San Fran Chronicle Article

Livia · #1 07-23-2005, 08:31 PM

I feel a new signature line coming on....

GOLD DUST WOMAN
- Bill Picture
Sunday, July 24, 2005

Hurricane Emily is threatening to pummel Florida's eastern shore, and Stevie Nicks is sitting in a hotel room in Miami, her eyes glued to the television.

Fleetwood Mac's bewitching front woman is 10 dates into her 22-city solo outing (the Gold Dust Tour comes to the Chronicle Pavilion on Saturday) and trying to figure out why she didn't take the summer off as she had planned. After all, she deserves a break. She spent the better part of 2004 on tour with Fleetwood Mac, and early 2005 was spent assembling an elaborate, Strip- worthy spectacle for a sold-out, four-night solo engagement at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

"It was pretty fabulous, if I do say so myself," she jokes.

But as soon as Nicks cleared her calendar, unpacked and began to settle back into life in sleepy Phoenix, an old flame, Eagles front man Don Henley, whom Nicks dated briefly in the late '70s, called to invite her to join him for a string of co-headlining dates.

"And when Don Henley asks you to rock with him, you don't say no," she says. "Plus, I thought, 'Well, I have this amazing show left over (from Vegas). ' So I said, 'Ah, what the hell, let's do it.' "

Henley was able to commit to only 10 dates because he was due to report back to Eagles headquarters in mid-August for a three-month outing with the classic rock outfit and needed to save his voice. But Nicks decided to go ahead and make a summer of it. She booked 23 more dates of her own, dubbed it the Gold Dust Tour and invited up-and-comer Vanessa Carlton to come along.

"I figured, the ball is already rolling, so I might as well tour as long as I can," Nicks says.

Without a new record to support (her most recent solo release was 2001's "Trouble in Shangri-La"), Nicks is treating fans to an all-greatest-hits set that includes classics from her own vast repertoire and that of Fleetwood Mac. While some veteran artists have resorted to freshening up older material with new arrangements rather than retiring them altogether and disappointing fans, Nicks has adopted an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude when it comes to classics like "Edge of Seventeen" and "Rhiannon." She is, however, planning to perform and record some of her work with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra next year.

"I never get tired of those songs," she says. "Really, I don't. I'm a very different person now than I was 30 years ago when I wrote 'Gold Dust Woman,' for instance, but I still feel it. It takes me right back to that dark, sad place, when drugs were consuming me and I could feel my life's blood dripping away.

"I guess the songs never get old for me because they're all so personal. When I perform them, I try to remember who I was then, who that version of me was. It's really heavy sometimes, and sometimes I still get really emotional."

Nicks says that watching her tour mate Carlton perform has much the same effect on her.

"I adore that girl, but I can't watch her because I get all choked up," she says. "Vanessa reminds me so much of myself at that age. You know, Lindsey (Buckingham) and I were very much in love, and I had this intense passion for (making music). I cry because she makes me remember why I started doing this."

Carlton recently commented how honored she is to be sharing a stage with one of rock's legends. Nicks says Carlton needs to stop with the legend stuff, because, while she's proud of her work, Nicks believes she has yet to write her one defining song.

"People tell me, 'That's the best song you've ever written,' and I go, 'Really?' I guess it's the artist's curse, never being satisfied. But I feel like, once I have written my best song, then what? There's nowhere left to go from there."

Retirement isn't yet a part of Nicks' vocabulary because, at 57, she insists she's got plenty more good years and good songs left in her. When she is too old to tour, rather than put herself out to pasture, she plans to channel all of her creative energy into her first love, writing.

"It's what I love to do," she says. "And I may produce. But honestly, they'll probably be wheeling me out onstage in a wheelchair with rhinestones and raven feathers hot-glued to it. You know me -- it has to be fabulous."

She also foresees a return to the Bay Area at some point in the future.

"That's where it all started," she says. "It's where I belong. It's been years since I lived there, but to this day it still feels like home.

"So, if you're in the Haight 10 years from now and a blur of feathers and rhinestones whizzes past you on a rocket-powered wheelchair and someone goes, 'What was that?' you can say, 'Oh, that's Stevie.' "

Stevie Nicks, with Vanessa Carlton, performs at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Chronicle Pavilion, 2000 Kirker Pass Road, Concord. $20-$85.50. (925) 676-8742. www.bgp.com, www.nicksfix.com.

Bill Picture is a freelance writer.

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URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...KGPODPUQ11.DTL
©2005 San Francisco Chronicle

LikeAWillow · #2 07-23-2005, 08:44 PM

Quote:

"It's what I love to do," she says. "And I may produce. But honestly, they'll probably be wheeling me out onstage in a wheelchair with rhinestones and raven feathers hot-glued to it. You know me -- it has to be fabulous."

OMG that was great! She just gets funnier with age!

Hawkeye · #3 07-23-2005, 08:45 PM

Quote:

"So, if you're in the Haight 10 years from now and a blur of feathers and rhinestones whizzes past you on a rocket-powered wheelchair and someone goes, 'What was that?' you can say, 'Oh, that's Stevie.' "

OH Thats Stevie

strandinthewind · #4 07-23-2005, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Livia

. . . it still feels like home.

"So, if you're in the Haight 10 years from now and a blur of feathers and rhinestones whizzes past you on a rocket-powered wheelchair and someone goes, 'What was that?' you can say, 'Oh, that's Stevie.' " . . . .

OMG - and there you and I will be there with a camera

GREAT article - thanks for posting

LiquidBlue5000 · #5 07-23-2005, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

OMG - and there you and I will be there with a camera

GREAT article - thanks for posting

That was a great article.. very funny she is, that Welsh Witch

Dreammms · #6 07-23-2005, 09:03 PM

hahahaha thanks for posting that

i love you stevie nicks!

greatdarkwing · #7 07-23-2005, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Livia

I feel a new signature line coming on....

GOLD DUST WOMAN
- Bill Picture
Sunday, July 24, 2005

Hurricane Emily is threatening to pummel Florida's eastern shore, and Stevie Nicks is sitting in a hotel room in Miami, her eyes glued to the television.

I SO KNEW she was at the Mandarin Oriental

strandinthewind · #8 07-23-2005, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greatdarkwing

I SO KNEW she was at the Mandarin Oriental

How do you know she was at that hotel as opposed to another one?

greatdarkwing · #9 07-23-2005, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

How do you know she was at that hotel as opposed to another one?

With a 360 degree view of Biscayne Bay from the presidential suite how could she not! Plus, they stayed there last time when they played Ft Lauderdale in 2003....Its the nicest hotel in all of South Florida, and it has an AMAZING spa....BTW, best massages ever..... and yes, I know, I'm spoiled

strandinthewind · #10 07-23-2005, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greatdarkwing

With a 360 degree view of Biscayne Bay from the presidential suite how could she not! Plus, they stayed there last time when they played Ft Lauderdale in 2003....Its the nicest hotel in all of South Florida, and it has an AMAZING spa....BTW, best massages ever..... and yes, I know, I'm spoiled

Ahhhhhh - I would think she might opt for The Shore Club in Sobe because it is soooooo in right now. I personally thought it sucked and was dirty and filled with trashy gross people/posers - but the stars love it. I like The Ritz in Sobe - but The Mandarian is way cool as well.

greatdarkwing · #11 07-23-2005, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Ahhhhhh - I would think she might opt for The Shore Club in Sobe because it is soooooo in right now. I personally thought it sucked and was dirty and filled with trashy gross people/posers - but the stars love it. I like The Ritz in Sobe - but The Mandarian is way cool as well.

They also opened a brand new Four Seasons by the beach as well.....not to mention the new Trump Hotel and Resort that is set to open in the next year. Stevie has MANY options when staying here, but like I said....The Mandarin's presidential suite is the SHIZZLE! Whenever you book the presidential suite, you also book you're own PERSONAL massage therapist that is on call during your whole stay, in the massage room in your suite! Like I said the suite also has a 360 degree panoramic view of Biscayne bay, downtown Miami, and Brickel Key.

greatdarkwing · #12 07-23-2005, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Ahhhhhh - I would think she might opt for The Shore Club in Sobe because it is soooooo in right now. I personally thought it sucked and was dirty and filled with trashy gross people/posers - but the stars love it. I like The Ritz in Sobe - but The Mandarian is way cool as well.

The stars tend to go for The Shore Club and The Tides hotel mainly because they are not the standard big name hotels. The Loews hotel on Sobe is REALLY in right now too....

BombaySapphire3 · #13 07-23-2005, 11:04 PM

Pretty good article. My paper will come later tonight ,but I thought that was rather ungenerous of the writer to surmise that she'll be in a wheelchair in only 10 years!

strandinthewind · #14 07-23-2005, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greatdarkwing

The stars tend to go for The Shore Club and The Tides hotel mainly because they are not the standard big name hotels. The Loews hotel on Sobe is REALLY in right now too....

I LOVE the Lowes - we stayed at The Ritz next door to it and it was nice, but the Lowe's seemed nicer. I also stayed at The Delano once when it first opened, but was not in love with it - though the pool was WAY cool. I have also seen the suite at the top of The Tides - it is three stories tall and has its own pool and was AMAZING as seen here:

The hotel itself was gross though.

greatdarkwing · #15 07-23-2005, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I LOVE the Lowes - we stayed at The Ritz next door to it and it was nice, but the Lowe's seemed nicer. I also stayed at The Delano once when it first opened, but was not in love with it - though the pool was WAY cool. I have also seen the suite at the top of The Tides - it is three stories tall and has its own pool and was AMAZING as seen here:

The hotel itself was gross though.

Safe to say I'm not the only one spoiled here?