac tour. Instead, a backing singer will step up to the plate. “We’re excited about this, because now there are five or six songs we love that we can put back into the show,” says Nicks.

Nicks, whose past problems with substances are well known, has words for the constantly troubled Winehouse about getting her act together before she’s forgotten. Nicks’ advice comes from a loving place, she says.

“I will always think of myself as a drug addict, and it’s hard to tell a drug addict to stop doing drugs. They have to wake up and say I’m done, have that epiphany, get on a plane and go to rehab and stay there for two months,” says Nicks.

You gotta love Stevie Nicks.

Tickets to her concert Friday are $45-$95, available through MetroTix outlets, www.metrotix.com, and by calling 314-534-1111 (go to MetroTix’s web site and get half off lower level tickets using promotional code MAC, up until 5 p.m. Tuesday).

Peter Cincotti was just announced as Nicks’ opening act.


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Cool! No Crow... So who's going to step up? Jana?

So there's a full interview coming on Thursday? Did I read that right.

I think of all of the girls, only Sharon has that warm Christine tone, so I'll bet they have her in mind. Still... I think this would be a big mistake. Fleetwood Mac is not a band like Chicago or the Doobie Brothers, where singers and players are changed out more often than their underwear. This is a band that is driven by very big, very idiosyncratic personalities. Yes, I do realize that there is already a precedent for playing ex-members' songs, e.g., "Oh Well" and "Green Manalishi." But it's different this time in the sense that a hired gun would be enlisted to sing lead. In theory I would find it much more palatable for Stevie herself to clomp out chords on the piano while singing "Songbird." :eek:

LOL - so much for all the Nicks haters saying nicks was a winely spoiled little beeyotch for trowing as temper tamtrum about demanding Crowe being in the band :rolleyes:

Also - I guess she and LB mended the fence for now and the tour is on.

Thanks for posting :xoxo:

[

Also - I guess she and LB mended the fence for now and the tour is on.

Thanks for posting :xoxo:[/QUOTE]

You mean "after Stevie and her crew spend three months in Mexico coming up with some fantasy film that no one will watch???"

WTF does that have to do with mending the fence for a tour?

Also - who are you quoting when you say "'after Stevie and her crew spend three months in Mexico coming up with some fantasy film that no one will watch???'"

Finally, if she wants to make a Rhiannon movie, I'll watch it as will, I suggest others.

Why all the negativity?

Oh is that why she went solo? I've never heard that reason given before. I wonder what old songs they are thinking about putting back into the setlist. That's an exciting thought.

Anyway, this is the first time I've heard Stevie talk about touring. Before it has only come from Mick and Lindsey. Now, it sounds like everyone's on the same page. That's fantastic for fans.

Michele

Put what songs back in the show? The last FM tour had all 3 back up girls right there. I guess one of them gets a solo. Whatever. It's all so weird anyway.

I think it is part and parcel of the same thing. She wanted freedom to do more songs, but could not because FM was too demanding of her. In the end though, she did both and balanced it quite well considering the huge amount of work on both ends.

Unless we are talking about one of Christine's own songs, I can't think of any songs that they couldn't do before, because they didn't have another lead vocal. I mean, Straight Back, maybe . . .

Actually, I really doubt that Sheryl was being brought in to help sing on anything. Therefore, the band didn't have to work around Sheryl not being there when the idea to include her was scrapped and it's likely the back up singers won't be doing a single thing next tour that they weren't doing for SYW (and I must say they really added a layer of depth on a song like Beautiful Child for instance).

But to hear Stevie talk about putting songs back into the setlist is giddy-making. Think how happy we were just to get Sara. Now, Angel is on my wishlist.

And all that's left is to hear Stevie mention recording new songs. Tour, old songs revisited, new songs. That would be the trifecta that eluded Big Brown.

Michele

It is silly to bring in a backing vocalist to sing Christine's songs on tour. They should leave it alone at Don't Stop and World Turning .There is so much other material why not an epic like Frozen Love?It would actually be less tacky to dress Brett Tuggle in Christine drag and have him lip sync to Chris' s songs.

Well, he already has the hiar :eek:

Also - DROP WORLD TURNING!!!!!!!!!!! NOW :nod:

That's unlikely. It's the only song in the set that gives Stevie enough time to drop the kids off at the pool. :p :eek:

Well, there has to be a drum solo. In all these years, they should be able to think of one other than World Turning and Not That Funny.

Michele

That's better than Mick doing it on stage.