Stevie Nicks On Tour

STEVIE NICKS & CHRIS ISAAK TOUR 2007
May 17 2007 - Concord, CA - Sleeptrain Amphitheatre
May 19 2007 - Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theatre
May 20 2007 - Los Angeles, CA- The Greek Theatre
May 23 2007 - San Diego, California - Coors Amphitheatre
May 25 2007 - San Jacinto, California - Soboba Casino
May 27 2007 - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Journal Pavilion
May 28 2007 - Denver, Colorado - Red Rocks
May 30 2007 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Zoo Amphitheatre
Jun 1 2007 - Dallas, Texas - Smirnoff Music Centre
Jun 2 2007 - Houston, Texas - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Jun 4 2007 - Atlanta, Georgia - Chastain Park
Jun 5 2007 - Atlanta, Georgia - Chastain Park
Jun 8 2007 - Chicago, Illinois - Charter One Pavilion
Jun 9 2007 - Detroit, Michigan - DTE Energy Music Theatre
Jun 12 2007 - Holmdel, New Jersey - PNC Bank Arts Center
Jun 13 2007 - Wantagh, New York - Jones Beach
Jun 15 2007 - Camden, New Jersey - Tweeter Waterfront
Jun 16 2007 - Atlantic City, New Jersey - Borgata Spa & Resort
Jun 17 2007 - Boston, Massachusetts - Tweeter Center

STEVIE NICKS (SOLO DATES) 2007
June 21, 2007 - Rama, ONT Casino Rama
June 22, 2007 - Rama, ONT Casino Rama
June 25, 2007 - London, ONT John Lebatt Center
June 26, 2007 - Verona, NY Turning Stone Casino
June 28, 2007 - Norfolk, VA Constant Center
June 30, 2007 - Scranton, PA Toyota Pavillion
July 1, 2007 - Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun
July 3, 2007 - Youngstown, OH Chevrolet Centre
July 27, 2007 - Prescott Valley, AZ
July 28 2007 - Pheonix, AZ Dodge Theatre
July 30, 2007 - Las Vegas, (Shoe Convention)

Lindsey Announces Fourth Leg

Lindsey Buckingham Announces Fourth Leg of U.S. Solo Tour to Begin June 1st
Singer-Songwriter/Guitarist Touring Behind His Critically Acclaimed Solo Album, "Under The Skin"

BURBANK, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 10, 2007 -- Lindsey Buckingham will embark on the fourth leg of his first U.S. solo tour in nearly 14 years on June 1st, 2007. Buckingham and his three-piece band present an innovative, tightly orchestrated minimalism that captures the spirit of the Fleetwood Mac singer and guitarist's most recent solo album, the intricately crafted, acoustic guitar-driven "Under The Skin," which was released by Reprise Records on October 3rd.

The summer dates, which conclude June 30th, follow the enthusiastically received autumn, winter, and spring legs of Buckingham's nationwide trek. The New York Times praised the artist's appearance at New York's Town Hall, saying that, "the strength of Buckingham's songs, his singing and guitar playing, and his strange intensity as a performer carried the evening," while "his stamina kept the music's energy fresh and volatile." The Chicago Tribune calls Buckingham "an enigmatic rock'n'roll icon" whose tour is "worth the wait." The Austin American Statesman says Buckingham "mesmerizes and gets the crowd moving."

Critics have equally applauded "Under The Skin," hailing Buckingham's first solo album since 1992's "Out Of The Cradle" as "magnificent" (The Washington Post), "a stellar comeback" (Blender), and "a mesmerizing return to the side of Buckingham that birthed the proto-indie pop strangeness of 1979's 'Tusk'" (Rolling Stone).

Buckingham, the acknowledged musical visionary behind Fleetwood Mac, will release another solo album at the beginning of 2008. His recent television appearances include "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "The Ellen Degeneres Show," PBS's "Tavis Smiley," "Soundstage," CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," and CMT's "Crossroads," where he appears with country quartet Little Big Town. A special acoustic performance of "Big Love" from this year's Sundance Film Festival's "Where Music Meets Film" will air on the WE network June 4th at 10pm, featuring Buckingham along with other artists.

Lindsey Buckingham's Summer tour dates are as follows:

June 1 Santa Rosa, CA Wells Fargo Center for the Arts
June 2 Hanford, CA Fox Theater
June 3 Bakersfield, CA Fox Theater
June 6 Los Angeles, CA House of Blues
June 7 Anaheim, CA House of Blues
June 8 Mesa, AZ Mesa PAC
June 9 Las Vegas, NV The Joint
June 11 San Diego, CA Humphrey's
June 13 Ventura, CA Ventura Theater
June 14 Saratoga, CA The Mountain Winery
June 16 Lake Tahoe, NV Harrah's
June 17 Redding, CA Redding Convention Center
June 19 Portland, OR Aladdin Theater
June 20 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
June 22 Bellingham, WA Mount Baker Theatre
June 23 Spokane, WA Big Easy
June 24 Boise, ID Big Easy
June 26 Rapid City, SD Rushmore Civic Center
June 27 Sioux Falls, SD Washington Pavilion Arts Center
June 28 Fargo, ND Playmakers Pavilion
June 30 Milwaukee, WI Summerfest

For more information, please visit www.lindseybuckingham.com

"Crystal Visions... The Very Best of Stevie Nicks"

MARCH 27, 2007 

Stevie released "CRYSTAL VISIONS…THE VERY BEST OF STEVIE NICKS" on March 27, 2007 on Reprise Records. "CRYSTAL VISIONS" is a collection of songs from her three decade career as a solo artist and member of the legendary Fleetwood Mac.  

