Q&A: Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum - on working with Stevie Nicks

During a conversation on a recent break from the tour, Lady Antebellum’s Dave Haywood talked with Cincinnati.com about working with Stevie Nicks

This is the section of the Q&A where he's asked about working with Stevie. The full Q&A can be found at Cincinnati.com

Lady Antebellum performed “Rhiannon” with Stevie Nicks at the ACM awards last month. Who chose that song?

Kind of the both of us. We did (the CMT show) “Crossroads” with Stevie about a year ago, and it was honestly the best experience for us as a band. It was the No. 1 highlight for us, to sit with her and work with her. We did “Rhiannon” on that show, and they had asked us to try and come up with a collaboration to do something with her again. We had a blast doing that.

She has been honestly so genuinely nice. She has invested so much time into our music and to us, spending time practicing and rehearsing. She’s just an unbelievable individual. You sit with her long enough and she’ll start telling old rock ‘n’ roll stories. And it’s the real stuff.

To say that playing with Stevie Nicks is the No. 1 highlight for you as a band is high praise.

My dream has always been not just to meet someone you’ve been a fan of, but to have the opportunity to work with them.

We went into the “Crossroads” experience not sure how that would go, if she would be cold or standoffish, or if it was going to be awkward. We showed up, and immediately she gave us all a big hug and started asking us about us, and how we started as a band, and how we write. She was so invested in our music. She started naming all these album cuts from our debut record and second record.

She was like, “We need to do ‘Cold as Stone’ from your second record,’ and I was like, “Who even knows that song?”

(Well I now know the song thanks to this collaboration... and I love it!  It's a great song)

For more on the Cross Roads collaboration between Stevie and Lady Antebellum, check out this page for more photos and videos from the show including bonus cuts.

Heartbreaking story about how the song "Golden" touched Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks, Lady Antebellum Come Together for CMT's 'Crossroads'
by Chris Willman
The Hollywood Reporter

The idea of collaborating on each others' songs came by way of a dream, the Fleetwood Mac singer tells THR.

If you tune in to the new episode of CMT Crossroads, which has Stevie Nicks and Lady Antebellum as its latest cross-genre pairing, you’ll hear a version of “Rhiannon” that almost sounds more like Fleetwood Mac’s original version than Fleetwood Mac could do.

Perhaps we should let Stevie explain…

“I gave Hillary (Scott) that high part in ‘Rhiannon’ because I don’t sing it that way on stage -- because I can’t reach that note,” Nicks tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I reached it once: the day we recorded the song in 1977. I thought, you know what, if we’re gonna do this, wouldn’t it be great to actually have her sing the real melody of ‘Rhiannon.’ Because it has not been sung since it was written!”

That’s not to say that Nicks took the lazy way out, long-abandoned high notes excepted. CMT producers say they’ve never had a guest from the rock world approach a Crossroads taping with quite as much preparation or work ethic as the FM mainstay. And this particular coupling was Nicks’ own idea, coming out of a dream she had where she was cheating on Lindsey Buckingham, musically speaking.

“The dream was very short,” Nicks says. “And the dream was actually very fun. But I just want to clarify that so that when my other half hears this” (by “other half,” she means her professional partner Buckingham), “he doesn’t get all pissed off, because it wasn’t that kind of a dream. We were just having our usual little disagreement [in the dream], because that’s what we do. And I laughingly said to him, ‘Well, fine. I’ll just go join Lady Antebellum.’ And then the dream ended, and I sat up, and there it was.”

Nicks didn’t think much more about this nocturnal prophecy until three days later, when she went to the premiere of a Led Zeppelin concert movie and was approached by Bill Flanagan, a longtime producer for MTV Networks specials, who asked her for the umpteenth time if she’d be willing to do a Crossroads. 

Much to his shock, she said she could fit it in right before rehearsal started for this year’s Fleetwood Mac tour. And before he could start listing potential names, Nicks told him about how Lady Antebellum had just popped up in her rapid-eye-movement revelation.

Stevie Nicks at a "Crossroads": Playlist For A Harmonic Convergence With Lady A by David Wild

"There are artists who go in and out of style. 

Then there are artists who define their own style. 

Stevie Nicks is one of those" 

- David Wild

Stevie Nicks at a "Crossroads": Playlist for a Harmonic Convergence With Lady A
Check out David Wild's Huffington Post post on tomorrows "Crossroads and check out his favourite Stevie tracks with and without Fleetwood Mac.... Add your own if you like.

The below videos are viewable only if you are in the U.S.  Available at CMT

"Performing with Stevie Nicks is by far the coolest thing we have ever done in our career," - Lady A's Charles Kelley

Lady Antebellum may be on hiatus, but fans are still getting a chance to see something new from the Nashville trio.

Lady A will join Stevie Nicks on Friday night's episode of "CMT Crossroads," the show that matches country stars with partners from different musical genres.

"Performing with Stevie Nicks is by far the coolest thing we have ever done in our career," Lady A's Charles Kelley said. "I mean, it really was. We are actually going to have a little viewing party at my house that night because we're just excited."

CMT recorded the performance last spring in Los Angeles before Lady A singer Hillary Scott gave birth to her first child this summer. The group has been on a break for two months and won't return to the road till later this year.

The show airs 10 p.m. EDT and pairs the trio with Nicks, a member of Fleetwood Mac, a group Lady A is often compared to because of its use of harmony. The singers will tackle songs from the catalogs of each, including "Rhiannon," ''Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and "Need You Now."

"I mean, honestly, it really was one of those collaborations that I think if we had to put five names on a list, you know, who would have been on it?" Kelley said. "I mean, dream lists, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks would have been in that five. So the fact that it was her idea and she came to us about it was even cooler."

By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press

WATCH: CMT Crossroads: Stevie Nicks and Lady Antebellum Discuss Songwriting [2 Videos]

CMT Crossroads
Friday - 10:00pm | CMT

Stevie Nicks tells Lady Antebellum,
''Your songs make me want to be in love.'' 
This hour of TV is similarly bewitching. A–

ET-Weekly

Get More:

Stevie Nicks and Lady Antebellum Talk About 

Communicating Within a Group

Get More:

Sneak Peek... CMT Crossroads: Stevie Nicks & Lady Antebellum [Video]

Your first look at Stevie Nicks and Lady Antebellum together live on CMT's Crossroads. Look for it Friday, September 13, 2013 10/9c on CMT.