Stevie Nicks Enlists Harry Styles, Don Henley for Blazing Rock Hall Medley.
Nicks ran through some of her biggest hits from “Stand Back” to “Edge of Seventeen”
(Both Harry's intro and Stevie's acceptance speech are at the end of this post.)
By Brittany Spanos
Rollingstone
Stevie Nicks kicked off the 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony with her windblown classic, “Stand Back.” She paid tribute to its inspiration and co-writer Prince with purple lights bathing the audience. She twirled 11 times during the guitar solo with her (original!) gold and black shawl cascading around her.
She followed with “Leather and Lace,” with Henley slowly walking to the front of the stage from the back. They locked eyes as they harmonized through the duet.
After Henley exited, she introduced former One Direction star Harry Styles, who took over the Tom Petty part of “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” He played with guitar in hand, skillfully filling in for a rock legend.
“Edge of Seventeen” followed after Nicks explained that she didn’t realize it would be “the last song in my set for the rest of my life.” It was a raucous, tambourine-smashing end.
Styles returned to the stage to reverently induct his hero, whom he called “God.” He began with the incredible fact that said it all: “Stevie Nicks is the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the second time.” The crowd roared. And he said it again. The pair have performed together on two separate occasions: Nicks joined Styles on stage two years ago at the Troubadour for his album release show, and Styles later joined Fleetwood Mac at 2018’s MusiCares Benefit tribute to the band where he sang on “The Chain” with the whole group.
Henley and Nicks have had a long friendship. The pair initially dated in the late Seventies, and Henley later appeared on Nicks’ debut album Bella Donna in 1981. “Leather and Lace” was a Top 10 hit for the pair, though Nicks had originally written the song for Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter’s duet album of the same name.
“Don always treated me very special,” Nicks has said of Henley in the past. “He always treated me like we were married. He still does every time I see him. I think he found in me something he has not probably found since […] He found a very different girl in me than in most of the women he was used to hanging out with, and we had a very special relationship because of that.”
HARRY'S INTRODUCTION:
Hello. Just like the white winged dove sings a song sounds like she’s singing, Stevie Nicks is the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a second time. The first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a second time. First with Fleetwood Mac and now for her unforgettable solo work. With Stevie, you’re not celebrating music long ago from the mists of time. She was standing on stage, headlining a place this size, doing her best work just three nights ago.
She is forever current. She is forever Stevie. But what exactly does that mean? In my family, we listened at home, we listened in the car, we listened wherever we could. “Dreams” was the first song I knew all the words to before I knew what the words really meant. I thought it was a song about the weather, but I knew that it was a beautiful song about the weather. I always knew the words and I loved them all. “Thunder only happens when it’s raining. Players only love you when they’re playing.”
She’s so wise and serene. She sees all the romance and drama in the world and she celebrates it. She will stand on stage introducing song telling you how she wrote them honestly, like you’re the only other person in the world. You’re more than a fan. You are her friend, and her words say in so many ways, “I understand you and you are not alone.” And that is true Stevie.
She walked a path tread by Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell—visionary women who had to throw a couple of elbows to create their own space. Her early band Fritz opened for Jimi Hendrix and they helped her out. She was far ahead of her time, creating her own sound. It was bright. It was fresh. It was magical.
Next, she formed a duo with Fritz’s bassist, Lindsey Buckingham: Buckingham-Nicks. Then on New Years Eve, 1974, Mick Fleetwood invited Lindsey Buckingham and herself to join Fleetwood Mac, and everybody’s lives became brilliant and a lot crazier.
Stevie Nicks stepped onto the world’s stage with unforgettable ease. I remember it well. She began creating stories that flowed from her heart to her pen which ended up in our souls with characters we’ll always remember. Classic songs like “Silver Springs,” “Rihannon,” “Gypsy,” and “Sara.” In the 1980s, she released Bella Donna, the rare first solo album that was as powerful as the supergroup she was still in. With “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” she and Tom Petty took things to another level.
Then she did it again with albums like The Wild Path and Rock a Little. Whether on her own, in a duet, with her band, it’s probable at some point she found herself in a barbershop quartet. Stevie could do it all, and that is true Stevie.
You can’t take her eyes off her, as we’ve seen tonight. She’s the magical gypsy godmother who occupies the in-between. It’s a space that can only be hers. She’s a lot like a rock’n’roll Nina Simone, finding the notes only she can. And by being so unapologetically herself, she gives others permission to do the same, and that is true Stevie.
And if you’re lucky enough to know her, she’s always there for you. She knows what you need—advice, a little wisdom, a blouse or shawl, she’s got you covered. Her songs made you ache, feel on top of the world, make you want to dance, and usually all three at the same time. She’s responsible for more running mascara, including my own, than all the bad dates in history combined. And that is true Stevie.
There are few people who hold the stage like her. I was lucky enough to play with her at the Troubadour a few years ago, and all I could do was watch. The show is no longer yours, it’s hers, and that is true Stevie.