The CD opens with the original mastered studio version of "Edge of Seventeen" and closes with a live performance of the song recorded in 2006 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It includes a live version of "Landslide" (also recorded with the Melbourne Symphony), a knock-out version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll", the Deep Dish dance remix of "Dreams" and "Silver Springs" from the original master of "RUMOURS."  

Released in two configurations a stand alone CD and a CD/DVD Version.  The DVD component of "CRYSTAL VISIONS" offers 13 Stevie videos with voice-over commentary by Nicks.  Also included on the DVD is a never before seen Stevie Nicks home video which was filmed during the making of the five-times platinum "BELLA DONNA" album.  

One bonus track was offered on the digital version purchased via iTunes; a live version of "Stand Back" recorded in Las Vegas.  

Reprise Records initially released two radio only promos, the live version of "Landslide" with the Melbourne

Multiple Remixes Available at iTunes

Symphony Orchestra and "Rock and Roll". Both tracks failed to garner much airplay and made no impact on the charts. Reprise Records released "Stand Back" (issued with club mixes) on May 29, 2007. "Stand Back", which peaked at #5 on the pop singles chart in 1983, reached #2 on the Billboard Club chart. Nicks previously reached #1 on this chart, with "Planets of the Universe" (from Trouble in Shangri-La) in 2001. The remix single of "Stand Back" debuted on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart on September 15, 2007 at #10, peaking at #4 the following week. It also debuted on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales chart at #3, later peaking at #1.  

CRYSTAL VISIONS debuted April 14, 2007 at No.21 on Billboards Top 200 Albums Chart and spent a total of 12 weeks on the chart. The CD/DVD version debuted at No.2 on the Top Music Video Sales Chart  spending 14 weeks on the chart and also at No.2 on the Top Internet Albums Chart.  To date Crystal Visions has sold in excess of 500,000 copies in the U.S.. It has not been certified by the RIAA.

STEVIE NICKS: LONG DISTANCE WINNER - SURVIVING THE 70S

Photo via Goldduststevie

By Andy Capper, Stevie Nicks
Dec 1 2005

I'm 56 now, but music still has the same effect on me as when I was 15. Every so often, I'll hear a couple of songs that will just kill me and make me go instantly to my desk to write, and then straight to the piano to compose. That feeling is something that's never gone away and I feel really blessed by that.

I know some people say they used to write better when they were younger, but I feel the greatest writing for me is yet to come. I'm always working on new material and I'm always inspired. At the moment, I'm going between preparing for a short residency at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and composing a series of songs based on the books of Rhiannon, these Welsh legends that I really love. They're such beautiful stories. It's what the old Welsh people left behind to teach future generations about how to raise their children and how to deal with relationships—how to run their lives, basically.

Another thing that inspires me in my music at the moment is my niece Jesse. She's 13 but she's an inch taller than me, with black hair and blue eyes. Sometimes when I'm running on my treadmill and listening to music on my CD player, I'll be singing and howling along while Jesse's in the same room and I'll make her listen to how the singer is singing. Jesse was with me when I wrote four songs for the last Fleetwood Mac album, and she even got to sing on the title track, "Say You Will." That was fun.

It's not that I want to push her into music. I would never do that. The arts are not something that you can push on anybody. People either have it or they don't. I really believe that. I would say to girls who are thinking about getting into making music that the most important thing to do is to learn how to play an instrument well. If you're a girl who can play, you can always get a job. You can play keyboards or guitar in a band no problem. Since you're a girl, you're even more special.

But making it all last, you know, having longevity, is another story. The thing that's kept me going all these years is absolutely "the music." It sounds like a cliché, but the music is way more personally motivating than being in a band. Yes, I was in a band, but it's not like Lindsey Buckingham and I wrote songs together. We never did. We were very, very separate in that. He was a very good producer for my music but that was that.

I was very selfish and was not willing to give up my art for a family and a husband. Now, at this point in my life, I am really glad, because I see so many of the people that did get married and did have relationships—they're all divorced, they're all miserable, their children are miserable, and it's like I'm thinking to myself: "You made the right decision."

I guess for me, as a woman, there was nobody who would tolerate my lifestyle. Even the richest of rock stars had reason to be jealous of me. The poorest of people, the waiter, the great men in my life, it hit them all very hard.

There was the waiter. There were the doormats and the security guards with some other famous bands. There were all these really beautiful and sweet men who have been in my life and then there's the rich, famous men, but at some point or another, my life was too much for ALL of them. They started to make demands. Like, "Where are you going? And what do you mean you're coming home from your tour but you're stopping over in England for a month?"

That kind of thing doesn't go over well. The long black limousine drives up the long path to your house to pick you up and your boyfriend is waving goodbye to you. It's never fun to be left. It wouldn't be for me.

