Houston, Texas interview

[vivfox]

Nicks braving real-life heat for In Your Dreams
Illness brings reversal on her no-summer-shows stance
By JOEY GUERRA MUSIC WRITER
Aug. 11, 2011, 6:13PM

Stevie Nicks swore she would never play the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion again. Then, she got pneumonia.

"On the day my record (In Your Dreams) came out, my precious record, I was really, really sick with pneumonia. I couldn't even go and do anything. I just thought, 'It's the grim reaper. He's haunting me here,'" Nicks says. "I made a decision from that second onward, that I was just going to do anything I could do to bring this record to the people.

"I'm doing outdoor shows that I swore up and down that I would never do again because it's just too damn hot in the middle of the summer. I called my manager at the beginning of the year and said, 'I take it all back.' I will do whatever it takes to get people to listen to this record, because I don't know if I'm ever going to make another record that's this good."

In Your Dreams pairs the Fleetwood Mac songbird with Dave Stewart, who knows his way around iconic females. (Stewart and Annie Lennox made the Eurythmics one of the biggest acts of the '80s). It's Nicks' first solo record in a decade and has earned some of the best reviews of her storied career.

Were you worried about fans accepting new music after such a long wait?

It's not just tough for me. It's tough for everybody. This is the (age of the) Internet. Piracy follows us like the grim reaper. Finally, in 2009 December, I was in Australia, and I ended up writing the song Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream), and when I finished it up in Brisbane, I said, "I'm ready to do a record, and basically, I don't care."

Why was Stewart the right fit for In Your Dreams?

We don't have an ego. When we wrote the first song, I realized he knows thousands of chords, and he's very knowledgeable of just musicianship. And I really know six chords — which has served me very well through the last 30 years. However, when you actually work with somebody that knows that many chords, it allows you to go places in melody that you would never go if you were just playing your six chords. You may say, "Why didn't you do that with Lindsey (Buckingham)?" The reason is that Lindsey and I lived together as a married couple for five years, played in a band for three years. Lindsey and I have so much drama and baggage. We have total ego. When we sit down together, the ego is sitting in between us.

How challenging was it to give up some of the control?

I have a lot of poetry, which Dave read. Who does that? He read 40 pages of poems about love affairs, fairies, angels, death, life, babies — everything you can imagine. When he came to my house, he picked a poem out and said, "I like this poem. Why don't we start here?" It was You May Be the One. I was a little bit like the deer in the headlights. "Does he really think we're going to write a song together? Here? In my house?" He did. And we did. I never wrote with Lindsey. If I wrote a song, I'd put it on a cassette in the early days, and I'd put it by the coffee with a note that said, "Here's a song. You can produce it, but don't change it."

What were the advantages of recording at home?

Dave and I made it at my big, two-story house in Los Angeles. It was like making a record with Led Zeppelin in the 1960s at the (Headley) Grange outside of London. It was all those things that you would want if you were making a real rock-n-roll record. We had dinners every night — dinner for 12 — in my dining room, where we would break for an hour-and-a-half and talk about the world, talk about politics and gossip and then go back to working. It was just so unbelievable.

Texas is a special place for you, isn't it?

I love Texas. I actually lived in Texas once when I was making (1985's) Rock a Little for several months. I (also) lived in Texas for five years in El Paso, from fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade. I have a real love for Texas. It's going to be hot, and I might drop dead of heat exhaustion. But I'll get back up.

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/7693804.html

[WildHearted]

Originally Posted by vivfox

The reason is that Lindsey and I lived together as a married couple for five years, played in a band for three years.

More like thirty, forty years...

Originally Posted by vivfox

He read 40 pages of poems about love affairs, fairies, angels, death, life, babies

Well.... damn.

[michelej1]

The pneumonia made her think the Grim Reaper was coming?

Pneumonia is very serious and many people go to the hospital with one thing and then end up dying of pneumonia, but . . .

