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Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks kick off tour in Broward

Miami Herald 3/16/2011

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/1...#ixzz1GpguZ7gd

Rod Stewart’s daughters had an idea: How about touring with fellow rock icon Stevie Nicks? A tour was born — and opens Sunday at Sunrise’s BankAtlantic Center


By Howard Cohen
[email protected]
Rod Stewart clearly has a weakness for women: The British rocker, 66, has fathered eight children with five women.

So when three of his daughters — Kimberly, 31, Ruby, 23, and Renée, 18 — suggested Stevie Nicks as a touring mate for their father’s latest tour, Stewart listened. The pair will co-headline the “Heart and Soul Tour,” which opens Sunday at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise.

“I wanted to do a tour with someone and … they all love her, and she’s an icon, and so that’s how it happened,” Stewart said in a joint telephone conversation with Nicks.

Nicks is in Los Angeles, flush from a visit to the Glee set where the cast sang her Fleetwood Mac classic Landslide. Stewart is in England working with old partner Jeff Beck on new tunes. The two rockers burn through the phone lines like old friends, though before this tour, Nicks says she and Stewart had only met twice before, once “at a fantastic New Years’ Eve party Rod had at his beautiful house” in the 1970s and another time at a rehearsal studio.

“I can’t remember anything in the ’70s,” Stewart says, laughing.

Contrary to popular belief, rock stars don’t hang out together.

“You don’t get to meet your peers. Everyone is always working or in a separate city. We don’t live in an enclave in L.A. where rock stars live, where we hang out and barbecue,” Nicks, 62, jokes.

So when the two hit the phone, much catching up is at hand. Not surprisingly, the baby gets top billing. In February, Stewart’s third wife, Penny Lancaster, gave birth to their son Aiden. Apparently, Stewart’s growing catalog of romantic standards albums has done the trick.

Nicks can’t wait to see the baby: “How’s the baby? Is he good?”

“He’s fabulous! An extremely handsome lad!”

Baby banter out of the way, the two talk about the tour — except there’s not too much to talk about. Rehearsals, set for a soundstage in West Palm Beach, hadn’t begun.

“Until we get to Florida to do several days of production and rehearsal, we don’t really know. We have songs we are sort of leaning toward but we’re not sure yet,” Nick says.

The process should be speedy, Stewart says. “Stevie’s a great harmony singer. I’m clueless about singing harmony. Stevie would like to do Reason to Believe, The First Cut Is the Deepest, Young Turks. Darling, you could sing anything you want. It’s your call.”

Nicks’ Leather and Lace and Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around already are in duet form so these would seem logical. Stewart covered Nicks’ 1983 hit Stand Back for an album in the early ’90s. “We may do that,” he says.

This much is for certain: “Without a doubt, I’m going to introduce Stevie at the top of the show — like a gentleman should,” quips Stewart, ever the proper English gentleman.

The troubled concert industry is eyeing this tour with much interest, especially in the wake of last year’s successful pairing of Carole King and James Taylor. The boomers’ Troubadour tour, in which the two performed together for the entire show, grossed more than $62 million in 2010 to rank No. 6 according to Billboard Boxscore.

The Nicks-Stewart two-fer is not expected to follow that format. Nicks will perform a set of solo and Fleetwood Mac hits, followed by a Stewart set in which he promises to dig into his rock catalog. At some point during the three-hour-plus show, the raspy blonds will sing together.

There will only be one new song on this tour — Nicks’ Secret Love, the first single from her coming album, In Your Dreams, her first solo disc in 10 years . Nicks wrote Secret Love in 1976, and its demo has been floating around cyberspace for decades.

“In this day of the Internet, if I did five new songs, those songs would be filmed badly and on YouTube in the morning. Until my record comes out in May nobody is hearing any of it. I want it to be a surprise,” she says.

Much like the King-Taylor teaming, audiences will tap into the stars’ mutual affection society.

“I’ve been listening to Rod’s songs for the last couple of weeks and reliving my past,” Nicks says. “This music, the same with Fleetwood Mac, is the tapestry of all of our lives. Lindsey [Buckingham] and I moved to L.A. in 1971, and Mr. Stewart was a huge rock star, and we were listening to and being totally inspired by Rod before we had any idea.”

“Isn’t that lovely?” Stewart interjects. “Lovely to know I’ve been of some use to somebody!”

Anybody in West Palm have anything to report? :laugh:

(Not much new info) From the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

http://http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.c...warts_r_1.html

Rod Stewart is a little distracted.

He's got the new tour with Stevie Nicks, which kicks off this weekend at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise ($66.25-$168.75 via Ticketmaster). And he's working up songs for a reunion project with legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck. Plus, he's got an infant son, month-old Aiden.

But what had him scouring the Internet this week from his home in Palm Beach was the Scottish Cup final match between his beloved Celtic and arch rival Glasgow Rangers.

"I found a Celtic pub in Fort Lauderdale," he crowed, though admitting that he'd be too excited to watch it anywhere but home. That the match is at 10 a.m. Sunday — the same day as the concert — is not a concern.

"If it all goes well," Stewart said, with a laugh, "I could be wonderfully inebriated by Sunday night!"

If not, you'll understand if he doesn't break out "Some Guys Have All the Luck."

Stewart, who has done well with his ongoing dalliance with standards from the Great American Songbook, said Sunday's concert will be about his rock and pop hits. He and Nicks will perform separately (Nicks first) and then do some numbers together.

Nicks, like Stewart a Rock n Roll Hall of Famer, just released the single "Secret Love" from the Dave Stewart/Glen Ballard-produced album "In Your Dreams," due out May 3.

Speaking Tuesday, on the eve of the first rehearsal, Stewart said the setlist is still a work in progress, and that Nicks has sworn him to secrecy on their duets. Insider scuttlebutt, which could easily be scuttled, predicted the Nicks-Tom Petty duet "Stop Dragging My Heart Around."

The only song Stewart would commit to was a standard, Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You."

"My intent is to give the people what they want to hear, plus a couple of surprises," Stewart, 66, said. "It will be a rip-roaring show with plenty of energy."

The energy in Stewart's voice is palpable on the subject of the Jeff Beck album. Stewart, who established his rock cred in the Jeff Beck Group on classic albums such as "Truth" and "Beck-ola," said Beck has done a half-dozen new tracks. Stewart is working on his songs now.

Stripped-down blues will be the order of the day, Stewart predicts.

"It’s really exciting. We’ll work the same way we did in the early days. It will be a blues album with my voice, his guitar, and drums. And then we’ll be changing things up, like we did on ‘Beck-ola’ and ‘Truth.’ And we may even try to write some songs," he said, slyly.

Stewart cites Elmore James ("Rollin’ and Tumblin’") and Big Joe Williams ("Baby Please Don’t Go") as enduring influences that will echo through the album.

Stewart would not rule out the possibility of a tour, saying he and Beck have long since patched up old differences. "It will be great to work for the old boss again!" he cracked.