I had my chances but I would never marry a rock star either. Because you can never trust them. I know, I have watched them while I was out there. There was an unspoken society, which Christine McVie and I always stayed completely away from. We didn't really ever know what the rest of the boys in our band did, but we knew what boys in other bands did because that gossip got to us. Whatever went on in Fleetwood Mac was kept from us. We didn't wanna know anyway. As a woman who lived in that world of groupies and rock and roll excess, I can understand why the men do what they do. But I don't have to like it.

I swear on my mom's grave (and she's not even dead yet) that Christine and I didn't go out and have one-night stands while we were on tour. We never met someone in a coffee shop and then went back and slept with them, ever. But the guys would. And in the rest of the world it happens all the time and it's not a big deal. It still happens now with all the new rock and roll bands.

Whatever went on—and plenty of things did—I'm just grateful that I've had so many beautiful memories in this life of music. I would say the most memorable day I ever had was when I was 29 and we played the first ever "Day on the Green" concert in San Francisco. It was Peter Frampton headlining. We were on before him. The concert was a tribute to the success of Peter's Frampton Comes Alive album, so the promoter Bill Graham had built a huge fairy tale castle on top of this massive stadium stage. The castle was so gorgeous. It was sparkling and glittering, and it had turrets and stairs that went up on both sides. The turrets had seats, so it had this Rapunzel kind of feeling. This was the beginning of 1976, and at that point Lindsey and I had only done a small tour with Fleetwood Mac, where there were like 5,000 people per show. This audience was 75,000 people!

We had no idea what to expect. When I got there, I saw each of our dressing rooms had personalized, carved-wood signs in beautiful calligraphy with our names written on them. Of course they were just trailers, but oh what trailers they were!

The first performer was this guy named Lee Michaels. I'd lived in San Francisco, where he's from, so I was a fan of his already. I went out and hid on the side of the stage and watched the show, and then I went back and got dressed during the last half of the next act's set. When we finally got on stage to do our set, I just thought to myself: "Where would I ever want to be in the world except for this sparkling castle in front of 75,000 people?"

I was standing in the middle of the stage thinking, "This is the big time!"

Even better than that was that my best friend and I got to go up the stairs on the side of the castle and sit in those little princess chairs and watch Peter Frampton play live. Peter's an amazing guitarist and back then he had that shoulder length golden hair. He was so gorgeous. He looked like a king. So to sit up there and watch him from that vantage point was just wonderful. When the show was over there was a huge party in Frampton's hotel suite. It was just a magnificent rock and roll moment.

At the party, everybody was drunk. But I can remember it like it was yesterday, so that means it was fun. Everybody was drinking wine, and there were wine spritzers there because of all the English people. It was a beautiful thing. At that point the serious drugs hadn't kicked in yet.

So yes, some bad days came later, but there's always been good days too. All of it, the good and the bad, is what allows me to sit now in a house that overlooks the ocean and have complete freedom in my life. I'm just really grateful to music every day.

STEVIE NICKS AS TOLD TO ANDY CAPPER

By: Andy Capper, Stevie Nicks - Vice

CHRISTINE MCVIE WILL release In the Meantime July 27, 2004

McVie Returns With “Meantime”

Former Fleetwood Mac keyboardist to release third album

BY ANDREW DANSBY

April 5/2004

Rollingstone

CHRISTINE MCVIE WILL release In the Meantime, her first set of new songs since departing Fleetwood Mac, on July 27th. Meantime is only the singer/keyboardist’s third solo release in her almost four-decade career, and it’s the follow-up to a self-titled album issued two decades ago.

McVie’s return contradicts comments from her former Mac mates who said that she had left the music business altogether and retreated to her home in the U.K. Because Fleetwood Mac’s 2003 release Say You Will included some material from the mid- and late-Nineties, McVie’s keyboards were heard on a couple of the songs, but according to drummer Mick Fleetwood, McVie “retired” because “she doesn’t want to be in this business anymore. Her heart was in the music always, but she didn’t have her heart in what comes with it.” The group released the album as a four-piece and toured without McVie.

McVie’s departure followed a tenure of more than three decades with Fleetwood Mac, to which she contributed several of its Top Forty hits including “You Make Loving Fun” and “Say You Love Me.” Christine McVie spawned a pair of hits itself, with “Got a Hold on Me” breaking the Top Ten and “Love Will Show Us How” going Top Forty in 1984.

WARNER BROS. WILL reissue Fleetwood Mac‘s landmark late Seventies albums

Fleetwood Mac Dust Off Demos

Expanded reissues of late Seventies albums due in March

BY COLIN DEVENISH

January 28, 2004

Rolling Stone Magazine

WARNER BROS. WILL reissue Fleetwood Mac‘s landmark late Seventies albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk on March 23rd.

The expanded version of Fleetwood Mac, originally released in 1975 and the first to feature Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, will include a previously unreleased jam, along with four alternate takes of album cuts. Both Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979) will come with a full disc of unreleased demos and outtakes.

Rumours, which has sold more than 19 million copies, has become almost as famous for its creators’ feuding as its blockbuster hits. “All of those problems and all of those drugs, and all of the fun and all of the craziness, all made for writing all those songs,” says Nicks in the liner notes. “If we’d been a big healthy great group of guys and gals, none of those great songs would’ve been written.”

