Monday, December 18, 2023

Follow The Shawls... Stevie Nicks Live in San Francisco Dec 15, 2023

‘I feel like I’m home’: Stevie Nicks conjures the magic for S.F.
By Tony Bravo


Photo: Dana Jacobs

If you’re trying to find the path to a Stevie Nicks concert in any city, just follow the shawls.

The singer’s trademark accessory was in abundance Friday, Dec. 15, at San Francisco’s Chase Center, along with peasant skirts, top hats and lace as fans dressed in homage to the rock ’n’ roll queen and fashion icon.

“I dressed as Stevie Nicks for Halloween two or three years ago, then my brain chemistry changed and I never stopped,” said Emma Sullivan, who was bedecked in layers of black velvet and Victorian chokers. 

Sullivan attended Nicks’ last concert of the year with her equally festooned sister Ysabel. The San Francisco siblings remember listening to Nicks’ music — both her solo albums and hits with Fleetwood Mac — with their parents as children. But for them, Nicks’ appeal is more than just nostalgia. 

“She’s a queer icon, a feminist icon,” said Ysabel Sullivan, “and I connect with the spiritual and darker aspects of her music.”

For fellow San Franciscan Warren Sinclair, his fandom also goes beyond an appreciation of her music. 

“It’s the closest thing to a religious experience in my life,” said Sinclair, who was attending his 20th Nicks concert in two decades. “Each one is as magical as the first time.” 

Nicks, nicknamed “White Witch” by loyal followers, also seemed to be feeling the magic for the two-hour show.

Wearing a black velvet jacket over a black ruched skirt with her long blond hair curly and loose, Nicks had a youthful glow under the stage lights. But she did not shy away from mentioning her age — she proclaimed she’s 75 several times — or her “fairy grandmother” status during the show. 

Throughout the night, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame singer also referenced her deep local roots. Nicks’ family moved to the Bay Area when she was a teenager, and it was during her senior year at Menlo-Atherton High School that she met future musical partner Lindsey Buckingham. The two later attended San Jose State University together before dropping out to pursue music, forming bands Fritz and Buckingham Nicks before finding success with Fleetwood Mac. 

Nicks told the audience that while she lived in the Bay Area for only about seven years, her connection to the region remains strong.

“I feel like I’m home,” she said in the first of many stories she shared between songs. 

Nicks said being back in San Francisco brought back memories from earlier days, including the time she performed at the Fillmore in “1969 or ’70,” she said, with Buckingham and their band Fritz. 

“This guy is heckling me, ‘Hey baby, what you doing?,’ and guess who walks onstage — Mr. Bill Graham,” Nicks recounted, referring to the legendary San Francisco concert promoter. “He stomps out on the stage, and I’m not sure who he is but I know he’s someone … He went, ‘I want you to get out of my f—ing Fillmore and never f—ing come back to this building ever. And if I ever see you come back, I’ll kill you!’ ”

Friday night’s concert, rescheduled from March due to a band member’s COVID illness, closed Nicks’ 2023 leg of her tour before she goes on the road again in February. The crowd spanned generations, with fans in their 70s and 80s mixing with children, at least one of whom was carrying the special edition Stevie Nicks Barbie that was released earlier this year. 

Nicks opened the concert with 1981’s “Outside the Rain” from her first solo outing “Bella Donna,” then immediately transitioned into Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” from the band’s 1977 album “Rumours.” 

In recent years, Nicks, like many singers her age, has dropped some of the high notes from her songs, but they’re not too missed under the enveloping musical direction of her longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel. Her voice has become richer and gained color, with her signature vibrato matured into a warmer timbre.

One of the concert’s recurring themes was Nicks’ homages to her late friend and sometimes collaborator, Tom Petty. On the Petty-authored “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” she dueted with Wachtel in Petty’s place, tearing ferociously through the lyrics. Later, she covered Petty’s “Free Fallin’ ” with a soaring freedom in her voice. 

Her versions of her Fleetwood Mac classics “Gypsy” and “Gold Dust Woman,” plus her solo hit “Edge of Seventeen,” were expected crowd pleasers. But to many, her lesser-known 2011 “Soldier’s Angel” was a surprise. 

She introduced the song by referencing the war in Ukraine, saying, “If I was a guy and wasn’t 75, I’d go” fight for the country, she said, before launching into a performance accompanied by images of the conflict, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country’s flag. 

Although Nicks didn’t change costumes during her performance, she did switch out shawls a number of times, reentering to roars when she sang her solo hit “Bella Donna” draped in the original purple shawl from the album. 

For her encores, she sang Fleetwood Mac hits “Rhiannon” — complete with streamer-laden tambourine — and closed with “Landslide,” which she dedicated to her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie, who died last year at age 79. 

Before exiting the stage, Nicks said that she loves San Francisco and can’t wait to return. 

As the crowd exited Chase Center, a sea of gold sequins, fringe and leather moved through Thrive City just outside the stadium, where a few fans continued to twirl in their shawls. 

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Dave Stewart and Stevie Nicks Potential New Project In The Works

 


Dave Stewart teases new project with Stevie Nicks: ‘I can’t talk about it, but it’s interesting…’

Dave Stewart might be best known for his work as one-half of Eurythmics with Annie Lennox, but in a decades-spanning career he’s worked with the biggest names in music. 
From Anastacia, Geri Halliwell and Katy Perry, to Joss Stone, Bryan Ferry and Mick Jagger, his list of collaborators is varied and impressive, and in 2011 he teamed up with Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks on ‘In Your Dreams’ – her first solo album in a decade. 

Three years later, they reconvened to record ‘24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault’, and speaking in RETROPOP’s December 2023 edition the musician hinted there’s more to come. 

“She has called me about something that I can’t talk about, but it’s interesting,” he teases, before musing on the success of his various collaborations.  

Read more at Retropop

Charlotte summer music fest Featuring Stevie Nicks

 



Post Malone, Stevie Nicks to headline Uptown Charlotte summer music fest


CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Post Malone headlines a list of 40-plus artists that will be featured during a big summer music fest next year in the Queen City.

The three-day Lovin’ Life Music Fest will be headlined by Post Malone, Stevie Nicks, and Noah Kahan, which runs May 3-5th in Uptown, Charlotte. Tickets on sale now.


Monday, December 11, 2023

Stevie Nicks Live in Phoenix Review "It may have been the strongest solo set I’ve ever seen her play."

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks in Phoenix: The soundtrack of your life sounds better than ever


 



 

By: Ed Masley
Photos: Joe Rondone

Nearing the end of the downtown Phoenix concert on his co-headlining tour with Stevie Nicks at Chase Field on Friday, Dec. 8, Billy Joel paused to reflect on the apparent incompatibility this tour may represent to certain fans on both sides of the aisle.

Even Joel didn’t get it at first. Or so he led us to believe.

“I couldn’t understand the package, as they say,” he recalled after thanking his costar for doing the tour. “OK, Stevie Nicks. And Billy Joel. OK. Why?”

