Stevie Nicks’ ‘Rolling Stone’ Interview: 6 Awesome Takeaways
Stevie Nicks will make history next month when she’s inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her solo work making her the first woman to be a double-inductee.
Such an achievement, and currently being on tour with Fleetwood Mac, calls for a big interview, and Nicks gave a stellar one to Rolling Stone. Here are six awesome takeaways.
There’s no sign of retirement in sight.
Unlike many of her contemporaries, the last thing Nicks is thinking about is retirement. “At the ripe and totally young age of 70, my voice hasn’t changed,” said Nicks. “As long as I take care of myself, I am still going to be doing this when I’m 80…I tell myself, ‘Do it now, because you’re spry, you’re in good shape, you can still do the splits, you can still dance onstage and wear a short skirt and high six-inch heels.’”
Her distinct sense of fashion began at a young age.
Nicks recalled signing up for a talent show in the sixth grade and doing a tap dance to Buddy Holly’s “Everyday.” She wore a “black skirt, a black vest, a white blouse, black tap shoes and a black top hat.” Nicks said, “It’s like I had the vision already. I knew what I would wear in 30 years.”
Speaking of fashion: Nicks keeps all of her shawls in a “shawl vault.”
Perhaps one of the coolest bits from the entire interview is Nicks revealing she has a “shawl vault” that’s temperature controlled. In fact, she keeps all of her vintage goods in there. “ I’m trying to give my shawls away — but there’s thousands of them,” said Nicks. “If I ever write my life story, maybe that should be the name of my book: ‘There’s Enough Shawls to Go Around.’”
1. That title is perfection and 2. What I would give to have one of Stevie Nicks’ shawls!
She still feels a strong connection to Tom Petty and Prince.
The more personal parts of the interview involve Nicks reflecting on her relationships with the late Petty and Prince. She credits the success of her 1981 debut solo album Bella Donna to her Petty duet “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.”
She also regrets never performing “Stand Back” live with Prince, but says, “Prince is with me.” Nicks said, “When I’m nervous, I’ll talk to Prince. In my solo act, when I do ‘Moonlight,’ I wear this white wolfy coat — I put this coat on and I try to transform into a Dire Wolf from ‘Game of Thrones.’ And before I go on, I always say, ‘Walk with me, Prince.’”
Nicks admits she accidentally stole the song “Ooh My Love” from 1989’s The Other Side of the Mirror from Petty.
Nicks said Heartbreaker/current Fleetwood Mac guitarist Mike Campbell would give her his instrumental demo cassettes from after Petty went through them first. One time, however, she picked up the wrong cassette.
“It had the song that inspired ‘Ooh My Love,’ which became ‘Runaway Train’ for Tom,” said Nicks. “I took it into Fleetwood Mac and sang my lyrics over it. We started to record. I loved it so much, I called Tom and said, “Listen to this…” Tom just starts screaming at me on the other end of the phone. I’m realizing, “How stupid are you, Stevie?” So I had to go in the next day and tell Fleetwood Mac, ‘Guess what, we can’t do this song. ‘ ‘Why can’t we do it?’ ‘Because I stole it from Tom Petty, and I’m absolutely a total criminal and a thief.’”
Nicks doesn’t own a computer and still uses a flip phone.
Nicks says she doesn’t like “what the internet has done to people” and says that computers and smartphones have “nailed romance to the wall.” Also, if anyone is looking to find romance, “Throw away you f-cking phone.”
As for her flip phone, she likes it just fine. Who are any of us to stand between a legend and her flip phone?
Erica Banas is rock/classic rock news blogger that loves the smell of old vinyl in the morning.