The roughs and outtakes on the discs offer a behind-the-scenes peak at the group’s sometimes fractured songwriting process, which gave “The Chain” its name.

“It started out as one song in Sausalito,” Buckingham told Rolling Stone. “We decided it needed a bridge, so we cut a bridge and edited it into the rest of the song. We didn’t get a vocal and left it for a long time in a bunch of pieces. It almost went off the album. Then we listened back and decided we liked the bridge, but didn’t like the rest of the song. So I wrote verses for that bridge, which was originally not in the songs and edited those in. We saved the ending. The ending was the only thing left from the original track. We ended up calling it ‘The Chain’ because it was a bunch of pieces.”

Fleetwood Mac outtakes:

• Jam #2
• Say You Love Me (Single Version)
• Rhiannon (Single Version)
• Over My Head (Single Version)
• Blue Letter (Single Version)

Rumours demos and outtakes:

• Second Hand News
• Dreams
• Brushes (Never Going Back Again)
• Don’t Stop
• Go Your Own Way
• Songbird
• Silver Springs
• You Make Loving Fun
• Gold Dust Woman #1
• Oh Daddy
• Think About It
• Never Going Back Again
• Planets of the Universe
• Butter Cookie (Keep Me There)
• Gold Dust Woman
• Doesn’t Anything Last
• Mic The Screecher
• For Duster (The Blues)

Tusk demos and outtakes:

• One More Time (Over and Over)
• Can’t Walk Out of Here (The Ledge)
• Think About Me
• Sara
• Lindsey’s Song #1 (I Know I’m Not Wrong)
• Storms
• Lindsey’s Song #2 (That’s All for Everyone)
• Sisters of the Moon
• Out on the Road (That’s Enough for Me)
• Brown Eyes
• Never Make Me Cry
• Song #1 (I Know I’m Not Wrong)
• Honey Hi
• Beautiful Child
• Song #3 (Walk a Thin Line)
• Come On Baby (Never Forget)
• Song #1 (I Know I’m Not Wrong)
• Kiss and Run
• Farmer’s Daughter
• Think About Me (Single Version)
• Sisters of the Moon (Single Version)

Stevie Nicks "Trouble in Shangri-La"

MAY 1, 2001:

Stevie Nicks sixth solo album "Trouble in Shangri-La" was released May 1, 2001 and debuted at No.5 on Billboards Top 200 Albums Chart with 109,000 units sold in the U.S. on May 19, 2001 This was the second highest debut for the week behind Destiny's Child "Survivor" at No.1 which feat. a sample of Stevie's "Edge of Seventeen" on "Bootylicious". This was also Stevie's highest charting solo ranking since 1983's The Wild Heart hit the same peak, and her biggest SoundScan era sales week ever, besting her previous solo album, 1994's "Street Angel", which started with 27,000 units sold and debuting at No.45. Trouble in Shangri-La was also the No.1 Internet Album for the week with Destiny's Child coming in at No.2.

The album spent a total of 20 weeks on the Top 200 chart. To date the album has been certified gold in the U.S.

Nicks’ box set has finally arrived! Enchanted: The Works of Stevie Nicks

Q&A: Stevie Nicks

Rolling Stone interviews Fleetwood Mac's white witch

BY JANCEE DUNN

MAY 14, 1998

LOOK, WE LOVE LINDSEY AND CHRISTINE and the gang, but, let’s face it, that Fleetwood Mac tour was all about Stevie Nicks: white witch, Gemini, ex-cheer-leader, poetess, former three-pack-a-day smoker, Miami Vice fan, one-time hostess at Bob’s Big Boy, friend to Billy Corgan and Courtney Love, fashion icon. The accolades continue with Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” in which folks like Elton John, Jewel and Matchbox 20 salute Rumours‘ classic tunes; but, more exciting, Nicks’ box set has finally arrived! Enchanted: The Works of Stevie Nicks, culled from her six solo albums, contains eight previously unavailable tracks; a new single, “Reconsider Me”; and a booklet chock-full o’ photos and personal reminiscences. “This is my heart,” she writes. “This is my work; it has been enchanting. I wouldn’t change a thing.” Nicks chats with us from her Phoenix home, where she has just returned from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

And what did you buy?

Two floor lamps and some silky white panels to wrap around my pole bed. I’m not doing a lot because I’m really trying to rest. I started working on this box set the day I got home from the Fleetwood Mac tour. If you’re a Stevie Nicks fan, you’ll probably really like this.

There is a lot in this box set, Stevie.

It’s a lot of music, and it’s all my intense songs. It’s very heavy. You have to be in the right mood for it. I have to be in the right mood for my music. I tend to listen to slow jazz on the radio. The first thing I do when I get to a hotel is look for jazz stations, because I can dance around to that – I can be happy and sing my own words. I can’t be intensed-out by rock & roll all the time. I have too much going on in my life that is intense enough.

Do you rock out to CDs?

When I rock out, I usually play tapes I’ve made over the years – all the big songs through the Eighties and the beginning of the Nineties. I can’t really listen to a whole CD. I’m gonna have two or three favorites and that’s all. Hey, I’m almost fifty [laughs]. I’m an old woman.

Now, you stop with that.

You can only rock out so much. Then you have to go rest. I also make [tapes] for the treadmill.