That got a great reaction. Lots of laughter. Then he answered his own question with a shout of “Because it sells tickets, for Christ’s sake.”

This is true. It does sell tickets.

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks: The soundtrack of your life

But it also makes a lot of sense on levels that go well beyond the ticket-buying super-power that Venn diagram suggests.

They both had massive pop hits in the ‘70s and ‘80s, so regardless of which artist is the bigger draw for you and yours, the other one will also play a lot of songs that occupy a sweet spot on the soundtrack of your life.

You know what came out the same year as Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”? Billy Joel’s “The Stranger.” Think about it. Two career-defining albums all but guaranteed to satisfy the same nostalgic urges.

And Joel and Nicks both know how to work a room, packing a setlist with crowd-pleasing classics while establishing a conversational rapport that draws you even deeper into who they are and what they represent.

Is Nicks a bit more heartfelt? Sure she is. Is Joel a bigger goof? Of course he is.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

And there was no mistaking the camaraderie between them when Joel made an early appearance during Nicks' set to sing Tom Petty's part on "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around,” doing his best to channel Petty in both phrasing and inflection, then hugging it out with Nicks before he left the stage.

It was an easy highlight of the night.


Stevie Nicks was in excellent voice throughout her 90-minute set

Although this is a co-headlining proposition, someone had to go on first, and that task fell to Nicks, who more than rose to the occasion at the helm of a fantastic backing band with longtime musical director Waddy Wachtel often dominating the proceedings on guitar, from “Fall From Grace” to the cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worh” and “Edge of Seventeen.”

His slide work, in particular, was consistently brilliant.

And Nicks was in excellent voice throughout her roughly 90-minute set while rocking an impressive assortment of shawls. That voice has deepened through the years, but Nicks is enough of an artist that she’s learned how to harness the power of the voice she has in 2023 and apply it in intriguing ways to classics she recorded in her 20s.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t wild about her messing with the melody to “Dreams” when she first started reimagining those early songs to suit her changing vocal range, but the “Dreams” we heard in Phoenix felt like the way it should be sung. At least in 2023.

It was a powerful performance, rocking with conviction in all the right places.

Because Nicks' image tends to leave a lot of writers searching for more synonyms for haunting and mysterious, we rarely hear about how much a song like “Gold Dust Woman” rocks in the hands of her latest collection of backing musicians.

But in Phoenix, “Gold Dust Woman” was an epic 12-minute rendition that used the Fleetwood Mac recording as a starting point and went off on a far more psychedelic journey that built to a fiery climax that was both majestic and intense. It was a highlight of her 15-song Phoenix setlist.

When Stevie went solo:How Stevie Nicks fueled her solo career with 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around'

Stevie Nicks honored the memory of her mother, Tom Petty and Christine McVie

She took the stage to a recording of Tom Petty doing “Runnin’ Down a Dream” and set the tone for her performance with a dramatic rendition of “Outside the Rain,” which segued seamlessly into “Dreams,” the hit she took to No. 1 with Fleetwood Mac.

That was the first of several Fleetwood Mac songs in a set that found her signing off with two selections she wrote for the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album that introduced the “Rumours” lineup, “Rhiannon” and “Landslide,” the latter of which was accompanied by vintage photographs of Nicks and the late Christine McVie.

She also made her way through countless highlights of her solo years, from the pulsing synth and slide guitar of a “Stand Back” that appeared to have a harder edge than the recording, to the a cappella break of “If Anyone Falls.”

And the heartfelt nod to her friendship with Petty, whose image flashed across the screen as she sang “Free Fallin’,” was exactly as sweet as she meant it to be.

It was after “Dreams” that Nicks reminded everyone that she was born in Phoenix.

“As soon as I get here, I think I’m gonna miss the ocean,’” she said. “And I get here and I don’t miss the ocean.”

As Nicks was preparing to finish her encore with “Landslide,” a bittersweet highlight of that first release with Fleetwood Mac, she dedicated the song to her brother, Christopher, with whom she shared a home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, for 25 years.

It’s as emotional a song as you could ever hope to hear. And after bringing her performance to a vulnerable finish with that undisputed classic, she talked about having met McVie in 1975.

“It’s kind of an empty world without her,” she said.

Then she teared up while recalling the words of her mother, Barbara Nicks, who died in 2012.

“And I want you to also know that my mom always used to say to me, ‘When you are hurt, you run to the stage.’ And I run to the stage every night.”  

It may have been the strongest solo set I’ve ever seen her play.

Stevie Nicks was a tough act to follow. But Billy Joel managed

Friday, December 08, 2023

Stevie Nicks Made History at KIA Forum Los Angeles

Stevie Nicks Weaves Memories + Music with Emotional Concert at the Forum in LA — and Makes History in the Process

 

By Adrian Garro
Photos: Ashley Osborn 

A decoration on one of the pillars outside the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Dec. 2 highlighted the many tours that have brought Stevie Nicks to the venue’s stage over the years.

After an incredible, sold-out evening this past Saturday evening, Nicks has now played the Forum 25 times — the most concerts put on at the venue by a female artist, according to the facility itself.

From her (many) tour stops at the Forum with Fleetwood Mac to her own robust solo career and beyond, Nicks knows the Forum more than most. Throughout her two-hour concert, you could feel the comfort and familiarity she felt as she dazzled her adoring audience with a mix of solo hits and favorites and the Fleetwood Mac classics that made her one of the most beloved singers/entertainers in history.

“I sing and I dance around my apartment, my house, and I do it because it makes me feel like I’m 25 and that’s good — because I’m not,” Nicks cracked at one point, one of her many moments of amusing banter between the 17 songs she and her band performed.

Stevie has been on the road for parts of the past two years or so, either on headlining dates, appearing at festivals or on a co-headline bill with Billy Joel. This Los Angeles stop was a headlining show, which afforded Nicks the chance to take her time and really dig deep — both in terms of the songs she sang and the thoughtful stories and anecdotes she provided between them. It effectively made the Forum feel much more intimate than it already does as if we were all gathered around a storytelling session with one of the greats.

Helping to create this atmosphere of warmth was an audience featuring quite a few women in obviously Stevie-inspired outfits, head-to-toe shawls, scarves and the general style that she has proudly and unapologetically shown off for decades.

Support for the night came from Ingrid Andress, a Nashville-based singer/songwriter with a few Billboard hits and four Grammy nominations to her name. Andress, who wore a Slipknot shirt that she’d modified into a fashionable performance outfit, was a revelation, performing on piano and on vocals accompanied by a guitarist.

She, too, told stories between songs (“I have four siblings and we were all homeschooled for a bit, so if you think I’m weird — that’s why”), raved about the thrill of opening for Stevie Nicks and turned in the sort of performance that clearly won her a nice chunk of new fans and set the tone for Nicks’ headlining set.

