Stevie's Stage Fright

[michelej1]

This is an excerpt from a May 23, 1994 Newsweek article, but I just saw it today:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/133760/page/1


Many entertainers agree that a few butterflies can actually help a performance, Stage fright "isn't just feeling nerved out and freaked out," says Stevie Nicks, formerly the lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, who is preparing for a world tour in July. "It's also feeling really excited. It makes you feel you can do anything ... If I wasn't really nervous before I walk onstage, I'd be really worried. " Nicks, who first suffered performance anxiety at a seventh-grade baton-twirling contest, says the hour before a performance i is a nightmare for her. "My stomach gets upset. I break out in a sweat. I have asthma and it really kicks in. Everyone wonders, 'My God. Is she going to be able to pull this evening off?' And then when the announcer says, 'Please welcome Miss Stevie Nicks,' it just goes away."

[Sanne2]

I guess the pre-show tequila shots also help a lot.

[GypsyGirl15]

Originally Posted by Sanne2

I guess the pre-show tequila shots also help a lot.

Stevie doing Tequila shots? The other band members too?

[Sanne2]

Originally Posted by GypsyGirl15

Stevie doing Tequila shots? The other band members too?

I think I read that in a SYW-era interview, I'm not exactly sure what it was.

[louielouie2000]

Originally Posted by Sanne2

I think I read that in a SYW-era interview, I'm not exactly sure what it was.

There was some tv interview during the Trouble In Shangri La tour I think where Stevie addressed her stage fright, and they went back stage with her before her concert and showed her pacing around backstage right before she want on, doing her tequila shots, nervously flapping her arms, brushing off her assistants who came near her, etc. It was pretty intense... it's amazing to me that after all this time she still gets stage fright.

[1sttimelongtime]

HAHAHA!!! How many tequila shots? I have heard her say in one interview that she only has ONE! I'd love to see this footage, if you recall where it was or might be.

[Loneman1]

Well, having asthma myself, I know first hand that alcohol can help you relax your lungs.

[David]

If anything, she needs to swig MORE alcohol before a show. I was just watching a YouTube video of IF ANYONE FALLS in Anaheim in 2008. She sings SEVEN ENTIRE LINES on the same monotone!! She sounds frozen stiff with fear or throat paralysis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZe50nYTiJM

She sings the EXACT SAME droning G4 at 1:29 ("I have never known the words/I have tried to be true") & again at 2:16 ("Deep inside my heart/I see your shadow, your shadow, your shadow against the wall") & again at 2:25 ("I am dealing with a man/Who, when away from me/Stays deep inside my heart").

The same, droning G, on EVERY ONE of those syllables in each one of those words. It sounds AWFUL. Why does she do that? Anyone here know? It's horrible. Is that the way she always sings that song these days?

I mean, Christ, she doesn't even put any vibrato on that droning G. It just drones like a pedal-point on a pipe organ. What happened to her cool vibrato from previous tours?

I canNOT get into this singing at all. It's not all that different from my alarm clock buzzer going off at 5:30 a.m.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by David

If anything, she needs to swig MORE alcohol before a show. I was just watching a YouTube video of IF ANYONE FALLS in Anaheim in 2008. She sings SEVEN ENTIRE LINES on the same monotone!! She sounds frozen stiff with fear or throat paralysis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZe50nYTiJM

She sings the EXACT SAME droning G4 at 1:29 ("I have never known the words/I have tried to be true") & again at 2:16 ("Deep inside my heart/I see your shadow, your shadow, your shadow against the wall") & again at 2:25 ("I am dealing with a man/Who, when away from me/Stays deep inside my heart").

The same, droning G, on EVERY ONE of those syllables in each one of those words. It sounds AWFUL. Why does she do that? Anyone here know? It's horrible. Is that the way she always sings that song these days?

I mean, Christ, she doesn't even put any vibrato on that droning G. It just drones like a pedal-point on a pipe organ. What happened to her cool vibrato from previous tours?

I canNOT get into this singing at all. It's not all that different from my alarm clock buzzer going off at 5:30 a.m.

[singertobe]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

There was some tv interview during the Trouble In Shangri La tour I think where Stevie addressed her stage fright, and they went back stage with her before her concert and showed her pacing around backstage right before she want on, doing her tequila shots, nervously flapping her arms, brushing off her assistants who came near her, etc. It was pretty intense... it's amazing to me that after all this time she still gets stage fright.

Dude! I WANNA SEE THAT!!!!!

[fairydust75]

Originally Posted by singertobe

Dude! I WANNA SEE THAT!!!!!

Sounds like the two part interview she did with ABC's Downtown .

[bombaysaffires]

It's actually called anticipatory anxiety-- and it's all about waiting to do something and your mind goes to all the things that could go wrong, etc. because you're stuck just waiting to do it (in this case, go on stage). Once you get out there and start to DO it it goes away because you are in the moment and not *thinking* about doing it but actually doing it. Your mind no longer has all that time to think about all the "what ifs" and things that could go wrong.