I thought you watched Miami Vice on the treadmill.

I do, but Miami Vice isn’t on quite as often as it was before.

Let’s go back to you saying you’re an old lady. You don’t really feel that way.

Well, I’m tired. I am tired. The tour was actually easier for me than coming home and doing two months of TV things. We did the Brit Awards, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, then the Grammys. I was the most nervous for that.

Let’s talk about the tour.

It was an incredible experience. We played forty-five concerts, we made a lot of money, I think we made a lot of people happy. We never had any fights. It just went by like a whirlwind.

Do you feel melancholy at all, now that it’s over?

Six months before we re-formed, I would have told you in my own psychic way that there was no possible way that Fleetwood Mac would have ever gotten back together. So I’d never say it’s not ever going to happen again.

How are relations with Lindsey?

He and I are probably better friends than we’ve been in a long, long time. We had some really nice talks and some nice moments that were sweet.

Your solo tour begins at the end of May.

This is going to be a different set than I’ll ever do again. I’m going to put some of the cool things from the box set in it – some of the country songs, acoustic things, really neat stuff. We’re going on the bus this time, and it will be a fabulous one, otherwise I won’t go on it.

Your fashion influence continues. Even Madonna is copying you.

People have been telling me that, and I don’t know quite what to say. I saw her video, and, of course, I loved all her black clothes and the long, long, long black hair. And the birds were interesting. But I didn’t immediately go, “Oh, how me.” But some people are saying that, right?

Absolutely. Are there still plans for you and Billy Corgan to collaborate?

Billy is recording in L.A. When I get home next week, I’ll go visit him. Both of us have been totally, totally working.

What about your next solo album?

Well, I spent three years writing songs after the Street Angel tour. I probably have six songs, so I’ll come home to Phoenix in September to write the other six. I can do anything here. I can record, I can write. I can sit by the pool. I can draw. My house here is like my own little resort. At midnight, if I want to, I can go in, light candles and put a fire in the fireplace and spend two hours writing.

Fireplace? In that heat?

We just crank the air conditioner.

Do you swim in that pool?

I do.

I can’t picture you in a bathing suit.

Yeah, well, you never will [laughs].

It has to be customized in that special Stevie way.

I get a black bathing suit and a fabulous black-lace sarong thing and kind of tie it around me. And there is never, ever, a man in the back yard. If there is, he is banished to the front of the house.

Please, you’re looking fabulously thin.

It’s not a question of weight. It’s dancing across the stages of the world for two and a half hours for those three months. My body kind of changed from all the dancing. And, you know, the tambourine playing.

STEVIE NICKS: LONG-DISTANCE WINNER

Atlantic Honors Stevie Nicks with lavish 3-CD "Enchanted" Anthology

Billboard Magazine

April 18, 1998

A quarter-century ago, Stevie Nicks penned a tune about embracing a paradox, its music an upward spiral that predicted a corresponding descent, its lyrics contemplating the change that only comes from awareness of the unchangeable. The song ultimately celebrates the victory that arrives by agreeing to allow others to triumph.

On the eve of the release of "Enchanted" (Atlantic, due April 28), the engaging three-CD, 46-track retrospective—with eight unreleased cuts—of Nicks' lengthy solo career, it seems the soon-to-be-50-year-old singer/songwriter, who wrote the lovely "Long Distance Winner" as half of an early-'70s duo on Polydor called Buckingham-Nicks, has finally found the wisdom to learn from the intuition of her 25-year-old self.

"Back then, 'Long Distance Winner' was very much about dealing with Lindsey," says Nicks, referring to Lindsey Buckingham, her artistic and emotional partner in the interval before their act merged with a subsequently revitalized Fleetwood Mac. "How else can I say it?" she wonders aloud, quoting a passage of the "Enchanted" track resurrected from the long-out-of-print "Buckingham-Nicks" album: "I bring the water down to you/But you're too hot to touch."

"What the song is really all about," Nicks confides, "is a difficult artist, saying, 'I adore you, but you're difficult, and I'll stay here with you, but you're still difficult.' And the line 'Sunflowers and your face fascinate me' means that your beauty fascinates me, but I still have trouble dealing with you—and I still stay. So it's really just the age-old story, you know?" Meaning the inability to live with someone and the inability to live without them.

According to Nicks, who starts a 40-date U.S. solo concert trek May 27 in Hartford, Conn., Buckingham's stubborn but admirable streak lay in his unwillingness to compromise his composing to "play in clubs, playing four sets a night in a steakhouse, whereas I was much more able to be practical." That was then, and this is now, an era in which Nicks and the tempestuous Fleetwood Mac were able to set aside their collective differences, focus on teamwork, and reunite for the hugely fruitful "The Dance" live record and tour.

Stevie is quick to assert that the Mac now "plays way better than we did in the beginning" and readily agrees that the material selected for "The Dance" boasts even better arrangements than the vintage renditions. Yet she also admits her own personal and artistic intransigence of old: "'Gold And Braid,' another song on 'Enchanted,' is an unreleased track from my [1981] 'Bella Donna' [solo debut] sessions, and it's about Lindsey wanting more from me in our relationship. But wanting to know everything about someone, which goes hand in hand with being in love, was never something I've ever wanted to share with anybody. Professionally, everybody always wanted me to be their idea of what I should be. I'd flat-out look at people and say, 'You know I'm not gonna do what you want, so why do you bother?'