Nicks made it abundantly clear that performing is where she feels the most at ease, even at age 75. At one point she quoted her mother, saying, “My mom used to say to me, ‘Stevie, when you’re hurt, you run to the stage.’ And this has been very hard for me, with the loss of Christine. So, I run to the stage, and I basically run to you. And I thank you for making me better, every single time I come on stage. Thank you so much, you’re always in my heart.”

As Stevie explained, her current tour was put together as a means of coping with the loss of her dear friend and longtime Fleetwood Mac band mate, Christine McVie, who passed away in November 2022. Throughout the show and especially during the encore finale “Landslide,” photos of Stevie and Christine from all eras of their time together flashed on the screen behind the stage, the songs taking on a eulogistic tone with the emotions clearly being expressed by the singer.

The early days of Fleetwood Mac after she and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band, she explained, provided steadily increasing paychecks as the group became more successful — a far cry from her previous experiences being “cut off” by her family after moving to Los Angeles in pursuit of a music career. As the paychecks grew in volume and finances became more stable, though, Stevie said she found herself sometimes going to her bedroom, stripping her mattress off the bed frame, placing it straight on the ground and lying down on it as a means of keeping herself grounded despite her world expanding in all directions.

“I’m still Stevie, I’m still me,” she recalled saying to herself in those grounded moments. “It all has to do with the gypsy in me, I guess.”

These were the sorts of stories that made up a good portion of her set, each more entertaining than the last. Just as there were visual tributes to McVie, there were also notable moments of homage to the late Tom Petty — with both Nicks’ collaboration with him on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and a beautiful cover of “Free Fallin” in the encore, photos on the screen reflecting various live performances they’d given together over the years.



From start to finish, this was as meaningful and expressive a concert as one could expect. Throughout, Stevie’s voice sounded pristine — so much so that some in the crowd said things like, “She’s amazing, there’s no weakness in her voice whatsoever.”

Stevie Nicks has helped soundtrack the lives of millions — and this show demonstrated that as important as her music may be to her audience, it’s that same audience that is just as crucial in keeping her spark alight.

Or, as she said more succinctly during “Edge of Seventeen”:

“I just want you to know that this is what I sing for.”

Stevie Nicks’ set list:

Outside the Rain
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac song)
If Anyone Falls
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
Fall From Grace
For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield cover)
Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac song)
Wild Heart
Bella Donna
Stand Back
Soldier’s Angel
Gold Dust Woman (Fleetwood Mac song)
I Sing for the Things
Edge of Seventeen

Encore:
Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty cover)
Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac song)
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac song) 

Review Stevie Nicks San Diego Nov 29, 2023

One night with Stevie Nicks entranced audiences with her mystical vocals, lost loves and ‘Dreams’




by Katerina Portela

Magical.”

That is the word that best conveys the feeling in the air on the night of Nov. 29 when Stevie Nicks performed in San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena.

The crowd gathering before the concert was an ebb and flow of glitter, draped in beaded scarves and dark hats — a reflection of Nicks’ own iconic style. 

A remarkable range of ages was present that night, from Nicks’ older white-haired fans to newer fans running in flowing dresses, all of whom contained the same excitement to see the so-called “White Witch.” 

“When did I become a Stevie fan? I’ve been a fan my whole life!” said Denise Hughes, attendee and SDSU alumni. “Well, I was born in 1980, so you could say I became a fan in 1982!”

Former frontwoman of Fleetwood Mac, one of the biggest bands of the ‘70s and ‘80s, Nicks launched her solo career with her album titled “Bella Donna” in 1981. The album and her following work established her as both an extraordinary frontwoman and a platinum-album-selling solo songwriter and performer. 

After such an illustrious career, Nicks shows no signs of slowing down as she continues to write new music and perform today.

“I love Stevie’s independence,” said fan Hillary Addelman. “(I love) that she’s a woman with a vision and that she branched out with Tom Petty and other musicians, following her own dream. If it’s anything like her last concert, her storyline that goes with every song of hers makes it an intimate experience. It’s not just a song, it’s a story.”

The love for Stevie Nicks had not been contained within the older generation, as the crowds of parents and children showed, but has passed down from generation through records spinning in growing households and children coming to share their parents’ love for Nicks’ music.

“Fleetwood Mac was how I woke up every morning, so I have my dad to thank for that,”  Addelman said. 

Review Stevie Nicks Live in San Diego November 29, 2023

Stevie Nicks spun an expertly calibrated musical web at her San Diego concert



BY GEORGE VARGA
Photos: K.C. Alfred

The veteran solo star and Fleetwood Mac mainstay was engaging throughout her performance at SDSU’s Viejas Arena, which benefitted from an unusually clear and well-balanced audio mix in a venue long noted for its booming acoustics and slap-back echo.

Stevie Nicks has been in a select class since she sang and spun her way to stardom in the mid-1970s as a member of Fleetwood Mac. Five decades later, she has risen to an even more select class as her often-stirring Wednesday night concert at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena reaffirmed.

Along with fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Bonnie Raitt, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry of Blondie and San Diego native Ann Wilson of Heart, Nicks is among the very few women artists who rose to prominence in the ‘70s who continue actively touring and recording in their 70s. Moreover, Nicks is the only one to be inducted twice, first with Fleetwood Mac in 1998, then as a solo artist in 2019.


That unique distinction could have allowed her to rest on her laurels at Viejas Arena, where Nicks last performed in 2018 on what appears to be the final tour by the now-dormant Fleetwood Mac. At 75, she could have easily just picked up her presumably hefty paycheck — the 8,000-seat arena was at near-capacity — and coasted through a low-gear, cruise-controlled show.

But the husky-voiced troubadour sounded like she still had some things to prove Wednesday, performing with palpable conviction throughout. And when she sang the refrain “I don’t want to stop now” as her 1981 hit, “Edge of Seventeen,” built to a mighty climax — 90 minutes into her nearly two-hour performance — it sounded more like a vow than an aspiration.


“Thank you so much for being a part of my life. I’ll see you again, I promise,” Nicks told the cheering audience when the song concluded.

That promise came true minutes later when she returned to the stage for three encores. But it’s likely Nicks was referring to a future tour, since she clearly was enjoying herself at least as much as her audience. The enthusiastic crowd included a significant number of women — younger, older and in between — whose concert attire paid homage to looks Nicks popularized back in the 1970s and 1980s, including leather and lace, top hats and enough capes and shawls to stock a store or two.

Accordingly, when Nicks briefly left the stage several times during her 17-song set, it was to exchange one cape for another. Her microphone stand was decorated with two black scarves, a trademark since her early “witchy woman” Fleetwood Mac days. To cheers, she happily modeled what she said was her original “Bella Donna” album-cover cape.

In her introduction to the 1982 Fleetwood Mac favorite, “Gypsy,” Nicks recalled how she and guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham — then her paramour — rose from obscurity to fame after they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. The couple quickly went, she noted, from earning $200 a week, to $400, to $800, to $1,500, to $500,000 a year, and more.

