Next part of interview from Uncut

[Gypsy-Rhiannon]

TALKING TO NICKS, who seems animated and incredibly open, the Fleetwood Mac story is not so much soap opera as gothic romance. Either way, it's a tale in which she believed the final chapter had been written with the band's 1997 reunion tour and the subsequent departure of Christine McVie. "Not all the King's horses and all the King's men could put it back together," she sang on "fall From Grace", from her 2001 solo album, Trouble in Shangri-La.
"Yes, that was totally about the band," she admits now. Yet she had no hesitation in signing on again when approached. "it's like the restless spirit of Fleetwood Mac still needs to find peace," she says. "That sounds a bit Wuthering Heights. But in a way it is. I don't think any of us could be in any other band."
Say You Will feature 18 tracks, nine written by Nicks and nine by Buckingham, who also produced (with assistance on some tracks by Rob Cavallo). "It's really like a Buckingham-Nicks record with the power trio backing," says Nicks. She admits to missing Christine McVie, who she hasn't seen in five years. The day after the Grammy awards in 1998 (where Fleetwood Mac had three nominations but went away empty-handed), McVie packed up, sold her house and car and left for Britain. "I'm not ungrateful to Hollywood but I've lived there for 28 years and I'm homesick<" she told this writer shortly before the move. "I want to spend more time with my English family and open a restaurant." She hasn't been back to LA since.
"Chris did not enjoy the experience of being back on the road at all," nicks says. "And I can understand why she left. She's now 59 and so I'm now the same age she was on that last 1997 tour. It's very hard on a woman to do this. But with her in the band we had a feminine power and I wish she'd stayed."
At 54, and even without make-up, it is still possible to see what it was that once made Nicks one of the most desirable women on the planet when she twisted and twirled her mystical way through "Rhiannon" in her trademark black lace and chiffon. Today, however, she's damaged her hip, and mounts the studio steps gingerly.
"You become more brittle as you get old. But it's all a state of mind-I'm trying to have a young attitude. There's still nobody can dance like me," she says defiantly.
Several of her nine songs on Say you Will are equally venerable. In 2001, when she was about to go on tour with her last solo album, she handed over a collection of 17 demos to Buckingham, Fleetwood and John Mcvie. "I went back through my vaults of tunes and picked all the ones I really liked but which for one reason or another had never seen the light of day," she recounts.
Her colleagues picked five of them for the new album including "Goodbye Baby" and "Smile At You", written in 1975-76 and which "could easily have ended up on Rumours", according to Nicks.
While she was away on tour, the "power trio" of Fleetwood, john McVie and Buckingham rented a house in Bel Air, installed Buckingham's home studio and worked on the songs. "When I came back off tour I was happy with what they'd done. but I listened and I said, "This isn't going to be good unless we have some new material."
In December 2001 she went back home for Christmas to the house she has kept in Phoenix for more than 20 years. A month later, she returned to LA with four new songs. "I was totally nervous," she recalls. " I knew they wouldn't like the songs. Your self-esteem plummets and you feel you're the worst songwriter in the world. But I played them and they flipped out."
One of them, "Illume", was inspired by 9/11, after Nicks had flown into New York the night before and found herself stranded in the stricken city. "Lindsey had tears in his eyes," she recalls. "He put his hand on my knee and said 'How do you do this?'"
In the absence of Christine McVie's sisterly support, Nicks recruited bosom friend Sheryl Crow to guest on two of the new songs, "Silver Girl" and the title track. "I penned "Silver Girl" about Sheryl," she says. "It's an ode to a lady rock star who's always on the road and has a very hard time having relationships and settling down. So it's also totally about me."
Although she admits she couldn't give up the lifestyle the band has afforded her, Nicks can't conceal a certain bitterness based on her conviction that being in Fleetwood Mac has forced her to make huge sacrifices in other areas of her life.
"Being a female rock star is great and it's fabulous and you make lots of money. But it makes it very hard to do anything else. As a woman you give up part of yourself in a band," she laments. It's not so much self-pity. Simply a statement of fact. "Every relationship I've ever had, great or small, and whether I was going out with a rock star or a lawyer, has been destroyed by the business."
Yet, in many way Say You Will is primarily Lindsey Buckingham's album. "The focus was led completely by Lindsey," Fleetwood confirms. "Even on Stevie's songs, because she was out on tour, she handed the reins to Lindsey, which was a very trusting thing. None of this would have happened without him."
Most of Buckingham's nine compositions were originally destined for a solo album he began recording in the mid-90's. "Then we met at Christine's house six years ago and everybody intervened and said to me 'You've got to stop your solo album and help get the band together and do this tour'"
Having been 'guilted', as he puts it, into the 1997 reunion, his intention was to return to his solo record. " But Mick was playing on my solo stuff, John was playing bass on it. Even Christine was on it on a limited basis. So to all intents and purposes it was Fleetwood Mac doing a Lindsey Buckingham album. Nobody said, 'We've got to make this a Fleetwood Mac LP'. It just grew into that. In the end, all we had to do with my material was for Stevie to add her vocals and it was a Fleetwood Mac record."
Fleetwood confirms that, when he began recording with Buckingham again, it was not in his agenda to get the band back together. " I thought I was going to spend three weeks doing overdubs on Lindsey's album. My whole thing is Fleetwood Mac forever. But I prefaced my renewed relationship with Lindsey by saying, 'You know I want Fleetwood Mac back together. But I don't want you thinking that's why I'm here.' But it went so well that it was Lindsey who said maybe we could turn this into a Fleetwood Mac record."
Even without Christine McVie's songwriting, between them Buckingham and Nicks had so many songs that, at one point, Say You Will was going to be a double album. "I thought it would be an intriguing thing for a band to return with something that had such ambition. We even got into sequencing it as a double," Buckingham says.
"Eventually we pulled back on that for issues of prising and so on. But we kept the core and from my point of view it's the best work we've ever done in terms of the execution and sophistication. Which I guess is appropriate for a bunch of people who are all in their fifties now."
The 1997 tour and accompanying live album, The Dance, were " as good a job as we could do in going out and restating our body of work," he says. "But for me, this is the beginning of a whole other thing because it's new songs."
With Nicks out on her solo tour, Buckingham particularly enjoyed working in an all-male environment. "There was a lot of bonding between the three of us and it was a good place to start building a reconfigured dynamic between us. It was very difficult for me for years to have to work with Stevie when I didn't want to be around her. And it was always hard for John to rise to his higher self around Christine. There was never a sense that we were in any way crippled without Chris because we've made a record that's at least as potent."
Nicks, meanwhile, seems genuinely pleased that Buckingham's restless spirit appears finally to have found musical and personal satisfaction. "Hopefully this record will give him back a sense of purpose and delight. He's in a way better space now and it's wonderful for me to see that. I care about him and his life and what he does and if he's happy. I so want him to be ok. This record is his baby and I really think he's gone and done that great thing he always wanted to do."


