"This song is a prayer for people to unite" - Stevie Nicks

On edge of 72, Stevie Nicks just wants to sing a song live

By MESFIN FEKADU - Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s Saturday at 9:30 p.m. and Stevie Nicks is singing on the phone.

The rock icon is at her Los Angeles home, where she’s been cooped up since December after wrapping the “An Evening with Fleetwood Mac” tour. She arrived there at first to relax after spending a year on the road and to celebrate the holidays. But then the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Stuck at the house is both good and bad for Nicks. The good news? Her house is a creative oasis where all her favorite musical instruments live. It’s where she spent a year recording her 2011 album “In Your Dreams” with Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard.

Her current 10-month stint — and counting — at home even fueled her to record the new single “Show Them the Way,” out on Friday.

“It’s beautiful,” she says after singing the song’s chorus at the end of a 90-minute-plus interview, where Nicks excitedly discussed everything from her admiration for late icons and pals Tom Petty and Prince to her relationships with Harry Styles and Beyoncé.

The bad news? Nicks is 72 and doesn’t want to be homebound when she prefers to be singing live on the road.

“This pandemic is more than just a pandemic for me. This is stealing what I consider to be my last youthful years,” Nicks told The Associated Press. “I don’t have just 10 years to hang around and wait for this thing to go away. I have places to go, people to sing for, another album to make. With every day that goes by, it’s like taking this time away from me. That I think is the hardest thing for me.”

“I have a lot of friends that are 60 and they’re going, ‘Oh I’m so old, I’m 60.’ I’m like, ‘You know what, the violins of the world are playing for you. You’re going to really appreciate 60 when you turn 72,’” she continued. “I don’t feel like the whole world is really getting behind getting this to go away. I feel like people are just thinking it really is just magically going away. All it takes is a few people that don’t wear a mask to spread. Just let one person catch it from you and there it goes — it’s like the never-ending story. That worries me because I’m going, ’Will it really be gone by the end of 2021?

“Will it be safe next year for us to walk into Madison Square Garden?’ I don’t know that it will,” she said.

Nicks is hoping to satisfy fans she would typically see in-person on tour with the new concert film “Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold The Concert.” It was recorded over two nights during her 2016-17 “24 Karat Gold” tour and will be available at select theaters and drive-ins on Oct. 21 and 25. A CD and digital album of the concert will be released Oct. 30.

“As we started to understand that this COVID thing was not a joke, I started going to myself, ‘Well, you know what? This may be the closest to going to a big, big concert that’s actually not from 1977 that is new,’” Nicks said. “It’s brand new and it’s fantastic.”

The only time she left her West Coast home was to edit the film in Chicago. She took a private jet to the home on a golf course that had been vacant for some time, spending a month there and editing down hours of footage to create the 140-minute film.

“They can’t do it without me. I won’t allow it,” Nicks said. “We got it all done. It was really fun. We were really safe.”

But at the end of the trip, Nicks tripped in the snow and fractured her knee: “I was like screaming as I went through the air and saw the gravel driveway coming toward my face and just made a quick turn. So, I didn’t fall face down and caught myself. Because of my strong, tambourine arms, I was able to stop myself from crashing even worse. It was a really bad fall, but it’s OK.

“It’s had a hard time getting better,” she continued. “I hurt this knee really bad, my left knee, before, years ago. I had been dealing with it and fixed it. ...I had just really gotten it to be to the place where it was totally better, then I fractured it. So now it’s almost better,” she said.

Apart from producing her concert film and recording “Show Them the Way,” Nicks has been busy in the home where she’s been creative in the past: “Another famous rock ‘n’ roll star, who will not be mentioned, sent me a song that he wants me to sing on,” she revealed.

Though “Show Them the Way” arrives Friday, Nicks said the song came to her in a dream in 2008 when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were competing for the Democratic Party nomination for president. In the dream Nicks is performing at a political benefit where attendees include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon, John Lewis, John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy.

Dave Grohl plays drums on the new song, which was produced by Greg Kurstin (Sia, Adele, Beck). Cameron Crowe is directing the music video.

“This song really is a prayer. This song is a prayer for people to unite. A prayer for people to get together,” Nicks said.

“I didn’t really realize that until just the last few days. The chorus was written a week or so later,” she continued.

“The chorus, and I can sing it for you, it goes, ‘Please God show them the way/Please God on this day/Spirits all give us strength/Peace will come if you really want it/I think we’re just in time to save it/Please God, oh please God, show them the way.’”

'RHIANNON' CLIP FROM UPCOMING STEVIE NICKS CONCERT FILM

Watch Stevie Nicks Sing ‘Rhiannon’ From ’24 Karat Gold’ Concert Film

Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold the Concert will screen at select theaters on October 21st and 25th

Stevie Nicks will be releasing a concert film, Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold the Concert, in select screenings in the coming weeks. But fans can now catch a sneak preview of the movie with a clip of Nicks performing “Rhiannon” during her sold-out 24 Karat Gold Tour.