“We got rich, fast!” Nicks affirmed. She added that, when she longed to relive her days as a struggling musician working as a waitress, she would “put my mattress on the floor.”

Nicks spoke freely between most of her selections, but it wasn’t the kind of quick, impersonal banter one often hears at concerts.

She warmly recounted first meeting and singing with Tom Petty on her 1981 solo hit, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a collaboration instigated by Jimmy Iovine, her producer and boyfriend at the time. Prior to her potent version of the Stephen Stills-penned 1967 Buffalo Springfield hit, “For What It’s Worth,” Nicks encouraged her fans to vote in the next election.

“I myself never voted until I was 72,” she said. “I was busy! I was busy being famous ... I didn’t want to do jury duty.”

Accompanied by a polished six-man band and two female backing vocalists, led by guitar ace Waddy Wachtel, Nicks opened the concert with a pair of songs that served as a template of sorts for the evening.

The first was the moody “Outside the Rain,” a choice cut from her 1981 solo debut album, “Bella Donna.” The second was the 1977 Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams,” which in 2020 became an unlikely internet hit on TikTok.

Both were delivered with skill and authority, as were Nicks’ subsequent selections. She wisely didn’t attempt to hit notes no longer in her reach, but infused each song with emotion and meaning. And she twirled just a few times, slowly. But when Nicks stretched out, as she did on an extended version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” that surged with power, her vocal intensity was palpable.

She was equally compelling performing deep solo album cuts, such as her 2011 anti-war lament, “Soldier’s Angel,” as she was when essaying Petty’s “Free Fallin’ ” and her 1975 Fleetwood Mac classic, “Rhiannon.”

The concert’s most poignant moment came at its conclusion. That was when Nicks paid tribute to Fleetwood Mac keyboardist and singer, Christine McVie, who died last Nov. 30 at 79 from an ischemic stroke.

Nicks’ spare version of the wistful love ballad “Landslide” found her accompanied by just acoustic guitar and piano, as vintage photos of her and McVie were shown on multiple LED screens. Nicks didn’t write the “Landslide” lyrics “And I’m getting older too / Oh, I’m getting older too” in tribute to her fallen friend and band mate. But when she sang them Wednesday, they served as an elegy and a world-wise declaration of endurance and resiliency.

Fleetwood Mac Billboard Year-End Charts 2023


Billboard Magazine recently published its 2023 year end charts and Fleetwood Mac is all over the place showing up on multiple charts. Mostly for "Rumours", but still for an album over 45 years old, this is pretty impressive!


#1 - Billboard 200 Artists - Duo/Group

#2 - Top Rock Albums Artists

#3 - Top Rock Albums - “Rumours”

#3 - Rock Streaming Songs - “Dreams”

#3 - Rock Digital Song Sales Artists

#3 - Top Artists - Duo / Group

#3 - Top Rock & Alternative Albums Artist

#3 - Catalog Albums - “Rumours”

#4 - Top Rock & Alternative Albums - “Rumours”

#4 - Rock Streaming Songs Artists

#5 - Vinyl Albums - “Rumours”

#6 - Top Rock Artists

#6 - Catalog Artists

#10 - Rock Digital Song Sales - “Everywhere”

#11 - Rock Digital Song Sales - “Dreams”

#11 - Top Rock & Alternative Artists

#12 - Top Album Sales Artist

#16 - Tastemakers Albums - “Rumours”

#25 - Billboard 200 Albums - “Rumours”

#28 - Top Rock Albums - “Greatest Hits”

#29 - Top Rock & Alternative Albums - “Greatest Hits”

#31 - Top Canadian Albums - “Rumours”

#36 - Rock Streaming Songs - “The Chain”

#52 - Top Artists

#135 - Billboard 200 Albums - “Greatest Hits”


Friday, November 24, 2023

Stevie Nicks Street Angel and Trouble In Shangri-La Vinyl Coming Soon

Stevie Nicks' fifth and sixth solo albums, "Trouble in Shangri-La" and "Street Angel" coming soon to vinyl in limited edition transparent sea blue and transparent red vinyl. 











Roughtrade in the UK posted the information with a link to pre-order. I'm sure Rhino will soon provide information for a north American release.

STREET ANGEL

30th Anniversary Edition of Stevie Nicks’ fifth studio album, pressed on transparent red vinyl. Originally released in 1994, the album peaked at #45 in the US, and #16 in the UK. The Gold-certified album features the singles “Blue Denim”, “Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind,” and “Street Angel” featuring David Crosby.

Pre-order

TROUBLE IN SHANGRI-LA

Stevie Nicks’ sixth studio album pressed on Transparent Sea Blue vinyl. Originally released in 2001, the album reached #5 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified Gold by the RIAA. The album features the hits “Sorcerer,” “Every Day,” and “Planets Of The Universe,” which reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance chart.

Pre-order




Friday, November 17, 2023

Two new single certifications in the UK for Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac's "Say You Love Me" from the 1975 white album was certified Silver which signifies 200K units sold in the UK.  Also, "Go Your Own Way" from Rumours reached another milestone 4x Platinum or 2.4 million in units sold.  Streaming contributes to units sold along with digital downloads. 



Saturday, November 11, 2023

Stevie Nicks and Billy Joel Live in Minneapolis November 10, 2023

Concert review: Odd couple Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks offer fun night at U.S. Bank Stadium

By ROSS RAIHALA


Photo: lauraannkg on IG

If Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks seem like an odd combination, well they are. He’s a steely, populist New Yorker, while she’s a dramatic hippie witch from Phoenix. And yet, the pair delivered a delightful and nostalgic evening Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, even if they took two quite different approaches.

Nicks amped up the moody atmosphere for her set, a blend of her solo hits and some of the songs she wrote for Fleetwood Mac, and wore a series of her famous shawls. Early on, she told the crowd one of her backup singers tested positive for COVID that morning and Nicks’ vocal coach was filling in. Nicks said it would sound a little different and it did, particularly during “Edge of Seventeen” and “Landslide.” A bit distracting, but not enough to be a game changer.

As for Nicks, she sounded terrific. Now 75, she twirls slower than she used to, but she can still sing. Whether she was belting out “Stand Back” or bringing the audience in with “Dreams,” Nicks nailed it.

Her longtime guitarist Waddy Wachtel — a session musician who has worked with everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Dolly Parton — also shined. He extended the instrumental breaks in several numbers, most notably “Gold Dust Woman,” an already dramatic song he transformed into a true epic.

Nicks also covered two very distinctive songs — Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Free Fallin” — and somehow made them her own. True magic.

Four songs into her set, Nicks played her debut solo single “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” with Joel popping out to sing Petty’s part. He did a decent job and later in his own set offered a surprisingly awesome Mick Jagger impersonation (both singing- and dancing-wise) during a snippet of the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.”

Joel takes an old-fashioned and showbizzy approach to performing live, complete with massive hooks and canned comic lines he’s used hundreds of times. For example, he took the stage to the end score from the 1984 Robert Redford sports film “The Natural,” written by Randy Newman channeling Aaron Copland.