She has many, many solo hits—“If Anyone Falls,” “Edge of Seventeen,” “Talk to Me”—but there are so many gems hidden within the albums. Songs like “Belle Fleur” and “Garbo,” “Annabel Lee” and “Ooh My Love.” However you feel or want to feel, there is a Stevie Nicks song that will meet you there. Each song is a dance, it’s an emotional ballet, it’s a letter to a lover or friend, and every single year she gathers more momentum.
Somewhere around 2005, 2006, this woman became God, I think we can all agree on that. On Halloween, 1 in 7 people dress as Stevie Nicks. She is both an adjective and a verb. To quote my father, “that was rather Stevie Nicks,” and to quote my mother, “I Stevie Nicks that shit so hard!” Mick Fleetwood calls her the fearless leader. She is mama lion to her friends. She is the family member you can always count on.
I hope she knows what she means to us—what she means to yet another generation of artists who look to her for inspiration and trailblazing courage. That is true Stevie. She is so much more than a role model. She is a beacon to all of us. Whenever you hear her voice, life gets just a little bit better. When she sings, the world is hers, and it is yours. She’s everything you’ve ever wanted in a lady, in a lover, and in a friend. Stephanie Nicks, I love you, we all do, and that is true Stevie.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been an honor to be with you. Please join me in welcoming to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for the second time, Stevie Nicks.
STEVIE'S SPEECH:
This speech thing that I was supposed to give now has been following me down — the sound of its voice will haunt me for the [next] two weeks. It’s not hard for me to go and play for you, but it’s very hard for me to try to tell you — thank you for for this, for being the first girl in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — twice!
Sometimes I just couldn’t tell great stories. Because it’s like easy — if I’m telling a story about Prince, I can say, ‘He picked me up in his purple Camaro. And we went out to his purple house in a suburb outside Minneapolis, nobody knew where I was. And we wrote a song called, “It’ll Take You Days to Find Her”? And I can actually tell you a great story about that because it is what it is. But for me to tell you a story from my heart, about what this means to me, is very hard … because this has never happened to me before. [It’s only happened for] 22 men and four — zero women, and now one woman.
[Now] I’m like, ‘Hey man, I can do it!’ Now I’m telling all my friends. The girls in Haim? I’m like, “Okay you guys, you gotta really get it together now. One of you needs to step away. And don’t break up your band, just do an album so you have it. Because it’s gonna take 20 years before you get recognized, again! So you’ll already be like, 60. Again, this is the problem of getting in. I started Bella Donna in 1979. I had been in Fleetwood Mac for not even four years, more like three-and-a-half years… This is a hard thing to do. Because you have to — the times are different. It’s like — it’s going to be hard, But I know there’s somebody out there that will be able to do it because I’m going to give you all the directions and I’ll do enough interviews and say what to do.
I wanna tell you that everybody in my life gave me ideas of what I could say to you — I have to just say this because I don’t have my glasses on, I can’t even read it — but I’ve read it so many times in the middle of the night, crying going like ‘Shit I don’t even know what I’m gonna say up there.’ This morning at 4:30 my assistant came in and I’m laying there, and my little Chinese Crested [dog] lays right on my stomach and she’s looking at me like… ‘It’s so late.’ And she goes, “Are you done?” and I’m going “No I can’t do it. I have to go to bed. I don’t know what I’m going to say. I’m just gonna have go out there and… six minutes is not very long. So let me move right on — six minutes for me! I majored in Speech Communication in San Jose State!
The second I called my mom and said, “I have to quit because me and Lindsey have to move to L.A., because the music is in San Francisco, and record deals are in L.A.. We have to go tomorrow.” My mom said, “Okay, that’s fine, but we will be withdrawing all financial support.” I said, flat out, “I know mom. I know, and I’m up to the challenge. Three waitress jobs, two cleaning lady jobs, it was cool.” Lindsey worked on the music, I worked on food and carrying glasses. I rather enjoyed it because I could get out of the house and go into the real world instead of being in the cave with all the guys who were just laying around smoking pot and messing up my house.
It’s like I go, “Excuse me? Excuse me? Can I just step over your feet and your pot and everything so I can straighten this place up?” I don’t get paid for doing this at my own house, but I will do it for you because I know you guys work hard. That’s just a little bit of a moment of how we got before Fleetwood Mac. I want to tell you that this solo album thing, I started thinking about this. I only know this because my friend Paul Fishkin, in 1976 who then became my boyfriend after we went to this convention at the Acapulco Princess, which I like to call the Tequila Convention because the first night, everybody had the little necklaces. One of you may have been there, the little necklace around your neck, and they come and they fill it with tequila. Who is going to waste tequila?
Everybody was so drunk that nobody served us for three solid days, and then it was over. So everybody went to the airport and left, but not me. I stayed, because I’m going like, “I’m already down here. Somebody else paid for it, so I’m going to enjoy this vacation.” Paul and me, I said to him, after playing Rumours, which is not even finished, but still really cool the night before, I didn’t even hear it because I passed out as soon as I pushed play, but some people must have heard it because they spoke about it later.
I said, “No no, it’s other songs, more demos,” and he goes like, “Okay.” We go out on the beach and I plan for 15 or 20 songs, and he goes, “Wow, that’s a lot of songs. Okay.” He’s a record man, so we go back to L.A. and New York. We start going out, and I find out because Paul tells me, a year later when I said to him, [whispers] “Do you think there’s any way that I could do a discreet solo album, that would not break up Fleetwood Mac?” I’m going like, “It’s a secret.” He’s like, “I think so. I think if you’re kind and loving, and you tell them that you will always put them first, and they will always be at the top of your priority list, they will understand and they will stay. Go do what you want to do and have fun. We’ll see you later.”
That’s what we eventually did. Yes, my amazing band is still together and very strong today. Last but not least, which probably won’t be last but not least, they can’t get me off this stage. I want to thank, first of all, very quickly, Paul Fishkin because he was the wise man who said, “You can do both, and you can have both. You just have to do it with love. That’s all.” Then I was introduced to his partner Danny Goldberg who became our group guru and our calm coach who kept us calm. I was gone all the time, so they were talking about this and trying to put it together calmly and serenely.
I’m off in the world doing Rumours and Tusk. They’re working behind the scenes to see if they can make this happen. Then it happened. We formed a record company called Modern. We went to Mr. Doug Morris at Atlantic, my hero. I said, “So Doug, what I want to do is I want to make a Tom Petty album, straight up rock and roll. I have two great girl singers, Laurie and Sharon that are amazing, and we’re going to be Crosby, Stills & Nash. I’m going to be Stills and they’re going to be Nash and Crosby.
“So it’s going to be straight up rock ‘n’ roll, but we’re going to sound like Crosby, Stills & Nash. And Doug’s like — “Fan-fucking-tastic.” Sorry, didn’t mean to swear. So then I said, “Who produces Tom Petty?” He goes, “Jimmy Iovine.” I say, “Can you set me up with Jimmy Iovine?” And he goes, “Yeah, I can. I’ll give him a call.” He calls Jimmy and he sets us up to go and have dinner. We go and have dinner and I tell him the same thing. Tom Petty, straight-up rock album, but we want to sound like Crosby, Stills & Nash. He goes, “Okay, I can do it. I haven’t done a girl album in a while.” We go, “Okay, good.”
We both went back to L.A. because he was there finishing Tom’s record. We get there, and 10 days later — I moved in with Jimmy. It’s just how it was… I moved in with Jimmy. I learned to make tiny pizzas, and waited for him to finish Tom’s album. Meanwhile, me and Laurie and Sharon are practicing all our three-part harmonies, which Jimmy and nobody else really wanted to hear. We were going to be damned if we weren’t gonna be on that album, being Crosby, Stills & Nash. We got so good during that next six weeks, that when he was done and we started Bella Donna, we were ready.
We walked in and we made an album in three months — which is unheard of, especially in those days. We were focused. We were together. We were organized, and we made a great album. Then Jimmy came to me and said, “We have a problem Stevie. We made a great album, but you don’t have a single.”
I’m like, “Seriously? We don’t have a single, and you didn’t tell me until now?” He goes, “Well I though it would work out. I thought one would come to my head and it didn’t, but I have a plan. Tom Petty says you can have “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” It’s already recorded. He’ll sing it with you. And… Problem solved!”
I finally got to meet Tom Petty — who Jimmy had kept me a secret from, because he didn’t want Tom to get pissed off — and think that his attention was going to be taken away because he had a new girlfriend. I liked it in the basement. It was fine. I got to hear everything, eavesdrop all through it. Anyway, Jimmy, Doug, Paul, Danny — also Irving Azoff — I had to hire him in 1976 because my mother said, “You better get some help here, because you don’t have anybody taking care of your money.” So I hired Irving, who gladly said, “Sure I’ll do it!” Not having any idea that he’d still be sitting here tonight, going like, “Sure, I’ll do it!”
My press agent, Liz Rosenberg who I met in 1976, who is still present, and press agenting for me. She’s the best. She’s the Rona Barrett of today. I adore her. She’s elegant and incredible. Talk to her if you can. She’ll get you in the newspaper. Then there was Howard Kaufman who passed away a little while ago — he then became my manager when Irving had to go become the president of a record company. That was okay, because all have to branch out!
Let’s see, and Sheryl [Louis], who when Howard passed away, then took on the mantle of being my manager — which is no easy thing, because I don’t agree with anything anybody says — especially when it’s a girl! Thank you Sheryl for giving it your all. Anyway, you all have been a fantastic, fantastic audience … Thank you! If you ever need a keynote speaker, somebody to talk to, someone to talk to a group of people — I am your girl.
TUNE IN APRIL 27th ON HBO WHEN THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME WILL BE BROADCAST.
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