Stevie Nicks said giving her song “The Chain” to Fleetwood Mac was a “take one for the team” moment and that she was glad she did it.

In a new interview with Variety, she said she had her own ideas for what might happen to the song, which was originally laid down as a solo demo at home.

“I was in the car waiting for my assistant to get something a couple of days ago, and a version of ‘The Chain’ came on,” Nicks said. “I’m like, what is this? And it was ‘The Chain’ before Lindsey [Buckingham].”

She recalled “listening to [the demo] and it was just me singing. … And I thought, Wow, I had full-on plans for the original ‘Chain’ song before I gave it to Fleetwood Mac. I mean, I’m really glad that I gave it to Fleetwood Mac because it turned into one of the best songs. But it was holding its own before they recorded it.”

Nicks reflected that the incident was “a good way to see where songwriters go, you know, and how they can have something that’s really pretty on its way to being complete, and then something else comes along and they need part of it.”

She noted: “If you’re in a band, you’re part of a team, so you willingly say, ‘Of course, you can have it.’”

This album is a logical next step after Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In the Night, between its sparkling production gloss (courtesy of Rupert Hine, known for his work with the Fixx and Howard Jones) and emphasis on lacquered synth-pop layers. And while the album was a massive U.K. hit (and spawned the No. 1 rock radio track “Rooms on Fire”), Nicks’ personality and whimsical lyrics are subsumed by the formal (and now dated) sonic approach. A duet with Bruce Hornsby feels awkwardly stitched together, while “Cry Wolf” is anemic piano-pop — a reminder that even though Tango boasted strong pop DNA, the source material of The Other Side of the Mirror isn’t quite as strong.

Street Angel starts off on a high note with the single “Blue Denim,” a typical bewitched Nicks rocker featuring roadhouse-riot Mike Campbell guitar licks. But the album suffers from “too many cooks” syndrome: Nicks didn’t like Glyn Johns’ production approach or the resulting music, and brought in Thom Panunzio and her usual musical foils to clean things up and right the ship. Unfortunately, Street Angel never quite got there, Nicks admitted in a 1994 interview. “I should have gone back in and really worked with the album, with the vocals. I guess that was the last thing that I knew was wrong with it, and after being in two months trying to fix everything that I thought was wrong about the music and the mixes, it was almost kind of like, you know, maybe you just need to let this go and go on.” The record’s promise is evident in moving songs such as the country-folk tune “Rose Garden,” a self-aware lament about a romance that never led to marriage, and the mandolin-brushed, radio-ready “Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind.”
A collaboration mainly with Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, In Your Dreams is one of Nicks’ most adventurous-sounding albums. The title track is hot-rodding power-pop; “Wide Sargasso Sea” hews toward psychedelic rock; and “Soldier’s Angel,” which features Lindsey Buckingham’s inimitable guitar and vocals, is sparse and haunting. But Nicks’ lyrics on In Your Dreams also include some of her most introspective insights. Look no further than the one-two punch of “New Orleans” — a lovely mash note to the city post-Katrina — and “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream),” a song about seductive romance that’s inspired partly by the Twilight: New Moon movie, and partly by thoughts dating from the ’70s.
Tom Petty helped Nicks get in the proper headspace to make Trouble in Shangri-La. “Basically, he said, ‘You know that you’re a good songwriter, Stevie, and I don’t know what’s getting in the way right now, but you just need to go home and go straight to your piano,'” she told Time Out New York. “I was having a hard time getting over the Street Angel experience. I was just really sad. That dinner made all the difference. I give Tom all the credit in the world for this record.” Nicks should also give herself credit for a solid comeback effort inspired by her past and present. The title track coalesced in late 1994, while the piano-driven “Love Is” was written in January 1995, and Nicks shared that she wrote tunes while on tour with Fleetwood Mac in 1997. The mandolin- and string-adorned “Candlebright” and the mystical, folk-tinged “Sorcerer” dated from her days in Buckingham Nicks — a delightful nod to one of the most underrated periods of her career.
The spunky Rock a Little continued Nicks’ streak of rock radio hits: The album kicks off with “I Can’t Wait” — a glass shards-sharp slice of synth-pop — and later features the glossy, moody ballad “Talk to Me.” In between, Rock a Little finds Nicks sounding more comfortable in the role of pop star, what with the smoky, soulful “Some Become Strangers” and keyboard-zapped “The Nightmare.” Unlike other ’80s albums, where the production values have aged poorly, Rock a Little is still an enjoyable listen today.
Odds-and-sods collections tend to be jumbled, hit-or-miss grab bags. Nicks’ vast song vault, however, yielded an album full of dazzling gems. 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault comprises newly finished versions of song demos spanning between the ’60s and the ’90s. Highlights include “Starshine “— a tune she reportedly wrote in Tom Petty‘s basement in 1980 that features the Heartbreakers’ trademark bar-band stomping — the fierce rocker “I Don’t Care,” and a dreamy Bella Donna castoff, “If You Were My Love.” The result is a quintessential Nicks album, eclectic and poetic, that alights on rock, pop, folk and all points in between.
The Wild Heart delivered two classic Nicks hits: the empowerment anthem “Stand Back” and “If Anyone Falls.” And while the album features some of the same musicians that appeared on Bella Donna — for example, “Enchanted” features some trademark Roy Bittan jaunty piano, and the sinewy blues-rocker “Nightbird” includes Tom Petty and some Heartbreakers — the album has more prominent synth work, which gives it a contemporary sheen. The juxtaposition at times can be a little jarring, though it’s a minor quibble, as The Wild Heart reinforces Nicks’ mettle as a songwriter.
Nicks set the bar rather high with her debut solo album, which topped the Billboard album chart and spawned the indelible hits “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), “Leather & Lace” (a Don Henley duet) and “Edge of Seventeen.” As might be expected, Bella Donna‘s sound is influenced by Nicks’ collaborators, which, in addition to Petty and the Heartbreakers, include E Street Band member Roy Bittan, and session whizzes Waddy Wachtel and Donald “Duck” Dunn. The album is a bold declaration of Nicks’ distinctive voice, independent from Fleetwood Mac — and it remains one of the best rock debuts of the ’80s.