"I've learned from mistakes," she adds. "I got fat, and on the Dr. Atkins diet I had to lose that 30 pounds I had been trying to lose for four or five years. But people have come into my career and wrongly told me, 'Change your music, reinvent yourself!' I just stayed what I am." Which is a real rock'n'roll character, a true one-of-a-kind piece of work. "Thank you!" she responds, erupting in giggles edged with her trademark throaty rasp. "People used to laugh at my musical style or my black handkerchiefy stage clothes, which make me look like an orphan out of 'A Tale Of Two Cities,' and say, 'Oh, that's very Stevie Nicks.' But now people in the fashion industry [like designers Anna Sui and Isaac Mizrahi] are giving me these accolades. If you believe in something and stick it out, it'll come around, and you'll win in the end."

Other familiar criticisms of Nicks center on her devotion in both composing and common-day activities to a heavily mystical life view. Possibly the single most recurrent image in her material, as illustrated by the "Sleeping Angel" cut that "Enchanted" retrieves from the 1982 "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" soundtrack, is a supporting cast of heavenly spirits. "I am religious," Nicks explains. "I wasn't raised in any religion, because we were always moving when I was a kid and didn't get involved in any church. But I believe there've been angels with me constantly through these last 20 years, or I wouldn't be alive. I pray a lot. In the last few years I've asked for things from God, and he's given them to me. And there were things I thought were gonna kill me, and he fixed them. I felt that because I was fat I wasn't talented anymore; I was destroying this gift that God gave me and asked for help. Now I'm happy, even outside my music, and enjoying my life."

Stephanie Nicks was born May 26, 1948, the daughter of General Brewing president Jess Nicks and the former Barbara Meeks. "My mother's mom and dad were divorced very early," says Stevie, "and her stepfather worked in a coal mine in Ajo, Ariz., and died of tuberculosis. She had a hard life, was very poor, was 19 when she got married, and had me at 20. My dad went after a big job in a big company, got it, did very well, and liked to move around and travel a lot. My mom got used to it and had a lot of fun, but she's much more practical, frugal—she still sniffs her nose at my dad's and my expensive tastes—and she wanted more than anything else for her daughter and son [Christopher] to be independent and self-assured.

"I didn't want to be married or have children," Nicks confesses, "because then I couldn't have worked as hard on all this. I would have split the whole thing down the middle, and I wouldn't have been a good mother, or a good songwriter either. If I got a call from the love of my life and a call from Fleetwood Mac saying you have to be here in 20 minutes, I'd still probably go to Fleetwood Mac. And that's sad, but it's true."

Over the years Nicks has overcome substance abuse, serious eye surgery, the Epstein-Barr virus, and a host of detractors eager to diminish her musical contributions. Yet "Enchanted" documents a resilience and a wry candor—"I'm no enchantress!" she pointedly exclaims on the album's "Blue Lamp"—as well as a parallel path to her Big Mac experience, characterized by productivity and solo success equaling or exceeding that of her talented bandmates. Nicks' work is unapologetically feminine in the face of the boys' club that is rock. Consistently tuneful and sure in its spell-weaving, Nicks' music also has surprising staying power, as shown by "If Anyone Falls," one of the best and sexiest pop/rock singles of the '80s, and "Enchanted's" frank "Thousand Days," which could close the '90s on a similar note.

"'Thousand Days' was written about my non-relationship with Prince," says Nicks, who had earlier composed "Stand Back" with him—although she notes he's never called her back "to set up his payment on 50%" of the latter. "Days" recounts an abortive, all-night '80s recording session with him at his Minneapolis home during a Fleetwood Mac tour, climaxing with Nicks "smoking my pot—he didn't agree with my lifestyle—and going to sleep on Prince's floor in his kitchen. I like him, but we were just so different there was no possible meeting ground."

What current colleagues/collaborators does she most admire? "Alanis Morissette, Joan Osborne, Sheryl Crow [who co-authored "Somebody Stand By Me" on "Enchanted"], and Fiona Apple, who's very young and angry. I care about her and hope she's OK. Fame is dangerous ground when you're young. You've gotta pace yourself."

Fleetwood Mac Reunion eases memories of their bitter breakup

Chicago Tribune November 22, 1997

Rumours of Fleetwood Mac's demise are exaggerated -- for the time being

Is the Mac Truly Back?
Rumours of Fleetwood Mac's demise are exaggerated -- for the time being
By Steve Appleford - Thursday, Oct 30 1997
Houston Press

This is an odd bit of paradise for Lindsey Buckingham. He's ensconced in a plush East Hollywood recording studio, eyes closed, his bare feet tapping at the hardwood floor as he listens to a playback of "Bleed to Love Her," another forceful blend of acoustic guitar and tortured romance from the singer/guitarist. His hands beat silently against imaginary drums. Maestro Buckingham looks like a happy man.

More remarkable is the reason for this musical bliss. It's right there on the video monitor in front of him, confirming that Buckingham isn't here working on some long-awaited solo project, but that he's somehow reunited with Fleetwood Mac for the first time since abruptly quitting that fraying superstar act in 1987. Buckingham is a little surprised himself.

