Rolling Stone #272: Stevie Nicks

Nicks’ coat gets nicked

Los Angeles – It began when an FM station accidentally played the Atlanta Rhythm Section album cut “Imaginary Lover” at the wrong speed – 45. Favorable calls began to light up the switchboard, so the disc jockey let it play. Speeded up, the song sounded unmistakably like Fleetwood Mac, with Steve Nicks warbling lead vocals.

News quickly reached Nicks in Los Angeles. She rushed out to buy the record and played it at the wrong speed. “I got chills,” says Stevie. “It sounds exactly like something I’d sing, the way I’d sing it. I even played it for Christine [McVie], mixed in with some other demos fro the new album. She complimented me on it.”

With the aforementioned Fleetwood Mac LP still months away from release, Nicks has been keeping anything but a low profile. She spent a week in New York perfecting her duet with Kenny Loggins, “Whenever I Call You ‘Friend,'” for his new album. She has also been writing a batch of new songs, many of them for a proposed film fantasy of “Rhiannon” that she is developing with publicist Danny Goldberg.

All this activity, says Nicks, is a result of an “emotional bummer” she had wanted to throw herself out of. The reason? She lost an antique black velvet jacket – the good-luck piece she has worn onstage (during “Landslide”) every night with Fleetwood Mac – at a Warren Zevon performance at the Roxy in Los Angeles. Nicks has all but given up on it being returned. Facing the upcoming summer Fleetwood Mac tour without the jacket, she says, “It’s irreplaceable and means a whole lot more to me than to whomever took it.” Any information would be appreciated: call (213) 464-1186.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone #272 – Cameron Crowe – August 24, 1978