Stevie Nicks: Says she couldn't feel any luckier right now

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Stevie Nicks: Says she couldn't feel any luckier right now
Thursday, June 23, 2005
By John Sinkevics
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- Stevie Nicks considers herself one lucky, mystical rocker these days.

She just completed a magical co-headlining tour with the Eagles' Don Henley, she kicks off a solo U.S. outing with rising star Vanessa Carlton in Grand Rapids on Friday, and she'll pursue a movie project later this year based on an acclaimed series of fantasy stories featuring the character Rhiannon from Welsh mythology.

The singer even anticipates reuniting yet again with Fleetwood Mac.

"I'm very excited about my life right now," Nicks, 57, said in an interview last week from a Henley-Nicks tour stop in Atlanta. "I love what I'm doing."

Oddly enough, Nicks wasn't even planning to perform this year. But then she got a call from Henley, her friend and Eagles drummer, suggesting a joint tour. (The pair scored a Top 10 hit in 1981 with "Leather and Lace.")

"I've never done anything like this before and neither has he. In our hearts, we've always had the thought of doing something like this, but never got around to doing it," Nicks said. "It is a lot of fun. I get to sing 'Hotel California' and 'New York Minute.' "

Although Henley's schedule forced him to limit that tour to just 10 dates, ending last Sunday at the Chicago-area Tweeter Center, Nicks decided to continue on her own, enlisting pianist-singer Carlton to open shows and join her on stage for some tunes.

"I know her pretty well, and I just think she's a special one and I'm glad to be able to put her in front of a lot of people," Nicks said of Carlton, best known for her songs "A Thousand Miles" and "Ordinary Day." She noted Fleetwood Mac was in the same studio as Carlton when she recorded her latest album, "Harmonium."

"My audiences are so excellent and so caring and loving, and I want her (Carlton) to feel that," Nicks added. "I believe these artists have to get out in front of the people. The music business is in such bad shape. Those artists don't get nurtured. It's frightening."

Nicks' reputation as an independent, successful rock artist -- a starring role in Fleetwood Mac, plus a solo career that's spawned singles such as "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," "Edge of Seventeen" and "Stand Back" -- has made her a mentor for younger female musicians, a role she relishes.

"We had people to nurture us," she said of the early part of her career when she teamed up with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. "We had a producer who let us live in his house. We had people around us who would say, 'Don't get upset' and 'We'll keep you afloat.' In this day and age, it's 'Get out.'

"I really respect her (Carlton). I'll be damned if I'll let her go by the wayside. She is one of the great ones. She won't quit."

Nicks won't quit either, juggling solo and full-band projects with her dream of turning author Evangeline Walton's fantasy tetralogy into a movie, with new music that might involve her musician pals.

The twirling, gypsy-like mystic with a penchant for wearing flowing dresses on stage said she feels a spiritual connection to the "amazing stories" of the mythical gods and goddesses.

"There's a very practical side of me, but there is definitely my 'Rhiannon' side, my performing/writing side, that spiritual path that I think I'm on right now," she said of the movie project.

But, she insisted, "there's always a future for Fleetwood Mac," which reunited in 2003 and promptly went out and played 135 shows across the globe. She's confident they'll join forces again within the next two years.

"People always say we'll break up. But we don't break up, we'll never break up," she said. "I think the great thing for a great, elite band like Fleetwood Mac is to get out of the spotlight for a while. It's much more energizing when you have a break. It's like a marriage: You need your own spot in the house and get away from each other once in a while."