Stevie Nicks Live in Las Vegas March 18, 2023

Stevie Nicks honors Christine McVie in Vegas tour stop

By John Katsilometes 

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Pics: psushawn

Stevie Nicks’ crowd at T-Mobile Arena wondered when would be the tribute to Christine McVie.

Nicks held it to the end, sending thousands home with some words from the wise. Like the rest of the show, the moment and message were from the heart.

“When you look at somebody that you love, in your own family or just a friend, and you know that you don’t pay enough attention to them sometimes, remember that sometimes doesn’t come again, someday,” Nicks said, having bowed at the end of “Landslide,” the Fleetwood Mac classic from 1975. “You will always regret that. So, make up the friendship bracelets, and reach out to the people you love, because it’s really important.”

Nicks’ voice wavered as she reached the end of this sentiment, as she closed with, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you.” She made sure those were last words the Vegas crowd heard from her, spoken not sung, a tribute to McVie, who died last November at age 79, after what reps described as “a brief illness.”

Saturday’s was the second in Nicks’ current tour, where Billy Joel will join on select dates. Nicks said she was somewhat limited, footwear-wise, by a broken foot. No high heels on this Strip appearance. “Its’ goodbye Di Fabrizio, hello Balenciaga,” she said, drawing laughs and a cheer.

This is Nicks’ first tour since McVie’s death. Clips of the collaborators and friends, who spent some some six decades (on and off) in Fleetwood Mac, played on the big screen. With an acoustic-guitar warmly accompanying, Nicks sang the aching lyric, “Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’, ‘cause I’ve built my life around you. But time makes you bolder, even children get older. And I’m getting older, too.”

Nicks reminded the crowd that she will be 75 soon, in May. She covered Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” written by her friend Steven Stills in 1966, “When I was in high school,” as Nicks said.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer dealt freely from the Fleetwood Mac hit catalogue and her own solo career. “Dreams, “Gypsy,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Sara” and “Rhiannon” were recast, thrilling the crowd, many whom could have been in Nicks’ graduating class at Menlo-Atherton High in the Bay Area. “If Anyone Falls,” “Bella Donna,” “Stand Back,” and “Edge of Seventeen” were among her solo hits. The powerful “Soldier’s Angel” was a show of support for Ukraine, “Fighting for all of us,” as she said, in the war with Russia.

Nicks dropped in the wonderful“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” her 1981 duet with Tom Petty. “If it weren’t for this song, I wouldn’t be here up tonight. I would’t have a solo career,” she said.

Nicks also covered Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” in the three-song encore. It was another love letter to a departed friend, another reason to make up a friendship bracelet.