Sunday, October 11, 2020

Stevie Nicks has released the powerful rock ballad “Show Them the Way.”

Stevie Nicks Asks Spirits for Guidance on Powerful New Song ‘Show Them the Way’

Rock star’s ’24 Karat Gold’ concert film will screen in select cinemas and drive-ins for two nights later this month.

By BRITTANY SPANOS - Rollingstone

Stevie Nicks has released the powerful rock ballad “Show Them the Way.” This is Nicks’ first new solo song since releasing her 2014 LP 24 Karat Gold.

Greg Kurstin produced the anthemic new track. Two official versions have been released: an acoustic, piano-only take and a full-band recording that features Dave Stewart on guitar and Dave Grohl on drums. Citing Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and John F. Kennedy, Nicks looks for guidance from great leaders while looking to the future. The song is inspired by a real dream Nicks had where she was playing a benefit in the Hamptons, preparing herself to sing for the likes of MLK Jr., Lewis and the Kennedys. “Someone said, ‘Sing us a song, there’s a piano’/And handed me a drink/The room was full of hope/A song would set them free,” she delivers on the vivid tune.

In an interview arriving at a later date, Nicks revealed to Rolling Stone that she had originally penned the song in 2008. She was in St. Charles, Illinois editing a concert film at the time and returned to the house she was staying in to flip through the TV channels. Over the course of the two months that she lived there, she ended up watching several historical documentaries about the same figures that inspired “Show Them the Way.” 

“I watched it all,” she tells Rolling Stone. “Then, what happened was, one night I went to bed and I had this dream. I dream a lot, but I almost never remember the dreams. I’ll wake up and I’ll go, ‘I remember a train with some people smiling and waving at me that went by really fast,’ and that’s it. This dream was so really real that there was a little bit of me, for a minute, when I sat up was like, ‘Did that just really happen?’ So I wrote it down just in prose. I didn’t write it down in a seven verse poem. I wrote down what had happened.”

Towards the end of “Show Them the Way,” Nicks meets a shadow who represents her mom, who worked at a prisoner of war base outside of Phoenix. The figure reminds her: “Don’t forget what we were fighting for,” a quote the singer’s mother had repeated throughout her life. 

She considered putting “Show Them the Way” on her 2011 album In Your Dreams, but had presented it to her collaborators at the time too late. “I said, ‘OK, I totally get it, and it really doesn’t go with the rest of these songs, it would be an outlier on this,'” she explains, adding that she wanted it to feel like the right time for the song to be out in the world. “I think the world is calling for it right now.”

Later this month, Nicks’ 24 Karat Gold concert film will screen at select cinemas and drive-ins for two nights only.

Stream | Download the single 

Stevie Nicks may not be able to tour but she’s been working hard on a new TV miniseries.

Outtakes: Stevie Nicks on Petty, Prince, Beyoncé and Harry


By MESFIN FEKADU - Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Stevie Nicks — who is releasing a new song Friday and a concert film later this month — discusses the TV miniseries she’s working on as well as her relationships with Tom Petty, Prince, Beyoncé, Harry Styles and the members of Fleetwood Mac in outtakes from a recent 90-minute-plus interview with The Associated Press.

PETTY and PRINCE

When editing her concert film “Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold The Concert” — recorded over two nights during her 2016-17 tour — Nicks had a realization: “Tom was still alive when we did this, wasn’t he?”

“Honestly, as I was watching the show, for me, he was just alive again,” she continued. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, he didn’t die until after that.’”

Petty died in Oct. 2017. Just months before he passed, the pair got together at the British Summer Time at Hyde Park in London to perform their 1981 hit “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

Fleetwood Mac’s recent tours wrap up with a cover of Petty’s “Free Fallin’” and Nicks said that was always hard to perform.

“It was between Michael (Campbell) and I — it was incredibly difficult for us to even look at each other. I would stand up next to him at the very beginning when it was starting and if I even put my hand on Michael’s back, it was like both of us just started to wither,” she said.

The late icon Prince also has a presence in Nicks’ concert film. She dedicates her performance of “Moonlight” to the Purple One and his photo is above her as she sings the classic “Edge of Seventeen.”

“He was inspired by ‘Edge of Seventeen’ to write ‘When Doves Cry.’ That’s really when he and I started to sort of be friends,” she said. “From that moment onward at the very end of ‘Edge of Seventeen’ I go, ‘I know what it sounds like, I know what it sounds like, I know what it sounds like when doves cry. It sounds like you.’”

BEYONCÉ and BOOTYLICIOUS

Speaking of “Edge of Seventeen,” Stevie Nicks let R&B girl group Destiny’s Child sample the song for their 2001 smash “Bootylicious.”

Nicks even appeared in the video, and remembers meeting Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams and Beyoncé — who was just 19 at the time.

“I got to sit there with them and hang out with them all day long. ...Then I did my guitar playing part, which was totally fun and so when I left there, I felt like I knew them. I never really saw them again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Beyoncé since. We had a great day,” Nicks said.

“Bootylicious” not only topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, it was so popular that the word was added to the dictionary thanks to the song’s success.