"If you had asked me six or eight months ago if I would be doing this, I would have said no," Buckingham says gravely. The singer/ guitarist had his reasons for leaving Fleetwood Mac a decade ago, even as it was enjoying a new surge in popularity. Various forms of excess had taken their toll. There had also been lingering resentments between him and singer Stevie Nicks in the years after the breakup of their romance in 1977. But most profound for Buckingham, the band had taken a disturbingly commercial direction in the 1980s, and thus could no longer fulfill his dreams of off-center studio wizardry.

"The priorities had gotten a little screwed up," he says. "A lot of people were having personal problems, and it was not a nurturing atmosphere creatively. It was very unfocused. Now that a lot of [that] doesn't exist, I don't know. I have to say I'm enjoying just sharing the situation with these people."

There's a beat of hesitation in his voice, as though he were still trying to convince himself that he should even be here. But the good vibes seem real enough among Nicks, singer/pianist Christine McVie, bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, all of whom inadvertently reunited this year during the making of a still-unfinished Buckingham solo effort, his first since 1992's Out of the Cradle. "Nobody's pissed off anymore," says Nicks. Maybe so. But the ultimate test is coming now, with Fleetwood Mac's current 40-date national tour, which will deliver the band to the Summit on Sunday.

For the moment, Buckingham's taking a break from mixing The Dance, a new live release culled from the MTV special of the same name. He soon takes a call from Reprise Records president Howie Klein, and you can almost feel the steam rising at the other end of the line as Buckingham describes which major hit songs won't be on the disc. Afterward, he laughs. "Everything," he says, "is about that far from the fan."

Buckingham is dressed in casual black, the hair at his temples and chest a subtle gray -- all the band members are now, after all, in their late 40s or early 50s -- and he slouches comfortably on a porch just outside the control room. The studio overlooks a badminton net and a jungle paradise of green, right in the midst of urban Los Angeles; it's where the band (except for the laissez-faire John McVie) made almost daily visits before going on tour. At a nearby table, Fleetwood speaks quietly into a telephone as Christine McVie prepares to leave.

Before stepping into her car, the singer stops to kiss Buckingham on the cheek. "Good-bye, Lindsey," says Christine, looking reed thin in a T-shirt and tinted glasses. "Don't stress yourself out too much."

That's a tall order in a band that has thrived most when suffering the greatest turmoil. In 1977, Fleetwood Mac discovered profound inspiration in their own shattered relationships for the 20-million-selling Rumours release. That year saw the breakups of Buckingham and Nicks, Fleetwood's marriage and that of the McVies. The result was music energized by bitterness (Buckingham and Nicks) and romantic faith (Christine McVie). Songs were at times accusatory, loving and mystical, with a dark undercurrent that owed much to the ominous brooding of the Mick Fleetwood/ John McVie rhythm section.

For all the tales of bad love on Rumours, it was pure musical escapism, and it connected deeply with the masses. It remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. "We kind of captured the imagination of people back then -- the idea in those days of a sort of heavy-duty alcohol/drug band with broken relationships all kind of singing to one other," Christine says. "We seemed accessible to them, and people related greatly to the content of the songs. And the chemistry between us was awe-inspiring. People used to meet us and feel intimidated when there was more than three of us in a room. It was a pretty heavy-duty thing."

If Rumours was the band's perfect pop document, it took 1979's Tusk to suggest real ambition. It was an unexpected reaction to mass appeal, particularly when compared to the Eagles' utterly disposable atrocity The Long Run, a different kind of reaction to success that was released the same year. Tusk was an outing that eased into focus via gentle strumming and the warm longing of Christine McVie's voice. What immediately followed was a rich fabric of sounds and ideas: Buckingham's subtly twisted rhythms and twangy guitar, the off-kilter piano that opens Nicks's "Sara," the perverse recruiting of the USC Marching Band for a horns-and-drum section on the title track. And throughout, listeners could hear the blissful sense of freedom in Buckingham's voice.

"That was probably my favorite time in the band," Buckingham says now, "because I felt the most empowered and the most spontaneous in terms of understanding what I was doing and why I was doing it."

The ultimate source of Buckingham's frustration within Fleetwood Mac originated not in Tusk's commercial disappointment (if two top ten singles and sales above four million can be called disappointing), but with the shift in internal politics that determined experimentation was not the way to continued riches, and therefore not the way for Fleetwood Mac. So what followed were records that were smooth and safe, leaning heavily on tested hit-making formulas. A Buckingham solo career was inevitable.

Buckingham was not the only notable talent within the band, but his was the vision that held it together. In 1987, Fleetwood Mac were met with renewed popularity and critical acclaim for Tango in the Night, a CD of real pop craftsmanship, but with emotions that sounded more manufactured than before. The heavy breathing of the song "Big Love" notwithstanding, the heat within Mac was largely gone.

By then, Fleetwood Mac was more an obligation than a useful venue for Buckingham. The band had ceased to be the setting where the singer bared his tortured soul, becoming instead merely a profitable hit factory, designed to keep the old fans happy during their morning commutes. When Tango in the Night was finished, after a year of sessions in his garage studio, Buckingham announced that he could not be part of a scheduled tour and essentially quit the band.

