STEVIE NICKS... The Original Gold Dust Woman

Nick of Time: Q&A With Stevie Nicks
by JACOB BERNSTEIN

WWD.com

Forget retirement. For Stevie Nicks, it’s a busy few months, touring with Fleetwood Mac and promoting a live solo album and DVD. On Monday, the original Gold Dust Woman talked to WWD about what it’s like to fight with Lindsey Buckingham at age 60, the perils of Botox, and the reason she isn’t mentoring flailing divas like Britney Spears and Courtney Love. 

WWD: Your publicist barely allowed me to interview you at 2pm. What time do you ordinarily get up?

Stevie Nicks: : I get up when I have to get up. But Lindsey Buckingham insisted that we start rehearsals for the tour between 1 and 2. That meant my vocal lesson had to be at 11, and I got up everyday at 8 so I could have my two hours by the ocean with my coffee. Before that I could sleep until one or two. 

WWD: At the show at Madison Square Garden, you and Lindsey were very affectionate with one another. Have you guys finally made peace or does it change on a daily basis? 

S.N.: Well, that was a good show. We love New York. But Lindsey is married. He has three darling children, one little boy and two girls. He lives in girlie world with the wife and the four year old girl and the eight year old girl. So he’s softened. When he gets mad at me, he treats me like with the love and respect that he would show for a girl-child instead of just getting mad at me like an old, miserable ex-girlfriend. It’s different. And I’m thrilled. 

WWD: Isn’t that damning with faint praise? Wouldn’t it be better if he were mad at you like an equal rather than his preteen daughter? 

S.N.: Well, It’s a softer way. And I prefer it. He treats me as an equal. He just sometimes doesn’t agree with me. And sometimes I don’t agree with him. We don’t agree on a lot of things. Putting this set together, we didn’t agree on a lot of things. But we came to be one voice. By the end. After two months of rehearsal. 

WWD: What’s it like not having Christine McVie on tour? 

S.N.: The loss of Christine has been gigantic. Before she left there was Lindsey the gnarly gnome, Stevie the miserable, philosophical fairy and Christine the pop star. She was happy. She was able to rein everybody in. She’s five years older than me and six years older than Lindsey. She had a lot of power in this band. She was older, she was smarter, and she had been through more. So we miss her terribly and if there was any way to get her back we would. But she’s finished. She has no interest. 

WWD: You said in a recent interview that you were relieved to still look like you. And you do. Is this the result of good work or no work? 

S.N.: You mean like plastic surgery? No. I had Botox and I hated it. For four long months, I looked like a different person. It almost brought down the whole production of the last tour. It was so bad, I would look into the mirror and burst into tears. Botox is becoming the new face of beauty and it’s unfortunate because it makes everybody look like Satan’s children. Everybody has pointed eyebrows. Everybody looks related. All the Desperate Housewives look like sisters. If you’re an unattractive girl who’s trying to be beautiful with Botox, forget it. If you are a beautiful girl who’s trying to be beautiful with Botox, you will look like you’re angry all the time. You’d have to tie me down to get me to do it again. 

WWD: Do you find yourself wearing different clothes now that you’re getting older? 

SN: I’m very aware. I want to be age appropriate. I don’t want to be that girl you see walking away and she looks 25 and then she turns around and she looks 90. I don’t wear see-through chiffon skirts anymore. I wear a slip. When I was 30 I didn’t care if people could see through my clothes. Now I care. I know I’m sixty. 

WWD: In the last decade, you’ve worked with Sheryl Crow and mentored Courtney Love. What are you listening to now? 

SN: This is the part where I run and get my Ipod. Can I do that? [She runs and gets her Ipod.] I just made a tape of dance tracks. Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” “Umbrella,” by Rihanna, “Come to me, Peace,” by Mary J. Blige, “Afraid,” by Nelly Furtado, “Touch my Body” from Mariah Carey. Love that. 

WWD: So you like R&B? 

S.N.: Oh yes, very much...I’d like to do something crazy with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. I learned to sing listening to R&B groups, Phil Spector stuff. 

WWD: Anything else you’d like to do? 

S.N.: I’d like to do an all girl choir with Michelle Branch and Sheryl Crow and Natalie Maines. I love singing with her.

WWD: Do you still talk to Courtney? 

S.N.: I haven’t talked to Courtney in a long time. We formed a bond the last time before she got all messed up again. When she did the movie [The People vs. Larry Flynt], and came to my house and interviewed me for Spin or Interview Magazine. She was totally sober, and she was beautiful and so smart. I thought she was going to be a famous Academy Award winning actress. Then she fell apart. But if she called me and said “I need you,” I’d go to her. I love her. But you can’t tell people what to do. People say “Do you want to talk to Britney Spears.” I say “No.” Because nobody could talk to me back when I was having problems. 

WWD: Do you have any regrets? 

S.N.: The eight years I was on Klonopin. 

WWD: You don’t even drink now, right? 

S.N.: No. But not purposely. I used to have a shot of tequila before I went on stage and it would give me this acid thing. Finally, I said, “This isn’t worth it.” I can’t get a good enough buzz on one shot of tequila to risk having an acid bubble my entire show. And I don’t like watching drunk people. Especially women. My mom always said to me “Everybody forgets drunk men, but no one forgets a drunk woman.”