The 75-year-old wasn’t afraid to pump up his old hits like “Only the Good Die Young” and “New York State of Mind” into true stadium rockers. Crucially, though, he didn’t significantly alter any arrangements, he just made them bigger and bolder.

As such, the set list was packed with Joel’s many hits, the ones he’s been playing for decades now. The crowd greeted each one like an old friend, from “My Life” and “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” to “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” and “Piano Man.” (Joel retired from recording pop/rock albums with 1993’s “River of Dreams.”)

The furthest Joel strayed was a pair of album cuts early in his set, “Summer, Highland Falls” and “Zanzibar.” Of the latter, Joel noted it “gets played on TikTok, whatever the hell that is.” Joel sure knows how to put on a show.


Review: Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks team up to thrill classic rock fans of all ages
Despite no new music for decades, the Rock Hall of Famers packed U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. 

By Jon Bream Star Tribune


Billy Joel stands close to alone. Fifty years to the week after he released the album "Piano Man" — featuring that sing-along ode to loneliness — he was ambitiously playing at U.S. Bank Stadium even though he hasn't released an album of new songs in 30 years. What other solo artist would attempt that?

Stevie Nicks stands close to alone, too. One year to the month after the death of her bestie Christine McVie, she was playing at U.S. Bank Stadium, opening for Joel, as essentially the last singer standing from Fleetwood Mac. (Remember the band unceremoniously dismissed Lindsey Buckingham in 2018, and he's scaled back to performing in theaters.)

Joel and Nicks seem like an odd pairing — the pugnacious New Yorker and the mystical California hippie. Yet, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have joined forces this year for the eight-city Two Icons, One Night Tour, which falls between their separate arena gigs.

The New York/California ticket got the overwhelming approval Friday night of maybe 50,000 multi-generational voters at the packed Vikings stadium (according to our applause poll).

With living-in-the-past Joel, the fans indicated that "we love you just the way you were." Of the 25 or so selections his group offered, all but two were from 1982 or earlier. And not all were hits, as he included deep tracks "Summer Highland Falls" for "all you manic depressives" and "Zanzibar" with its snazzy jazzy Carl Fischer trumpet solo.

Joel was, as always, full of shtick, attitude and, now, dad jokes. He did his dad-dance impression of Mick Jagger by doing a taste of the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up," and he had his guitarist Mike DelGuidice detour into a gratuitous slab of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" as well as Puccini's aria "Nessun Dorma." Like Joel's catalog, his two-hour set was a remarkable rangy musical melting pot.

Joel remembered playing at the Marigold Ballroom "in the boondocks" (actually it was downtown Minneapolis, where the Hyatt Regency stands), and he asked for prayers so he could still hit his high notes on "An Innocent Man" (he did).

Yes, he was in good voice at age 74, save for control issues on a couple of tunes. He turned "The Longest Time" and the doo-wop styled "River of Dreams" into wonderful group vocal showcases. The piano man gave each of his fun-loving musicians time in the spotlight, which doesn't typically happen at stadium shows. Moreover, the sound for Joel's highly musical set was better than usual at the football palace. Too bad his crew couldn't get the live video cameras to work on the opening "My Life."

Nicks, who in 2016 toured with Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders (same era, different vibe), delivered a greatest-hits set this time, unlike her arena trek seven years ago that featured plenty of deep tracks. As the first act to hit the stage Friday, Nicks knew how to get the party started segueing into "Dreams," the Fleetwood Mac song that got resurrected via TikTok in 2020, for her second number.

She pulled out her trump card on the fourth selection, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," as Joel sauntered out to sing the part originally done by Tom Petty on Nicks' debut solo single in 1981.

The duet may not have been as spirited as when Nicks pulled it off with Hynde in St. Paul seven years ago, but it certainly invigorated the late-arriving Minneapolis crowd. Afterward, Nicks explained that she's done the song live with Petty, Harry Styles and others, but Joel "scares me every time." It was a little unclear if she meant that in a good way.

There was no question that Nicks, 75, was in terrific voice, that seductive husky siren of hers, though it was hard to fully appreciate her 90-minute performance in the echo chamber that is the Vikings stadium. Moreover, the live video — that was essential in the massive coliseum with a petite performer who eschewed her usual signature dizzying dancing — was marred by all kinds of tacky patterns (colorful dots, gold bubbles, etc.) over her image.

Waddy Wachtel's guitar consistently cut through, whether the mysterious and ultimately noisy slashing on "Gold Dust Woman," one of Nicks' highlights, or the edgy riffing on "Edge of Seventeen" (which also featured a funky organ passage by the Twin Cities' own Ricky Peterson).

Nicks did not mention Prince even though she played their funky 1983 collaboration "Stand Back." As she always does in the Twin Cities, she gave a shout out to "my one and only husband," Kim Anderson, her ex- who was in the audience and to whom she dedicated "Wild Heart."

Despite a few glitches, Joel and Nicks reinforced what the music business long ago learned: Classic rock knows no expiration date. 

Stevie Nicks Detroit November 7, 2023

Stevie Nicks cast a spell over Detroit audience at Little Caesars Arena
The Queen of Rock and Roll put on one epic show



by: Jack Roskopp

“There’s just something that’s so rock and roll about Detroit City,” said Stevie Nicks at the top of her headlining show at Little Caesars Arena Tuesday night.

She is certainly right about that statement, and rock and roll she did deliver. As the first woman to ever be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (once with Fleetwood Mac and again as a solo artist), she lived up to her title as Queen of Rock and Roll.

Dressed in all black and her signature shawls, Nicks tore through her back catalogue of hits, which included Fleetwood Mac hits (”Dreams,” “Gypsy,” “Gold Dust Woman”) as well as songs from her solo career.

The best part was that she introduced almost every song with a little story or anecdote, and man were they entertaining. She told stories of her time before joining Fleetwood Mac, how she and Lindsey Buckingham were dirt poor until they joined the band and her friendship with the late Tom Petty.

She even encouraged the audience to get out and vote (it was election day, after all), and how she didn’t actually vote in election until recently, and to not be dumb and stupid like she has been all her life with not voting. For the amount of young people in the crowd last night (all dressed as her, of course), it was a needed message.

I’ve seen Nicks a few other times while she was on tour with Fleetwood Mac, and she never talked this much when she was with the band. That’s probably because Fleetwood Mac has so many songs to get through in their setlist, so it was kinda great that she could be a bit more intimate, even while playing at a packed arena.

But it was all about the performance for Nicks. At 75-years-old, she still sounds amazing. The highlights, of course, was when she performed Fleetwood Mac hits. “Dreams” and “Gypsy” were ethereal, while “Rhiannon” during her encore was as witchy as ever. It was like she cast a spell over the entire audience.

She also added some covers to her setlist. “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield was a welcome surprise (also her story before she played the song was delightful as ever), and a cover of “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was a beautiful tribute to her late friend.

