Rolling Stone
Stevie Nicks on her Solo album, The Mac and Tom Petty
If you paid even a
modicum of attention during Fleetwood Mac's reunion tour last fall, it was
clear that gypsy-garbed Stevie Nicks was still the star of the show, just like
she was during the Seventies. Trim and healthy, she got the biggest cheers and
entranced the audience just as she had two decades before, when the Mac was
riding high on the mega-million selling success of Rumours and its attendant
slew of hit singles.
Now, with Fleetwood Mac taking a breather, Nicks is going her own way once
again, with her most prodigious display of musical wares since she began her
parallel solo career in 1981. She recently released Enchanted: The Works of
Stevie Nicks, a three-CD boxed set that contains her solo hits, choice album
cuts and a bunch of rarities including soundtrack songs, collaborations,
outtakes and a haunting, spare piano version of "Rhiannon."
She kicks off a tour, with Boz Scaggs opening, on May 27 in Connecticut; when
that wraps up in early August, she plans to finish up her first solo album in
four years -- and her first release for her new label, Warner/Reprise. After
spending the early Nineties getting off cocaine and Klonopin, the drug that
helped cure her coke addiction, Nicks is ready to answer her own question.
Will she ever win? Nicks says yes.
This is quite a
productive period for you.
It's almost like I didn't ask for any of this; it just happened. I was truly
starting on a record of my own when the whole world changed ... upside down.
You had started on
your next album when the Fleetwood Mac reunion popped up?
Yes. All of a sudden this thing about Fleetwood Mac happened, and as the days
went by there was more talk, and then somebody from Warner Bros. actually came
up and said '[Lindsey Buckingham] really is going to put his record on the
shelf to do this.' I said, 'Well, I don't believe that,' 'cos he said that a
million times before. So I called him and I said 'Lindsey, I need you to tell
me what's happening, because if we really are going to do this ... I'm not
even going to start my record and have to stop it.' And he said, 'No, I'm
going to do it.' I said 'You're sure? You promise?' He said 'Yes.' And then,
when I got home from the Fleetwood Mac thing, I was told Atlantic felt this
was a good time to do the box set, since I was going to Warner/Reprise. So all
of these things just sort of happened, to my surprise.
You were so clearly
the fan favorite during the tour. How does the rest of the band deal with that
now?
I think probably it's fine and fairly easy for everybody in the band except
Lindsey. I think it's hard for Lindsey because we started out together. I
think he goes, like, 'When did you do all this? Why do you get this kind of
reaction?' And I think that is hard for him. So I don't talk to him a lot
about it. It's kind of like, what we do together is what we talk about. I
don't want to make Lindsey unhappy. I care about him and want him to be happy.
Do you foresee
another Fleetwood Mac project?
I don't have a sense of if and when, but I don't have a sad feeling about it.
I feel that what we did this last year, it was great. Everybody had a great
time. It was a little hard on Christine [McVie], but I think she will change
her mind and she will get bored and say 'Oh, I want to do this one more time.'
There's no way this band won't play again. I just know that when the time is
right, it'll come back together. It'll probably be in two years, two and a
half years.
What was it like
compiling the Enchanted boxed set?
It was like going through the photo album that went along with all those
records, that went along with my life. Those songs are the photo album of my
life, because each one of those songs really was about something pretty heavy,
for me to write a song about them. And when you put them all together ... it's
a pretty tumultuous bunch of songs.
Closing it with the
new version of "Rhiannon" is pretty striking. It really provides a
coda for your career up to this point.
I really hoped that's how people would take it. You know, there almost wasn't
time to do that "Rhiannon." We came back from Germany and I was sick
and we went in and did it. And it turned out really good except that I was
sick and you can hear it. And I said 'No, this can't be it. This isn't the
"Rhiannon" I want the world to hear. It's the only time I'll ever
play it like this, like the way I wrote it, for the world, and it can't be
like this.' So I went in really late, spent about two hours, and I did it
twice, and the one that you hear is the second one. And I was so pleased
because I said this is probably going to be the most special thing on this
whole record ... This is really important that this song is here and that it's
done by just me and that it's the last song on all three discs.
What's the deal
with your version of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'?"
Someone at Warner/Reprise asked me if I wanted to record it for Party of Five.
I love the song and I've always wanted to do it, and they gave me a reason to
do it. It fits right in; that's why Tom is my favorite writer. I kind of feel
that if I had come into this world as a boy, I would have been him. I really
do. I feel like there's a part of Tom's writing that I relate so easily to.
He's doing another record now. I can honestly say that one of the things I'm
looking forward to most of all is hearing these new songs of his.
Enchanted also has
the first Buckingham-Nicks song ("Long Distance Winner") to ever
appear legitimately on CD. Will the album ever be re-released?
Lindsey says yes. Lindsey has said he will do it. See, I own half, he owns
half. I can't put it out without his half. Plus, we don't have a record deal
for it. So before the Buckingham-Nicks record would be released, we would have
to do the whole thing to release a record. But he says he wants to now, so I
would tend to say we'll do it and put it on CD.
What's your next
album going to be like?
The title song is written -- "Trouble in Shangri-La." It's like
Bella Donna; it's a definite concept album. It's about achieving Shangri-La
and not being able to handle it.
Sounds like a true
story.
(laughs) Oh, yes. I understand it all pretty well. Going through all these
songs [for Enchanted] made me take a walk back through my life and made me
think about things I'd forgotten and about experiences that were pretty strong
and really touched and changed my life ... really see what were the good
things and what were the bad things. Just wisdom, you know? I think I'm really
smarter than I used to be, and I don't take anything for granted now.
Any regrets?
No, because the things that I've wanted to do that I haven't done, I will do.
I want to do a children's cartoon movie. And I want to do a Rhiannon record
with just the songs of Rhiannon -- 'cos there's Rhiannon but there's also nine
other songs I did right in that period of two years, when I was reading the
books of Rhiannon.
You once talked
about wanting to adopt a child. Is that still an ambition?
I don't really need children. I have a niece who's six, who certainly fills my
life up as far as a child goes. I'm gonna just work on my work. I don't think
the world is going to have that much of a problem with me not being married or
having a family. I don't think that's why I came here. I have something that's
really important to do, and I don't think I've done that yet.
GARY GRAFF
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