STEVIE NICKS WENT TO ICU AFTER ROCK HALL INDUCTION

Stevie Nicks revealed she wound up in an ICU after her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, saying she knew “something was wrong” before her gala-night performance began.

It turned out the Fleetwood Mac singer was suffering the early symptoms of pneumonia, and the illness has had a permanent effect on her health.

“I have compromised lungs,” Nicks told Variety in a new interview. “The night of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I knew before I went onstage that something was wrong with me, so I had to really pull it together. The next day I got really sick, and I ended up going into the hospital in Philadelphia for a week in ICU with double pneumonia and human metapneumovirus and asthma. Talk about your oxygen levels going down; my oxygen levels were hardly existing.”

She said “you may get over it and just be like, ‘Great, great. I’m good. It’s gone.’ It’s not gone. It comes back in little ways to attack you forever. You’ll never get rid of it. So you don’t want to get it. I’m like, I’ve built like a thin paper shield of magical plastic around me, you know? Because I don’t want my career to be over.”

Nevertheless, Nicks recalled her induction ceremony – the first time a woman has been inducted on two separate occasions – as “fantastic” and “memorable.” “I gave the longest speech probably ever given, and nobody threw anything at me or yelled at me,” she noted. “So … I talked way too long.”

The experience was so special, she said, that she thinks the upcoming ceremony, which will be held under coronavirus restrictions, should be postponed until it can be staged properly. “I mean, it’s the biggest deal in the world,” she said. “The only people that think it isn’t a big deal are the people who don’t get in. The second that your name goes up, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s a really big deal.’ And so I’m very sorry that it’s going to be done in some sort of a weird [virtual] reality way, because it’s like not going to the ball.”

 

This album is a logical next step after Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In the Night, between its sparkling production gloss (courtesy of Rupert Hine, known for his work with the Fixx and Howard Jones) and emphasis on lacquered synth-pop layers. And while the album was a massive U.K. hit (and spawned the No. 1 rock radio track “Rooms on Fire”), Nicks’ personality and whimsical lyrics are subsumed by the formal (and now dated) sonic approach. A duet with Bruce Hornsby feels awkwardly stitched together, while “Cry Wolf” is anemic piano-pop — a reminder that even though Tango boasted strong pop DNA, the source material of The Other Side of the Mirror isn’t quite as strong.

STEVIE NICKS’ NEW CONCERT FILM HEADED TO VIDEO ON DEMAND

Stevie Nicks is bringing her new concert film to video on demand.

24 Karat Gold The Concert, which documents her 2017 solo tour, will be available to rent for one week — from Oct. 29 at 9AM PT through Nov. 5 at 11:59PM PT. Pre-orders for premium streaming access begin today.

The show, which isn’t available for download, will be viewable for 48 hours after purchase.

“The 24 Karat Gold Tour was my all-time favorite tour,” she said in a statement announcing the movie. “I not only got to sing my songs, but I was able to tell their stories for the first time. I love having the opportunity to share this concert with my fans.”

The video on demand release follows a two-night-only theatrical release last week, when the film screened at movie theaters, drive-ins and exhibition spaces.

A double-album edition is available Oct. 30. A two-CD version will be out exclusively at Target, and a digital edition is out the same day on most streaming platforms. A limited-edition “Crystal-Clear” vinyl copy will be available exclusively at Barnes & Noble.

Nicks recently appeared — alongside Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, Jackson Browne, Stephen Stills, Adam Sandler, Mike Campbell and others — at a virtual Tom Petty festival honoring what would have been the late songwriter’s 70th birthday.