Speaking of tributes, she closed out the show with her most famous song, “Landslide,” and dedicated it to Christine McVie, her best friend and Fleetwood Mac bandmate who died almost a year ago. Images of Nicks and McVie played on the screens in the arena while Nicks warmly sang the lyrics “Children get older, I’m getting older, too.” As a lifelong Fleetwood Mac fan, I couldn’t help but get emotional.

Nicks told the audience right before the show ended how this tour has helped her deal with the immense grief of losing McVie, and it was the perfect note to end a wonderful night of music on.

“Join the peace train,” she said at one point during the show, and it was a perfect reminder for what’s going on in today’s world. Long live rock and roll, and long live Stevie Nicks.


Stevie Nicks (Live) 4K - Opening Songs - 11/7/23


Stevie Nicks in Detroit: Storyteller, showstopper singing Fleetwood Mac and solo hits
By Edward Pevos

DETROIT - She has one of those voices you have to hear in person to get the full appreciation for. Stevie Nicks performed both Fleetwood Mac hits and songs from her solo catalog at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Tuesday, November 7.

She took the stage at 8:25 p.m. to a loud applause, performing “Outside The Rain,” a deep cut, before smoothly mashing into “Dreams,” performing it just the way fans remember the song when it was released in 1977. After hearing the 75-year old’s strong, signature vocals on this Fleetwood Mac classic, fans knew they were in for a special evening.

Nicks didn’t just perform, she was a storyteller, giving fans some history behind many of the songs she performed. Like how she didn’t have a lead single for her “Bella Donna” album until Tom Petty offered her “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” to record. And she says she had the choice to do it with or without him. You know how that turned out.

Nicks also performed a cover of “For What It’s Worth,” a song written by Stephen Stills and made famous by Buffalo Springfield. Nicks told the crowd she said when she was younger that she would record it when she became a rock star. She put it on her 2010 album, “In Your Dreams.” She says she always had thought the song was political, but says it is actually about the Sunset Strip curfew riots.

Nicks also paid tribute to the late Petty with a strong rendition of “Free Fallin,’” showing pictures of the two together throughout the years.

Nicks had two showstopping moments in the evening with extended versions of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” and one of her solo hits “Edge of Seventeen.” Both were mesmerizing from start to finish.

She also told the crowd there is just something about performing in “Motown.”

“I have to say that in all the years I’ve been doing this, I always remember being in Detroit many, many times to play. I don’t know whether it’s Detroit City, like the song, or cars, I don’t know. It’s just something in the name of Detroit that’s just really special and rock and roll. I’m so happy that I’m here still standing and alive.”

The setlist also included solo hits “If Anyone Falls” and “Stand Back” as well as Fleetwood Mac staples “Gypsy,” “Rhiannon” and “Landslide.” In all, she performed 17 songs in two hours with plenty of storytelling. Nicks voice is just as strong as ever and she delivered a memorable night of music.

“You have been patient listening to my long stories and I love you for that so much, really. I will take that home with me tonight.”



Stevie Nicks celebrates long career, absent friends at Little Caesars Arena
By GARY GRAFF 

Stevie Nicks called to “get this party started” early on during her concert Tuesday night, Nov. 7, at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.

What the presented, however, was a bit of a wake — albeit a celebratory one.

Nicks, at 75 and nearly 50 years into a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted recording career, put absent friends front and center during her two-hour show. Tom Petty was particularly top of mind; Nicks and her eight-member band entered the stage to his “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” and Petty, who passed away in 2017, was part of a parade of stars (her ex-boyfriend Don Henley, occasional tour mate Billy Joel, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and others) featured on the curved rear stage video screen as she played their 1981 hit collaboration “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

An emotional encore cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” meanwhile, was accompanied by another photo show, this time all of Petty, his Heartbreakers and Nicks with him and them. In image of Prince, who died during 2016, appeared during “Edge of Seventeen.”

But perhaps the most moving was the show-closing rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” a tribute to Nicks’ late bandmate Christine McVie — who passed last year — that was also accompanied by a three-hanky reel of vintage images of the two together.

The undercurrent of mortality was poignant but hardly a drag on a show that also celebrated Nicks’ long career and continuing potency as a performer. Wrapped in a series of shawls — including the original one she sported on the cover of her 1981 solo debut, “Bella Donna” — Nicks was a commanding presence even when standing stock still, her voice finding melodic variations in the 17 songs from her solo and Fleetwood Mac catalogs. She’s aging with grace, but her capable delivery of rockers such as “Fall From Grace,” “Wild Heart,” “Stand Back” and “Rhiannon” assured fans — many dressed in Nicks’ flowing Welsh witch attire — that she’s hardly bowing to the years.

The support was there, too, particularly from longtime guitarist and music director Waddy Wachtel — spotlighted during numerous solos including a lengthy prologue to “Edge of Seventeen” — and backing vocalists Lori Nicks (her sister-in-law) and Sharon Celani.

The show was part “Storyteller” as well, with Nicks offering lengthy and insightful remembrances of working with Petty on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and her fan experience with Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” which she covered during the show. Nicks is also using this year’s tour to perform the 1985 track “I Sing for the Things” for the first time, and she dedicated “Soldier’s Angel” to current war in Ukraine, with video images of the struggle and of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Nicks didn’t delve deeply into politics, however. “You came her for peace — that’s what I’m trying to give you,” she explained before the song. “We just sing this for peace.”

Nicks demonstrated admirable self-awareness at the end of the night, telling the Little Caesars crowd that “you have been sweet and you have been patient and you have listened to my long stories, and I love you for that.” She could rest assured the feeling from fans was mutual.

Stevie Nicks Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2023 with Sheryl Crow

The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony brought out the best and brightest in the music industry for a night of electrifying performances at the Barclays Center in New York City on November 3, 2023.



One of the biggest surprises of the evening came when Stevie Nicks joined inductee Sheryl Crow on stage to perform Crow's hit 'Strong Enough' off her 1993 Grammy-winning album Tuesday Night Music Club. 

The 75-year-old Fleetwood Mac icon looked every inch the bohemian chic goddess in a billowy black ensemble as she belted out the upbeat single next to Crow, 61, who rocked out on a guitar.

The 'Edge of Seventeen' songstress wasn't finished whipping the crowd into a frenzy when the song ended, however, as she kept up her signature vocals for a round of Crow's 'Everyday Is a Winding Road'.

And the stunning female vocalists got a little help from none other than singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Frampton.


Videos: golddustnickss on X







 



Tuesday, November 07, 2023

Vinyl Me Please releases exclusive versions of Fleetwood Mac's Tango In The Night and Mirage

Vinyl Me Please releases exclusive versions of Fleetwood Mac's Tango In The Night and Mirage on forest green and plum galaxy vinyl. The expected release date for both is early February. Members and non-members can pre-order now at vinylmeplease.com

This bundle includes VMP exclusive reissues of Fleetwood Mac's Tango In The Night and Mirage.

