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December 12, 2008
Last night we had the extreme pleasure of chatting with Stevie Nicks, who in January will release a DVD titled Live In Chicago, featuring takes of many of her greatest hits with Fleetwood Mac and her stellar solo career. It's truly awesome.
In conjunction, Nicks is releasing a companion CD titled The Soundstage Sessions, offering live renditions of her lesser-performed cuts like "Beauty and the Beast," "Fall from Grace," and her covers of Dave Matthews Band's "Crash" and Bonnie Raitt's "Circle Dance."
As one of our greatest singers ever -- and a rock star of the highest order -- Stevie couldn't have been sweeter, funnier or more down to earth.
We talked about her recent 60th birthday (she took her mom and her friends to see a production of the play Wicked, of course), the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour (she can't wait), as well as the drama surrounding Sheryl Crow's involvement in the Mac.
As you may remember, last March Crow announced that she would be joining Mac, saying, "We definitely have plans for collaborating in the future, and we'll see what happens. I think that's going to be next year."
Although it appears to fly in the face of what Lindsey Buckingham told us, Stevie told us that Crow was, in fact, invited to go on the Mac's first trek in nearly five years. (Look for the rest of the interview in the next issue of Rolling Stone.)
Heres what Stevie had to say:
"What happened is that it was absolutely discussed and [Sheryl] absolutely was invited to join the band. The reason was I wanted another woman in the band, because I missed Christine so bad that it was just really hard for me to be in the boys club. What happened was, really... everybody thinks it was just because Sheryl got really excited and told the world about it a little bit too early. That wasn't what it was. I started explaining to Sheryl what it was going to be like to be in this band. It's all-encompassing, and for somebody with a new baby...for a woman in her forties with a new baby, and as loving and as nurturing as Sheryl Crow is... if you know her, you know that she just is a caretaker. We had a conversation at the beginning of this year. I said, 'I rented a studio,' and it was around Mother's Day. 'You need to come in and we need to play music for two days, because we should. It's not an audition for us, it's not an audition for you, it's just us to play music. We'll set it all up and we'll be on a stage and have great monitors, and all your pianos and everything will be set up. We're just going to rock for two days, go out to dinner and hang out. We need to do that.'
She had all these really important plans, because it was her first Mother’s Day, and she was also on the road, so she had to escape out of that for three days. I said, 'You have to do it, you have to come.' That was on a Thursday. She said to me, 'Are you trying to talk me out of this by telling me how difficult this is going to be for me?' I said, 'I'm not. I'm just being truthful with you. Imagine this, when we went on the Say You Will tour, we thought it was forty shows. It was 135 shows. Nobody knew that, but that’s what it was. And that was for an unhappy tour.'
'So it is kind of like joining the army. Personally, it's going to be very hard for you. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, I'm just trying to let you know what it is.' So she said, 'Okay, I'm going to think about it,' and she called us back two days later. We were in the car, on speaker, and she said, 'I think I'm going to have to pass.'
I said, 'Honey, as Stevie, your friend,' who spent three solid years with her working on Trouble in Shangri-La in ’98, ’99, and 2000, I said, 'I think you're making the right decision. As Stevie Nicks, I'm disappointed. But as your friend, I think this is the right decision.'
Sheryl Crow passed on Fleetwood Mac, and I want that out there, because people seem to be getting different stories about this. That’s what happened."
There you have it!!!
In conjunction, Nicks is releasing a companion CD titled The Soundstage Sessions, offering live renditions of her lesser-performed cuts like "Beauty and the Beast," "Fall from Grace," and her covers of Dave Matthews Band's "Crash" and Bonnie Raitt's "Circle Dance."
As one of our greatest singers ever -- and a rock star of the highest order -- Stevie couldn't have been sweeter, funnier or more down to earth.
We talked about her recent 60th birthday (she took her mom and her friends to see a production of the play Wicked, of course), the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour (she can't wait), as well as the drama surrounding Sheryl Crow's involvement in the Mac.
As you may remember, last March Crow announced that she would be joining Mac, saying, "We definitely have plans for collaborating in the future, and we'll see what happens. I think that's going to be next year."
Although it appears to fly in the face of what Lindsey Buckingham told us, Stevie told us that Crow was, in fact, invited to go on the Mac's first trek in nearly five years. (Look for the rest of the interview in the next issue of Rolling Stone.)
Heres what Stevie had to say:
"What happened is that it was absolutely discussed and [Sheryl] absolutely was invited to join the band. The reason was I wanted another woman in the band, because I missed Christine so bad that it was just really hard for me to be in the boys club. What happened was, really... everybody thinks it was just because Sheryl got really excited and told the world about it a little bit too early. That wasn't what it was. I started explaining to Sheryl what it was going to be like to be in this band. It's all-encompassing, and for somebody with a new baby...for a woman in her forties with a new baby, and as loving and as nurturing as Sheryl Crow is... if you know her, you know that she just is a caretaker. We had a conversation at the beginning of this year. I said, 'I rented a studio,' and it was around Mother's Day. 'You need to come in and we need to play music for two days, because we should. It's not an audition for us, it's not an audition for you, it's just us to play music. We'll set it all up and we'll be on a stage and have great monitors, and all your pianos and everything will be set up. We're just going to rock for two days, go out to dinner and hang out. We need to do that.'
She had all these really important plans, because it was her first Mother’s Day, and she was also on the road, so she had to escape out of that for three days. I said, 'You have to do it, you have to come.' That was on a Thursday. She said to me, 'Are you trying to talk me out of this by telling me how difficult this is going to be for me?' I said, 'I'm not. I'm just being truthful with you. Imagine this, when we went on the Say You Will tour, we thought it was forty shows. It was 135 shows. Nobody knew that, but that’s what it was. And that was for an unhappy tour.'
'So it is kind of like joining the army. Personally, it's going to be very hard for you. I'm not trying to talk you out of it, I'm just trying to let you know what it is.' So she said, 'Okay, I'm going to think about it,' and she called us back two days later. We were in the car, on speaker, and she said, 'I think I'm going to have to pass.'
I said, 'Honey, as Stevie, your friend,' who spent three solid years with her working on Trouble in Shangri-La in ’98, ’99, and 2000, I said, 'I think you're making the right decision. As Stevie Nicks, I'm disappointed. But as your friend, I think this is the right decision.'
Sheryl Crow passed on Fleetwood Mac, and I want that out there, because people seem to be getting different stories about this. That’s what happened."
There you have it!!!
