Canadian Press Q&A

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Q&A: Rock legend Stevie Nicks explains why she's a technophobe
42 minutes ago

NEW YORK — Friends who want to get in touch with Stevie Nicks know not to send an email, call on a cellphone, or reach out by text message, because she won't respond.

It's not that she's being rude: Nicks doesn't own a computer or a cellphone. The 60-year-old rock legend, who is currently on tour with Fleetwood Mac, is a proud technophobe.

"I believe that computers have taken over the world. I believe that they have in many ways ruined our children. I believe that kids used to love to go out and play," Nicks says in her famously smoky voice.

"I believe that social graces are gone because manners are gone because all people do is sit around and text. I think it's obnoxious."

Nicks does own an iPod, but she prefers to listen to music - which includes her new CD, "The Soundstage Sessions" - on a boombox. (The CD also comes packaged with a DVD.)

Better yet, give her a cassette version and she'll be in musical heaven. "It sounds better and you'd be convinced," she says.

AP: This is your first live project in 22 years. What took so long?

Nicks: I don't really know exactly how that happened. Before I knew it, it was 2007 ... (my) tour was over, and I'm sitting in my house going, "I can't believe I'm sitting here again, and I didn't film this show." So I got on my phone and I called my managers, and I said, "Make some calls, because I need to film this show." I'm very, very proud of it. I'm almost glad that I waited this long to do it, because maybe that's what God wanted me to do.

AP: You say you hope this project is a blueprint for the next generation. Why do you think there's a lack of strong rock acts?

Nicks: Because the music business is in terrible trouble. People are stealing our music. That's all there is to it. In the old days ... they would help you to develop into the artist that they knew you were going to be. In the last 10 years, the record companies don't have the money to do that. I don't know what the answer is to it. The only thing I can say to people is, "Buy music, do not steal music." If you do, you won't have any new music later on.

AP: If you and I were having lunch, and I pulled out my cellphone ...

Nicks: I'm gonna put my hand on your hand and say, "Turn it off, for now. Just give me an hour, of you, I really want an hour of just you, and your heart. I don't want you talking to someone else while we're having lunch." It's love, you know, it's relationships. I don't want love and relationships to be lost, and I feel like that's happening.

AP: Have the nation's economic troubles inspired you musically?

Nicks: Absolutely, I want to go home and write Bob Dylan songs, I want to go write radical, rebellious "let's try to make it better" songs. I'm very affected by everything going on. When I do get finished with this Fleetwood Mac tour, I will absolutely write about the political situation, which I have never done before. I have never actually been very political before, and I'm starting to feel more political every day. So, pretty soon, governor (laughs).