Tango In The Night is Fleetwood Mac's fourteenth studio album featuring iconic tracks like "Big Love," "Seven Wonders," "Little Lies" and "Everywhere." A volume of incredible synth-pop from the band originally released in 1987.

The VMP exclusive version of Fleetwood Mac's Tango In The Night is pressed on 180g Forest Green Galaxy vinyl at GZ Vinyl. The 1LP will arrive in a single, tip-on, foil-stamped jacket with a lyric insert. It was mastered from the original master tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound.

Mirage, the soft rock follow up to its more experimental predecessor, Tusk, is the thirteenth studio album from Fleetwood Mac and features "Gypsy," "Can't Go Back," "Hold Me" and "Oh Diane."

The VMP exclusive version of Fleetwood Mac's Mirage is pressed on 180g Plum Galaxy vinyl at GZ Vinyl. The 1LP will arrive in a single, tip-on, foil-stamped jacket with a lyric insert. The lacquers were cut from the master tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound.

Fleetwood Mac Bundle
$80 NON-MEMBER PRICE -OR- $69 MEMBER PRICE


Also offered to buy separately 

Mirage
FLEETWOOD MAC
$42 NON-MEMBER PRICE -OR- $37 MEMBER PRICE

Tango In The Night
FLEETWOOD MAC
$42 NON-MEMBER PRICE -OR- $37 MEMBER PRICE






Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Stevie Nicks Announces Baltimore Date + Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performace

STEVIE NICKS Announced a new date: 

February 17, 2024 Baltimore, MD at CFG Bank Arena. 

Tickets on sale Friday Oct 27th



STEVIE NICKS will be performing LIVE at Rock Hall 2023! Stream it on Disney Plus, Friday, Nov. 3 at 8p ET!




Lindsey Buckingham & Omar Apollo Musicians on Musicians

Lindsey Buckingham Wrote a Song That Changed Omar Apollo’s Life
A genre-hopping young star and a rock icon compare notes on songwriting, Fleetwood Mac, relationships and much, much more

BY TOMÁS MIER
Photographs by Joshua White


I DIDN’T BRING my stilts,” dad-jokes Lindsey Buckingham as he eyes Omar Apollo, all six feet five of him. Apollo lets out a chuckle as he leans against the recording console, where Buckingham’s band, Fleetwood Mac, happened to have made Tusk 45 years ago. 

Buckingham, a 74-year-old guitar hero, might seem an odd pairing for a 26-year-old Mexican American star who makes tear-jerking alt-R&B. But as Apollo, who asked Buckingham to join him for Musicians on Musicians, puts it: “I got layers, you know?” (That’s evident as the singer jumps between playing the Cocteau Twins and norteño legend Ramón Ayala during the duo’s photo shoot.)

Once the men sit down for their chat at the Village, the legendary L.A. studio, they realize their connection is more than just musical. Perhaps, fateful. Buckingham made Tusk here. Apollo dropped his breakthrough album, Ivory, last year. “That’s crazy,” Apollo says. “We both have the elephant thing.”

Apollo’s conversation with Buckingham arrives at a pivotal moment in his career: He earned a Best New Artist Grammy nomination earlier this year, his song “Evergreen” just went platinum, and his excellent new EP, Live for Me, came out Oct. 6 — the success is coming swiftly, and he’s at a clear turning point. Buckingham knows that feeling all too well: It happened after Fleetwood Mac dropped their blockbuster album Rumours. He has some advice to impart about fame, songwriting, and going your own way as an artist. 

Omar, you wanted to talk to Lindsey. I would love to hear why.

Apollo: Well, there’s a song that you made that has so many memories attached to it, that I’m obsessed with, that literally changed how I wanted to look at music and make music.

Buckingham: And what song was that?

Apollo: It was “Never Going Back Again.”

Buckingham: Oh, wow.

Apollo: Actually, there was this guy that I had a crush on. He was in love with that song. And so, I was like, “I’m going to learn it.”

Buckingham: And did you?

Apollo: No, I couldn’t learn it. It’s impossible! I literally was sitting on tour having my friend teach me. “Teach me how to do this picking. I can’t do the picking.” It is such a specific pattern and rhythm. And my head is hurting. I was losing it: “It’s so hard.”

Buckingham: The song has changed a lot. If you listen to it on Rumours, it’s one thing, and it evolved into something different onstage over the years.

Apollo: I watched a live video of you singing it. And you don’t say it on the record, but you say it in the live version: “I’ve been down three times.” And I was like, “Man.” I remember driving in my friend’s Mini Cooper in the desert, we had gotten done a big night of partying. And then I just blast this song, and I just remember feeling like, “Oh, every time I put this song on, it makes me so happy.” And that’s something that I feel is very rare in music — for something to just affect me like that. I just want to do that one day, you know what I mean? 

[Buckingham nods.]

Buckingham: I love how you use vocals on Ivory. What’s the fourth track called? The one with Daniel Caesar on it?

Apollo: “Invincible.”

Buckingham: Yeah, your use of vocals is just so sublime. And “Killing Me.”

Apollo: That’s crazy to hear you say that.

Buckingham: Are you playing a lot of the stuff on that?

Apollo: I’m playing a lot of the acoustic guitars on that. That was me on “Invincible.” Kind of folky, then it turns into this Radiohead drummy thing.

Buckingham: That’s part of what’s interesting, is you’re cross-breeding. You’ve got these elements of R&B and soul, but then you’ve got beats that are more referencing hip-hop. The only thing I didn’t like about it was it’s too short.

Apollo: You thought it was too short?

Buckingham: I mean, it was just an intro piece. I was thinking, “Oh, he could do a whole song like that!” It’s so delicate. It’s what you’re not doing in a lot of ways that’s so great, too. What I think your challenge will end up being.… You’re poised to get to the point where these external forces are going to expect a certain thing from you. I got to that point post-Rumours. Rumours started off about the music, then the success eventually became about the success. The key is to remember who you are and to be yourself. 

Apollo: Like lean into it.

Buckingham: Lean into it, or subvert people’s expectations for the sake of your own growth. I did something really radical after Rumours, which was that I made the Tusk album. It was just a whole other palette. It wasn’t Rumours 2, but it set me on the right path for always valuing art over commerce.

Apollo: And it aged really well. When I made my first projects before Ivory, I was broke. I wasn’t really thinking about it. It was just pure.

Buckingham: After Tusk, there was a backlash, and Mick [Fleetwood] says to me, “Well, we’re not going to do that anymore.” I had to try to get back to the spontaneous mindset we had that led to Rumours. If I was going to keep following my heart, I had to start making solo albums. The people that were fans of mine, in the context of Fleetwood Mac, you lose nine-tenths of that. [With solo music], you can bring a whole other approach, on a production level, in the studio, and onstage. You’ve got some Spanish on the album, right?

