Stevie Nicks regrets not performing with Prince

By editorial board on February 24, 2023

The two had share many similarities and a deep connection.

Whilst Nicks and Prince shared a bond, crystallised by him giving her one of the highlights of her solo career, in a 2016 interview with Billboard, the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman revealed that she is “brokenhearted” that the pair never performed together when Prince was alive.

“Had I ever in a million years thought that we would lose him, I would have made sure that that would have happened,” she expressed. “And it didn’t. So that’s just one of those things in your life where you so say, ‘I really missed out.’ Because he should have. That should have happened.”

One of Prince’s most popular singles ‘Little Red Corvette’  was released in 1982, the track’s infectious melody inspired ‘Stand Back’ from Nicks’ album The Wild Heart.

She once recalled how the song came on the radio when Stevie and her husband, Kim Anderson, were driving to Santa Barbara for their honeymoon.

“All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I’m singing along, going, ‘Stand back!’” she said. “I’m like, ’Kim, pull over! We need to buy a tape recorder because I need to record this.’ And so we do – we careen off the freeway to find a radio, record shop or something, and we go in and we buy a little tape recorder.” (UCR)

Instead of celebrating their nuptials, the couple stayed up “all night long” working on what would become “Stand Back.” Nicks said, “We get the song, and I’m basically using Prince’s instrumental melody. What I’m singing along is very, very different from what he’s singing. I’m singing in and out of all of the holes.”

 

When she returned to work, she laid down a proper studio recording, then called Prince and told him, “I know that 50 percent of it is yours – and, what are you doing later? Because we’re here at Sunset Sound. ... Do you have any interest in coming down and hearing it?” She admitted she was “never in a million years thinking that he would say ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be right down,’ and he came down.”

On hearing the track, Prince went over to a keyboard and began playing new parts, to Nicks’ astonishment. “That was the coolest thing we’ve ever heard,” she remembered thinking. She added, “Takes him an hour; he gives me a little ‘I don’t really know you’ hug, and, uh, he’s gone. Like a little spirit.” The results appeared on her second solo album, The Wild Heart.

Within half an hour, Prince was outside. According to Nicks, he walked over to the synthesisers and “was absolutely brilliant for about 25 minutes and then left. He spoiled me for every band I’ve ever had because nobody can exactly recreate – not even with two piano players – what Prince did all by his little self.” (Faroutmag)

Following that first interaction, Nicks expressed an interest in co-writing with Prince. She’d already had huge success with her Tom Petty collaboration, ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, and this felt like the next logical step. However, when the moment arrived, and Prince sent Nicks an early demo of ‘Purple Rain’, the singer was struck dumb by the sheer magnitude of her task. “It was so overwhelming, that ten-minute track … I listened to it and I just got scared. I called him back and said, ‘I can’t do it…. It’s too much for me.’ I’m so glad that I didn’t, because he wrote it, and it became ‘Purple Rain.'”

DISCLAIMER: the images used by Videomuzic are for the purpose of criticism and exercise of the right to report news, in low quality, in compliance with the provisions of the law on copyright, used exclusively for the information content.
DISCLAIMER: Videomuzic usa le immagini per finalità di critica ed esercizio del diritto di cronaca in modalità degradata conforme alle prescrizioni della legge sul diritto d'autore utilizzate ad esclusivo corredo dei contenuti informativi.
Copyright © 2022 Videomuzic | Rome. ITA | Pictures, videos remain the property of the copyright owner, Any copyright owner who wants removed should contact us..
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram