STEVIE NICKS INTERVIEW: ATLANTIC CITY WEEKLY

Stevie Nicks Finds New Inspiration, Talks About New Album
Rock Icon Stevie Nicks takes a break from recording her new album with Dave Stewart to play the Taj Mahal Aug. 27.
Atlantic City Weekly
by: Michael Pritchard

The last time Stevie Nicks played Atlantic City, in June 2009, she played Boardwalk Hall, the city’s big room, surrounded by a few band mates you may have heard of — Lindsay Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, you know, Fleetwood Mac.

But Friday, Aug. 27, Nicks switches to her other side, as a solo artist, when she plays the Trump Taj Mahal.

And in either incarnation, whether she’s Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” or her own “White Winged Dove,” Nicks is an icon in both settings. And she’s comfortable in both, she says in a telephone interview with Atlantic City Weekly from her Los Angeles home.

“You know, the two are very different,” she says. “There’s something to be said for the great huge hall and [playing for] 18,000 people in New Zealand. But then there’s the small venues that are much more intimate. And you can’t be that in the huge venues. You’re very far from the people.

“But when you’re in a small venue, it’s like way back in the beginning when you were playing clubs, even though it’s way bigger than a club [the Taj Mahal’s Etess Arena can seat 5,000], there’s still a little of that vibe. But there’s a lot to be said about both and I’m one of those very lucky people who gets to play both.”

And at 62, she’s also lucky enough to pick and choose her spots. Nicks isn’t currently on tour. In fact, she’s in the middle of writing and recording a new album (her seventh) with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, a project she speaks about with excitement and a little bit of wonder.

Yet, this month, she’s taking a break from the album and doing a brief five-concert tour.

“About two and a half months ago, my manager called and said, ‘I know you’re doing a record, but how would you like to do five shows in August?’ And I said basically, ‘You know I’m doing a record.’ And he said, ‘I know, but it’s good to work and in this economy ... maybe it would be a good idea for you to do this. Because if you do, it will be like you worked this year. And that’s always a good thing.’

“So I said basically, ‘You’re telling me that that’s what you want me to do?’” she says. “He said, ‘I think you should do it’ so I said, ‘OK, cool. We’ll break for the month of August.’”

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