Apollo: Yeah, a little bit. My mom and dad, they’re from Mexico. They knew Michael Jackson. And my dad knew the Beatles, so that was it. He showed me “Yesterday,” and that was one of the first songs I learned on guitar.

Buckingham: Not a bad place to start. Those guys could write. See, I think of myself as a stylist.

Apollo: As a stylist. Why?

Buckingham: If you think of a real writer, there are people who come from the Tin Pan Alley tradition, or Lennon and McCartney, people who just have a certain level of skill that takes them to that place. And then you’ve got something that is equally valid, which is more based on style. 

Apollo: Even with “Never Going Back Again,” the lyrics, your cadence. You said so much by saying so little. And I think that’s really what I want to do. I wanted to ask you about how you wrote it.

Buckingham: Well, it helped that I was in a band with someone who had broken up with me.

Apollo: You guys were broken up for a while?

Buckingham: In Stevie’s [Nicks] case, I think she was drawn to a new version of herself she couldn’t see before she joined Fleetwood Mac. She saw an opportunity to step out into the light a little more. I think that played into our breaking up. What I’m saying is that to have someone that you never had the luxury of having closure with made it hard to be emotionally healthy. But it might have also made it that much easier to write a song like “Never Going Back Again,” because it was the farthest thing from being academic. It was completely visceral.

Apollo: It gave me chills hearing you talk about it. There are these harmonies that happen in the middle of the song that don’t happen again. I started doing that with my songs. But that song, it woke me up.

Buckingham: That’s what it’s for, man. To pass it along for someone else to pick up on the meaning and make their own meaning. 

Apollo: I love making music. I’ve realized that I just have this creativity, I feel like I have to honor it right now in this time of my life. I’m like, “In 20, 30 years, am I going to have this same drive?” It’s actually so hard to make albums.

Buckingham: It’s OK if you don’t — that’s a long ways away. You’re right at the beginning. It’s very exciting.

Apollo: I’m about to put out this four-song EP, and it’s literally the best music I’ve ever written. It’s like I can’t stop listening to it.

Buckingham: It should go like this, you know?

Apollo: It’s interesting because only one song is about love and the rest is just about family. You just change as a writer. It’s interesting when you get out of survival mode. It’s like the switch is on and now it just can’t stop. 

Buckingham: It’s funny, isn’t it? Because it seems like there’s always stuff passing over your head in the ether somewhere. Snatch it, and take it to the next step. Because you can have an idea and 10 minutes later, it’s like, “What was that? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.” Do a voice memo at least!

Apollo: How did you guys do voice memos back in the day?

Buckingham: Cassette players a lot of times.

Apollo: Just in your pocket?

Buckingham: Yeah, or you just didn’t. The way I work, writing and recording can become one thing. 

Apollo: I had a song and it went platinum, called “Evergreen.” It’s about watching another relationship form in front of me. I was like, “Oh, people are reacting to this song emotionally.” So I figured I needed to make even more sad music. If I can just amplify the sadness, I feel like that is what’s going to feel authentic for me: “Oh, this is how it’s being perceived. How can I keep it authentic to me but still—”

Buckingham: There’s nothing wrong with taking in external input, but at the end of the day, you can’t let that be a driving force. A lot of artists who do what’s expected of them forget who you are and why you got into it in the first place. It sounds like you already know that intuitively, so that’s a good place to be.

Apollo: I’m trying, man. I love this shit too much. Hearing you say the name of my album and naming off songs means so much to me. I was a little scared. “He’s going to be like, ‘This fucking young guy.’”

Buckingham: I wasn’t really super aware of you before all of this, but my daughters were.

Apollo: Oh, they were?

Buckingham: Yes. I have three [kids]. 

Apollo: They got good taste, man.

Buckingham: They were psyched. One of the things that was so cool about touring with Fleetwood Mac, there was a point, probably early 2000s, when I’d see three generations of people in the audience. And you’re going, “OK, well if it’s making sense to the 75-year-old, but it’s also making sense to the 15-year-old, we must have done something right.”

Apollo: That’s what I want. What really sticks is authenticity.

Buckingham: I think it can be hard. It’s probably hard being Taylor Swift. Although she seems like she’s handling it pretty well, all things considered. Not sure about Matty Healy, that kind of came and went. He seems like a loose cannon, that guy.

Apollo: You’re funny.

Buckingham: I mean, I like that band, but …

Apollo: You’re tapped in, man. 

Buckingham: I try to keep up as much as I can because there’s good stuff out there.

Apollo: When people say, like, “Oh, no, music isn’t good,” it’s like you’re just not looking for it.

Buckingham: Sometimes it’s better than other times. But if you want a great pop song, listen to “As It Was,” by Harry Styles. I mean, come on.

Lindsey, I wanted to ask about this space we’re in and how you used it for “Tusk.” 

Buckingham: I used to try to leave here at a reasonable hour, midnight or so. I didn’t want to stay here all night. Mick wouldn’t let me leave. If I wanted to leave, I’d have to say, “Hey, I’m going to the bathroom,” and I’d just walk out to my car. A bunch of times Mick would come out and grab me.

Apollo: That’s how it is in the studio. You look up and it’s, like, six o’clock in the morning.

Buckingham: Crazy. And in those days, with all the substances— 

Lindsey, is it weird coming back into the space that they made for “Tusk”?

Buckingham: Christine [McVie] and I were here more recently. We were trying to make a Fleetwood Mac album, but Stevie refused to participate. But we had John and Mick in here, and Christine and me, four out of five, and we did what ended up being a duet album back in 2017, I guess. It was great.

Apollo: There was this one song on it that I really loved, “In My World.” That song is fire.

What’s it like listening to that album with Christine now, a few months after she passed?

Buckingham: I did listen to it once after she passed, and it held up very well for me. It was sad losing her. No one really saw that coming. She’d been ill for a little while, but no one really expected her to die.… I got to take Christine out on the road. She’d never seen what it was like touring outside of Fleetwood Mac and all the politics. I think it was really an eye-opener for her about what the whole thing should be more of. Fleetwood Mac was always a family, but was always a dysfunctional family.

Lindsey, last time we spoke, you told me that you would come back to Fleetwood Mac “like a shot.”

Buckingham: And I would.… I always have been ready to come back if the opportunity presented itself. We could still do it now, even without Christine. But the only way that would happen is if Stevie said she wanted to do it. She’d have to have some kind of an epiphany, and I don’t necessarily see that happening. I think that ending on the proper note would be a better way to do it than the way it has been left.

Apollo: I had this thing that whenever there’s someone in my life I write a song about, that I’m intimately involved with, I send it to them to see if they catch on if it’s about them or not. Or they ask, “Is this about me?” And I’m like, “Yeah, that one’s about you.”

Buckingham: I was still writing songs occasionally about Stevie, not that long ago, but most of the songs in the last 20 years have been about my wife. 

Apollo: Recently, I was writing from a perspective from when I was a child, because those are moments that happened and it doesn’t mean that you feel it right now. But you remember.