Ok.... that's it.... I'm done for now....lol

[wondergirl9847]

Thanks for typing all this for us Pip!! WOW, Lindsey CRIED after he heard Illume!!!! I can't wait to hear this song!!!!!!!! AAAHHH!!! APRIL 15th, WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU ALREADY!!!!!!??? LOL

[SilverGirl]

You are awesome Pip!!! Thanks!!

[Mad4stevie]

Thanks for posting all of this - its awesome!

This really makes me think that "Goodbye Baby" is "The Tower" :

Her colleagues picked five of them for the new album including "Goodbye Baby" and "Smile At You", written in 1975-76 and which "could easily have ended up on Rumours", according to Nicks.

I can't think of another old song that would fit besides "The Tower". Oh, I hope it is!!!!

that's great....thanks so much for transcribing that for us!

[FiercestCalmSea]

You are SO awesome Pip! Thank you

[Livia]

One of them, "Illume", was inspired by 9/11, after Nicks had flown into New York the night before and found herself stranded in the stricken city. "Lindsey had tears in his eyes," she recalls. "He put his hand on my knee and said 'How do you do this?'"

Aaawwww...makes me get all verklempt.

[HoneyHi]

Originally posted by Livia
Aaawwww...makes me get all verklempt.

lmao!!

Pip, thanks so much for posting this!

Antje

[sparky]

Great interview, thanks for posting that !

I have got to say...

Stevie has damaged her HIP ? That's the first I have heard about that. It's a real drag...but OMG a damaged hip is such a social security injury. Who hurts their hip ? Other than the elderly ? This news has filled my head with images of Stevie hobbling onto stage with a walker...a crocheted, multi-colored afghan tossed over her shoulders. God Bless Her, she will probably be doing just that in twenty years, but I hope not on the next tour !

[EnchantedStorms]

Great article. Thanks a bunch, Pip.

Nice to hear her talking about missing Christine. And it's touching to know that her words can get to Lindsey like that.


~Angela~

[golddustchic]

Pip, thanks so much for that! You ROCK I hope your fingers aren't too soar

[DownOnRodeo]

Excellent article! (And an excellent Ledgie to type it all up!!)

[Sorcerer386]

One of them, "Illume", was inspired by 9/11, after Nicks had flown into New York the night before and found herself stranded in the stricken city. "Lindsey had tears in his eyes," she recalls. "He put his hand on my knee and said 'How do you do this?'"

I think this is quite possibly the best comment Lindsey ever gave to Stevie and could ever give to her, or anyone to anyone for that matter. If I had written something that made someone so talented like Lindsey feel baffled at the creativity, one of my dreams in life would be complete. Not to mention, I laughed out loud too when I read this part...it was just so blunt. Thanks a lot Pip!

[tommer]

oh no! why's stevie so upset? why is she and lindsey in such bad terms? why can't he ever respect her? how could these 4 people survive the tour together?

thanks for all this hard work pip, you are an asset to man kind.

[estranged4life]

for sharing Pip...Really an interesting read...Brian J.