ROLLINGSTONE

Biggest Streaming Week Ever For Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams'

 Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams' Surges to Biggest Streaming Week Ever After Viral TikTok Video

Courtesy of buzz generated by a gone-viral TikTok video, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” has captured its largest streaming week ever.

Following the rise of the video’s popularity, the classic 1977 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit garnered 8.47 million on-demand streams in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 1, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. That sum is up 125% compared to the previous week (3.76 million).

Previously, "Dreams'" best streaming week came in the week ending Sept. 10, with 3.83 million clicks.

The TikTok video in question has “Dreams” soundtracking a man in a hoodie (Nathan Apodaca) seemingly being pulled on a skateboard, as he drinks from a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice and sings along with Stevie Nicks’ lead vocal. The video became so popular, it moved the band’s own Mick Fleetwood to recreate the clip.

“Dreams” also sold 7,000 downloads in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 1 (up 584%) – its best sales week since the week ending July 24, 2011, when it sold 9,000.

“Dreams” makes moves on the Billboard charts (dated Oct. 10), too, as it re-enters at a new peak of No. 8 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, climbs 19-1 on Rock Digital Song Sales, and rises 7-3 on Rock Streaming Songs. (Billboard's charts dated Oct. 10 will refresh to Billboard's websites on Oct. 6.)

The cut also impressively enters at No. 36 on the all-genre Streaming Songs chart, a list which is normally crowded with current hip-hop and pop tracks.

On the Billboard Global 200 chart, which ranks the most popular songs around the world, “Dreams” debuts at No. 51. On the Billboard Global 200 Excl. U.S. tally, it bows at No. 161.

“Dreams” was first released on the album Rumours, which was issued in 1977 and spent 31 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Rumours also surges up Billboard’s lists, as it rebounds 47-27 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, marking the first time it’s been in the top 40 since early 2013. The set earned 19,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Oct. 1 (up 56%). The album also inches up 33-29 on the Album Sales chart with 4,000 copies sold (up 45%).

“Dreams” is also featured on the band’s Greatest Hits album, which jumps 169-103 on the Billboard 200 (9,000 units; up 35%) and moves 50-46 on Album Sales (3,000 sold; up 45%).

And finally, the new album The Alternate Rumours – released Sept. 26 exclusively on vinyl the latest Record Store Day Drop – enters the Billboard 200 at No. 165 (7,000 units – all from album sales). It also debuts at No. 12 on Album Sales and No. 6 on Vinyl Albums. The release presents an alternate view of the classic album, with different takes of the album’s tracklist subbing in for the original album versions.

Billboard

MICK FLEETWOOD RECREATES VIRAL DREAMS VIDEO

Mick Fleetwood recreates viral "Dreams" TikTok; 

original video guy can now afford a car & place to live

The viral video of that guy on a skateboard lip-syncing to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" while swigging Ocean Spray juice has inspired the band's own Mick Fleetwood to recreate the scenario.

The drummer made his own TikTok, in which he glides along while drinking Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice from the bottle and lip-syncing to the song that's, to date, his band's only number-one U.S. hit.  Mick captioned it, "@420doggface208 " -- the original guy's TikTok name -- "had it right. Dreams and Cranberry just hits different," and added the hashtag #CranberryDreams.

Posting the video on Instagram, Mick added, "Had way to[o] much fun with this!! More to come."

Ocean Spray commented, "Love this! Hope you enjoyed your juice. We have really enjoyed listening to Fleetwood Mac on repeat lately."

Meanwhile, TMZ tracked down @420doggface208, whose life has now been completely changed by his video.  His name is Nathan Apodaca, and he says since the video went viral, people have sent him $10,000 in donations, which he can now use to get a proper place to live -- at the moment, he's living in an RV with no running water, parked in front of his brother's house.

In addition, Nathan, who works at a potato factory, plans to upgrade his car -- that's the reason he was on a skateboard in the first place.  He plans to give his mom $5,000, and he gave his girlfriend a washer/dryer and bought some clothes for his daughter. 

Nathan's also been contacted by Footlocker, and hopes to get some free clothes out of the deal -- but he tells TMZ he's still waiting for Ocean Spray to call.

By Andrea Dresdale - Abc News Radio

View this post on Instagram

Well played @mickfleetwoodofficial 😂😂😂 @doggface208 #tiktok #fleetwoodmac #mickfleetwood

A post shared by FLEETWOOD MAC NEWS (@fleetwoodmacnews) on Oct 4, 2020 at 1:38pm PDT

The original video that first went viral

View this post on Instagram

Here it is this took off today 2.3million views in 7hrs WOWZA!!!! #420souljahz #ec #high #skaterfoo #pothead #fleetwoodmac #king #stonerfoo #blazed #blazinforonenation #longboard

A post shared by @Doggface208 (@doggface208) on Sep 25, 2020 at 2:32pm PDT

Following the video going viral.... Sales and streams of "Dreams" spiked!

Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams' Triples in Sales, Nearly Doubles in Streams in Days Following Viral TikTok Clip ... 

A whopping 43 years after its initial release, "Dreams" remains one of the most consumed rock songs in America on a regular basis. 

Billboard

Well, here Fleetwood Mac goes again with its signature classic rock hit that absolutely will not be kept down. "Dreams," the U.K.-meets-L.A. group's 1977 chart-topper -- their lone No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- has experienced another spike in sales and streams tied to a viral video.

This time, it's due to a TikTok video that took the world by storm late last week, with the enduring song soundtracking a middle-aged man in a hoodie seemingly being pulled on a skateboard, as he swigs from a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice and occasionally sings along with Stevie Nicks' lead vocal. The clip's incredibly specific vibe of melancholy chill and absurdity captured hearts across the Internet -- and inspired a massive hike in "Dreams" consumption in the days following its spread.

For the three-day period of Sept. 25 - Sept. 27, "Dreams" racked up 2.9 million on-demand U.S. streams and 3000 in digital download sales -- numbers up 88.7% and 374%, respectively, from their totals in the prior three-day periods, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. (The song also climbed as high as No. 24 on Spotify's US Daily chart on Sept. 27.)

The viral bumps are nothing new for "Dreams," which previously enjoyed gains in 2018 following a meme of Alcorn State University's Golden Girls dance team grooving to "Dreams" that took off on Twitter. The spikes two years ago were much more modest however, representing a 24% gain in on-demand streams and a 36% gain in download sales over the week following the meme's debut.

Even when not actively boosted by such social media spikes, "Dreams" has been a regular presence on the Billboard charts in recent years. The song has appeared on Billboard's Rock Digital Song Sales chart for each of the last six weeks, and for much of the year before that, climbing to a No. 5 peak in March. Meanwhile, it's held a place on the Rock Streaming Songs chart since February, hitting a peak of No. 6 in July. And the song has also appeared sporadically on Billboard's all-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs listing, reaching a No. 13 peak following the Alcorn State bump in April 2018.

A whopping 43 years after its initial release, "Dreams" remains one of the most consumed rock songs in America on a regular basis. Check back to next week's Billboard charts, dated Oct. 10, where the song is likely to hit new peaks on both charts following its TikTok journey -- and perhaps enter some new ones for the first time as well.

STEVIE NICKS WILL RELEASE 2 VERSIONS OF "SHOW THEM THE WAY" ACOUSTIC AND ROCK AND ROLL

Chatting with Stevie Nicks: The Reigning Empress of Rock and Roll

BY MARKOS PAPADATOS - Digital Journal

Two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Stevie Nicks chatted with Digital Journal's Markos Papadatos about her "24 Karat Gold" concert film, her live album, upcoming single on October 9, and she shared the key to longevity in the music industry.

Track and field legend Wilma Rudolph once said: "Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us." Stevie Nicks is a woman that embodies this wise quotation.

Nicks has been hailed by this music aficionado as the perennial "Empress of Rock and Roll," and rightfully so. She possesses one of the most significant and powerful voices in the music business; moreover, she has had an illustrious music career that has spanned well over five decades. She scored six Top 10 albums, eight Grammy nominations for her solo work, and she has sold in excess of 140 million albums collectively as a solo recording artist and as part of the iconic rock group Fleetwood Mac.

She earned several Grammy Awards as a member of the Fleetwood Mac: their seminal studio album Rumours won the Grammy for "Album of the Year" in 1978, and two Fleetwood Mac albums have been inducted into the coveted Grammy Hall of Fame: Rumours in 2003 and Fleetwood Mac in 2016 respectively. Last year, she made music history because she was the first woman inducted into the coveted Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.

This interview delves into the conscience of Stevie Nicks as a prolific songwriter, vocalist, poet, storyteller, and a song stylist.

Stevie Nicks — 24 Karat Gold The Concert

She will be debuting the "Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold The Concert," via Trafalgar Releasing, on two nights only: October 21 and 25 respectively. This concert film was directed and produced by Joe Thomas. Acclaimed guitar player Waddy Wachtel served as the musical director of this tour. It was filmed in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh back in 2017. It showcases her intimate storytelling and her inspirations for some of her most famous and timeless recordings. "Who knew four years ago when I went out on that tour?" she said. "This was one of the most important records that I've ever done, in my opinion. I wanted to go back and pick them up. It had 16 songs that I always planned to re-do because they were all recorded at some point and I wasn't happy with how they originally came out."

"The song 'If You Were My Love' is a ballad that I love to sing so much, and I wanted to make sure that it was perfect. It's the song that I love to sing most on stage with the girls," she said.

"Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold The Concert" will be available at select cinemas, drive-ins and exhibition spaces all over the world. With this concert film, Nicks will be taking her fans and listeners on a trip down memory lane, where she will provide them with a virtual front-row seat to her live shows. "The film is coming out soon and this tour that we filmed was the most fun that I've ever had on a tour," she acknowledged. "When you can add six or seven new songs into a setlist, it changes the whole show, and it makes it seem like the whole show was brand new."

Concert setlist: An eclectic program of classic and newer songs

Her setlist for this concert film includes such fan-favorite songs as "Rhiannon," "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," "Edge of Seventeen," "Stand Back," and "Landslide," among many other classics from her extensive musical catalog. "Even the older songs that weren't on the 24 Karat Gold album become new again because of the six or seven new songs that nobody has ever heard before. When I walked off stage, that whole show felt new to me, and when you watch the film, you can really see that," Nicks said.

"It's always a risk when you add new songs to a show. I hope that my intuition said 'people will love this because I am going to tell them a good story' but my risk factor is definitely there, so when we left the stage that very first night, I was able to look at the audience, and I realized that it worked very well. We had all the confidence in the world to continue on from that moment then," she added.

"When I recorded the 24 Karat Gold album, we were on a break from Fleetwood Mac. I went to Nashville for only two weeks, and then I came home and we finished it at my house. The album was done in five weeks, and I gave it to Warner Bros. and that was it. It was amazing that I actually pulled it off and it actually happened, and I was so excited about it," she said.

"In May of 2020, I went to Chicago to edit the stories of this film," she recalled. "I was a little scared to do it because of COVID, but we took precautions and went to Chicago. We stayed at a house by a golf course where nobody had been since the previous October and we went to a studio where nobody had been for months and I was there for a month and that's where we edited the 46 minutes of stories. That's when I actually started working again.

"Getting this film all done was not easy especially since you couldn't get in your car and go to a studio," she acknowledged. "Everything that we have been doing was done pretty much from home except for the short trip to Chicago. I actually am being creative now, and I am really happy about that."

Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders served as her opening act for the majority of the "24 Karat Gold Tour." "It was so fun to be o the road with Chrissie Hynde. She and I became really good friends, and Chrissie does not like everybody. She's a badass chick," she said.

TIKTOK VIRAL VIDEO PUTS FLEETWOOD MAC'S DREAMS BACK ON THE CHARTS.

Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ Is Back on the Charts

After a viral TikTok of a man lip-syncing to ‘Dreams’ while longboarding and sipping Ocean Spray, the song enters the daily RS 100 at Number 29.

By JONATHAN BERNSTEIN Rollingstone

After a TikTok where a man lip-syncs to “Dreams” while longboarding and drinking Ocean Spray 

Cran-Raspberry Juice went viral, Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 classic has seen a massive spike in streams, enough to enter the Rolling Stone Top 100 Songs Chart.

The track, off the band’s 1977 album Rumours, currently sits at Number 29 on the daily version of the RS 100, which ranks the biggest songs in the U.S. by a combination of sales and on-demand audio streams. An official version of the Rolling Stone Top 100 chart is published every Monday.

With over 16 million views on TikTok, doggface208’s viral video  — which won the approval of Fleetwood Mac themselves — caused streams for the song to more than double from Saturday through Monday.

In the three days before the video was uploaded, the 1977 Rumours classic was receiving an average of 490,000 streams a day, according to numbers from Alpha Data. In the three days after the TikTok video was posted, the song has been streamed an average of over 1 million times a day. Sales for the song nearly tripled, up 184% from Saturday through Monday.

Spotify reports that streams were up 127% on its platform with a 242% increase in first-time listeners of the song. Apple reported a spike of 221% in streams, and also reported a 1,137% increase in Shazams for the song, indicating that the song was finding new listeners.

During the weekend, 15% of all Spotify streams of the Stevie Nicks song were first-time plays on the platform, which is a 53% higher average of first-time streams than normal.

“Dreams” has become a classic rock staple on TikTok in recent years; In 2018, the song charted after going viral in a dance video.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the song was receiving 49,000 streams per day. The song was receiving 490,000 streams per day, and increased to 1 million. 

View the video here: 420doggface208

CHARTS

This week in the UK, Fleetwood Mac's Dreams re-entered the Top 100 Singles Chart at #85. In New Zealand the song entered the Top 40 Singles Chart at #28 and in Ireleand re-entered the Top 100 at #59.

In the US on the Top Rock Song Sales Top 25 the track is #19 this week moving down from #15 last week.