The quintet's only high-profile reunion came as a result of the 1992 presidential election, after Bill Clinton adopted the band's "Don't Stop" as his campaign song. When he was elected, Clinton requested that the late-'70s lineup of Fleetwood Mac reunite for his inaugural celebration and perform the song as the climax of a show populated by the likes of Barbra Streisand and a uniformed Michael Jackson. Even John McVie, now an American citizen and staunch Republican, was ready to oblige. Only Buckingham was hesitant, but Nicks finally convinced him to participate.

"I thought it was touching that for the first time you had a president who was openly professing his alliance [with] rock and roll," Buckingham says with a shrug. "That gave off a sense of possibility that maybe didn't really pan out."

If there were any hopes within the band of a permanent reunion, it was soon clear that Buckingham didn't share them. "It was a one-off thing, and I don't think anyone thought much beyond that show," Christine says. "At the airport as we left to come back to L.A., it was pretty much, 'Well, see you around....' " Soon after their return, Nicks quit the band.

"At the inauguration I just realized I wanted it to be back the way it was, or I didn't want to be in it anymore," says Nicks, who had remained committed to the band even as her solo career took off. (Indeed, she has just signed a new five-release deal with Reprise and plans to head into the studio after the Fleetwood Mac tour.) "For me, it made me realize that it had to be that five, or it couldn't be. I couldn't continue to be in a Fleetwood Mac that didn't have Lindsey in it."

Fleetwood Mac was formed in 1967 by London blues guitarist Peter Green, an alumnus of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. It was a different kind of outfit then, a quintet of dedicated blues fanatics. Green named the group after his Fleetwood/McVie rhythm section largely because he wasn't interested in the sort of "Clapton is God" hero worship that was already heading his way.

That rhythm section formed the spine of an ever-changing lineup after Green's departure in 1970. "I'm not a singer/songwriter," Fleetwood says. "I'm a drummer who's a good organizer. And I love what I do with a passion, and I still have a passion that's intact. My setup is, I have to keep this going in order to function. What will I do? Who will I play with? I can't play in my front living room. I need a band. John and I are a couple of gigsters."

By 1975, Fleetwood had heard a little-noticed release by a duo called Buckingham-Nicks. The two singer/songwriters were struggling just to pay the bills; Nicks worked as a waitress in coffee shops and restaurants around Los Angeles, and Buckingham toured as a sideman to a fading Phil Everly. When Fleetwood called, the couple spent their last few dollars on old Fleetwood Mac vinyl, searching for something they could identify with. "I had to say to Lindsey, 'Well, I'm very tired of being a waitress, so I definitely think we should join this band,' " Nicks recalls.

Nicks had wanted to be Joni Mitchell, but instead she ended up a singer with a strange, raspy vibrato. Critics weren't immediately won over. She particularly remembers one reviewer describing her vocals as the sound of a "bleating goat." Still, the vocals were memorable. And the eventual result was a voice as distinctive as any other in '70s music, as much an acquired taste as Robert Plant or Johnny Rotten.

The self-titled Fleetwood Mac effort, released in 1975, was immediately successful; it sold four million copies and then was followed by Rumours. "It was great," Nicks says. "It made us all a mess. We did a lot of drugs -- we're all lucky to be alive. We had a great time; there was no getting around it. Anybody tells you any different, they're lying. It was incredible."

That excess sent her to the Betty Ford Clinic a decade ago, and the bloated, dazed, black-magic woman who appeared on at least one solo tour bore little resemblance to the fresh-faced California girl who had met Buckingham as a high school student. But today she's slimmed down and garbed in her usual black chiffon, sipping hot tea. "It's hard to be really famous," she shrugs, "but it's hard to be really poor and not famous."

Fleetwood Mac was, for one moment, the biggest band in the universe, seemingly oblivious to the movements of punk and disco then swirling around them. They were instead awash in limousines and private jets and Grammy Awards, and they became easy targets for the American punk movement for what it viewed as appalling rock-star excess.

Even today Buckingham sounds bitter about the punk attacks. But if the likes of Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles helped give the Los Angeles punk movement some of its fire, L.A. punks should be grateful to them, even if the band's real life wasn't so simple. It's with some irony that contemporary punk-based acts such as the Smashing Pumpkins and Hole now refer to Fleetwood Mac as one of their great inspirations.

"We were their age when we started, and we're still doing it today," Nicks says of her close friendships with Courtney Love and Billy Corgan. "So maybe we give them hope."

Like the Sex Pistols last year, Fleetwood Mac's return to the concert stage now will signify nothing more than nostalgia unless it leads the quintet back into the studio, where their work always mattered the most. The final version of The Dance isn't exactly a revelation, though the band does inject some contemporary fire into the old songs. And the inclusion of four new tunes, including the torrid "Bleed to Love Her," suggests the band again has a future -- if, that is, they choose to take it.

Fleetwood Mac performs Sunday, November 2, at the Summit, San Antonio, TX. Tickets are $36.25 to $101.25. For info, call 629-3700.

Fleetwood Mac delivers old songs, new songs and fun

Fleetwood Mac Live at Delta Center

Las Vegas, NV - October 28, 1997

The Desert News October 29, 1997