“Without all the makeup and everything, they just looked like three really cute, little teenage girls. Then of course, they’re just like me, they put on those — whatever it is that makes them — them. Whether it’s your boots or your jacket or whatever, then they became Destiny’s Child, and I saw it. It was really a marvel to see,” Nicks said. “I always feel like I know them, even though I really don’t. I feel like I know Beyoncé even though I really don’t know her at all. I feel like I know her because I was with them for a long time that day. They gave me a chance to pretend like I was playing guitar. I don’t think anybody ever gave me that chance ever again.”

WOMEN WHO ROCK

Speaking of Beyoncé — who has a chance of matching Stevie Nicks by becoming a two-time member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — Nicks says she’s sort of bummed she’s the only woman to achieve the feat.

Nicks was first inducted into the Rock Hall in 1998 as a member of Fleetwood Mac, and she made history when she became a member as a soloist last year. Twenty-two men have been inducted twice, including Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Lou Reed and all four members of the Beatles.

“I hope that I will be the catalyst for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame allowing some other women to come in because they should. They absolutely should,” Nicks said. “We are just as good as they are... That’s why there should be more women in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because we worked just as hard.”

Artists can become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. Beyoncé will qualify for induction as a member in Destiny’s Child in 2023 and as a soloist in 2028.

Nicks’ advice to women to wanting to be inducted twice: “If they’re in a band, well, just make a quickie solo album somewhere in there. You never know. That’s the only way you’ll ever get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. Both careers have to exist for a really long time.”

One of her favorite moments during her second initiation last year? Harry Styles inducting her.

“I loved it and everything he said helped me with my speech, which went on way too long. Probably the longest acceptance speech ever at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” she said.

WHEN HARRY MET STEVIE

Speaking of Harry Styles, Nicks has become close friends with the former One Direction member since he invited her to perform at one of his concerts in 2017.

Since, they’re performed several times together and Styles even previewed his latest album, “Fine Line,” for Nicks and some of her friends before it was released in December.

“He’s watching me to learn, just like I watched Jimi Hendrix to learn or I watched Janis Joplin or I watched Buffalo Springfield or I watched all the different bands that Lindsey and I opened for,” Nicks said of Styles.

Though they haven’t written or recorded together, Nicks admits “we will.”

Styles topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart this year with the sweet pop song “Watermelon Sugar” from his new album. But Nicks says she feels “so bad for him that this stupid pandemic had to happen right as ‘Fine Line’ was coming out.”

She gives Styles credit with warning her about the serious impact the pandemic would have on touring.

“This is before they locked us down, I said to him, ‘You know, it’s going to be a long time until we actually walk onstage again.’ ... In all of his 26-ness to a 72-year-old he said, ‘I don’t think that we’ll be back onstage until the end of 2021.’ This was February. I said, ‘Are you serious? Are you kidding? Really? That’s what you think?’ He goes, ‘That’s absolutely what I think.’”

“He became like this sage, man of wisdom, I was like, ‘Wow! I hope you’re wrong.’ But he’s absolutely right.”

CALL ME MAYBE

Speaking of friends Stevie Nicks have been in touch with — don’t count the members of Fleetwood Mac.

“I haven’t talked to anybody in Fleetwood Mac. I haven’t even talked to Mick. I’m really, really good friends with Mick,” she said. “Not only did I not call them, but they didn’t call me either. It seems like everybody is very much existing in their own bubble. It’s like there are people that I really need to call that are important to me that I have not called.”

Fleetwood Mac wrapped a yearlong tour in December, just months before the pandemic hit.

“Whenever I feel really guilty, then I say to myself, ‘Well they haven’t called you either.’ That’s your excuse out. Soon as somebody calls you, then you have to call them back,” Nicks continued. “It’s society of pandemic. We’re all going to be so excited when it’s over that we’re all going to be over-friendly and calling people all the time and people are going to be like, ‘Back off. Stop.’ I think that hopefully we’re all going to get through this and please God will show us the way and we’ll be OK.”

STEVIE TV

Speaking of the pandemic, Stevie Nicks may not be able to tour but she’s been working hard on a new TV miniseries.

The show is based off the Welsh goddess Rhiannon, which inspired Nicks to write the 1975 Fleetwood Mac hit of the same name. After learning more about Rhiannon, Nicks bought the rights from author Evangeline Walton’s adaptation of the ancient British Mabinogion, which includes the Rhiannon story.

“I was in meetings for that in January and February before this thing happened,” she said. “It’s one of the few kinds of work that actually can go on in a pandemic.”

Nicks has also been bingeing TV shows with her two goddaughters and assistant, naming favorites like “The Last Kingdom,” “Outlander,” “The Crown,” “Victoria,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Law & Order,” “Chicago P.D.” and “Chicago Med.”

“I think it’s creative for me to watch all that good TV because it is good and it’s fun. And it takes your mind off of everything that’s going on. We’re watching movies for ‘Rhiannon,’ we’re watching the old Excalibur movies and the King Arthur movies. All the medieval movies, even the really old ones. That’s really good too because that kind of keeps you in sort of that mindset also,” she said.

“We don’t seldom just sit around at night and talk, because there is nothing left to talk about. We’ve told every story that any of us have ever heard 50,000 times over the last 30 years. So, we’re done talking.”


"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.’”


Wednesday, October 07, 2020

'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



Tuesday, October 06, 2020

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


Monday, October 05, 2020

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


The original video that first went viral


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. 


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.