I doubt that she ever put a note by the coffee pot telling Lindsey, "You can produce it, but don't change it."

Michele

[seekerj]

Originally Posted by michelej1

The pneumonia made her think the Grim Reaper was coming?

Pneumonia is very serious and many people go to the hospital with one thing and then end up dying of pneumonia, but . . .

I doubt that she ever put a note by the coffee pot telling Lindsey, "You can produce it, but don't change it."

Michele

Why? That has consistently been one of her biggest complaints. She's always said she can't stand it when someone wants to make a verse a chorus, or lose verses, etc.

[Josh2003]

Originally Posted by michelej1

The pneumonia made her think the Grim Reaper was coming?

Pneumonia is very serious and many people go to the hospital with one thing and then end up dying of pneumonia, but . . .

I doubt that she ever put a note by the coffee pot telling Lindsey, "You can produce it, but don't change it."

Michele

That's how all her demos got leaked to the public...she left them sitting around by the coffee pot for anyone to come along and grab! Attractive nuisance!

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Josh2003

That's how all her demos got leaked to the public...she left them sitting around by the coffee pot for anyone to come along and grab! Attractive nuisance!

Especially since Lindsey never picked his up from the coffee pot. Just like he never picked his copy of Bella Donna (with note attached) up from the stair.

Michele

[Josh2003]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Especially since Lindsey never picked his up from the coffee pot. Just like he never picked his copy of Bella Donna (with note attached) up from the stair.

Michele

Why would he? *Stevie* was the one who wanted the Bunn coffee maker.

[MrStevie]

Originally Posted by seekerj

Why? That has consistently been one of her biggest complaints. She's always said she can't stand it when someone wants to make a verse a chorus, or lose verses, etc.

She's come a long way since ditching Lindsey and his lousy butchering. Not only did she let Dave change her songs from three chords to six, he got to add his own lyrics. Can you imagine her letting Linds add an entire verse or chorus? She had a $.it fit in 2002 when he suggested changing one word regarding tense, for clarity's sake.

If I'm reading her "no ego" thing right...I guess this means her and Dave never had a thing.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Josh2003

Why would he? *Stevie* was the one who wanted the Bunn coffee maker.

As a Buckingham, Lindsey should know how to pick his own beans and grind them by hand.

Michele

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by WildHearted

More like thirty, forty years...

I think she meant the band Fritz, not Fleetwood Mac.

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by MrStevie

If I'm reading her "no ego" thing right...I guess this means her and Dave never had a thing.

Nah she shagged him too ..back in the mid 80s.

[chiffon head]

I think the answers are just as good as the questions~~I don't blame her for not wanting to play here during the summer~it's hot as Fu.c.ing hell her right now!

I'm just glad I get to see her again..I always think it may be the last~

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by MrStevie

She's come a long way since ditching Lindsey and his lousy butchering. Not only did she let Dave change her songs from three chords to six, he got to add his own lyrics. Can you imagine her letting Linds add an entire verse or chorus? She had a $.it fit in 2002 when he suggested changing one word regarding tense, for clarity's sake.

If I'm reading her "no ego" thing right...I guess this means her and Dave never had a thing.

I think what she's getting at is working closely together on an album causes too much strain in her personal relationship with Lindsey (however/whatever that is) and with a third party you're not going to go to places you would with someone you're close to. She said whenever she was uncomfortable with something, Dave would back off and just go with another idea. Lindsey's not going to do that. He knows he can get her to cave or he's going to push her to try something and it probably works both ways. She knows how to get her way with him, but there is residual resentment on both their parts in the end. It seems they are at a stage in life where they are not willing to sacrifice the health of their relationship for art. I'm sure that's why she thinks an outside producer would serve them better for another Mac album and help them not wound each other personally. Reminds me of Lindsey telling LBT there was only room for one married couple in a band; how tremendously difficult it can be to work together and live together.