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Stevie Nicks performs in Toronto on Saturday.Supplied
At Scotiabank Arena on Saturday, Stevie Nicks told stories, conjured Tom Petty, twirled her shawled self and generally bewitched a full building. The 77-year-old rock goddess and patron saint of the swinging SoCal soft-rock scene of the 1970s sang Fleetwood Mac classics (Dreams, Gypsy, Rhiannon and more) alongside solo hits (Stand Back, Edge of Seventeen).
Through her tales and groovy photo-collage backdrops, Nicks basked in her storied history. Images of past lovers Don Henley and producer Jimmy Iovine mingled with shots of Prince, Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. Unless I missed it, there was no reference to Lindsey Buckingham, her one-time, long-time musical and romantic partner. As their relationship is legendary (and stormy and complicated), Buckingham’s omission must be considered a snub.
Rock on, gold dust woman.
The concert’s first song, a Buddy Holly cover, seemed to be an oddball choice − Nicks rocking to a hambone beat?
By the end of the concert, it made perfect sense. It was a gesture of defiance and victory, from an artist who had survived and succeeded in a male-dominated industry. She’s still here, not going anywhere just yet: “Well, love is love, and not fade away.”
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The last time I saw Nicks in the same arena was in 2018. She was with a version of Fleetwood Mac that included Neil Finn from Crowded House and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell, but not Buckingham. He had been fired from the band.
Sitting side stage, I watched Nicks and drummer Mick Fleetwood carefully escorted to their dressing room (or maybe the tour bus) swaddled in towels and robes. These were precious, money-making people being protected, like valuable pieces of art being transported.
But there’s only so much one can do. This summer, Nicks called off a number of concerts (including the Toronto show) when she fractured her shoulder. Saturday’s concert was a make-up date for the singer.
Introducing Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, Nicks told the story of how the hit duet with Petty made it onto her debut solo LP, 1981’s Bella Donna. The album’s producer, Iovine, was also working for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at time. Iovine, nothing if not enterprising and feeling the Bella Donna album lacked a single, brought the song to Nicks.
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Saturday’s concert was a make-up date after Nicks fractured her shoulder.Supplied
Hot-shot session guitarist Waddy Wachtel, who played on Bella Donna, is still in Nicks’s band. He handled Petty’s vocal parts on Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around. Nicks’s own dusky voice was fine. Rounding down the notes she made no effort to reach was a graceful concession to her years.
On July 9, 2017, Nicks performed Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around with Petty and the Heartbreakers at Hyde Park in London for the last time together. Petty died three months later, at age 66, of an accidental drug overdose. At Scotiabank, Nicks referred to him as an angel on her shoulder and covered his 1989 solo hit Free Fallin. She even arrived on stage to a tape of Petty’s Runnin’ Down a Dream.
Casual fans of Nicks might have wondered why Prince was included on a montage in the background. It was his Little Red Corvette that directly inspired Nicks’s synth-driven Stand Back. The late Purple One played on the track and was given half the publishing rights too.
The night’s highlights included The Lighthouse, an anthem for women’s rights written after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. The version of Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman by Nicks and her eight-piece band was epic.
As for her wardrobe, the singer twirled in a blue Bella Donna-era cape and showed off a Stand Back shawl she said had been mended often over the years. The mending could be seen as a metaphor − for a fixed-up Nicks, for broken hearts, for anything in life that requires maintenance. All are themes to her work.
Nicks closed with the poignant, acoustic Landslide, performed as a tribute to fellow Fleetwood Mac singer Christine McVie, who died in 2022 at age 79.
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m gettin’ older, too
I’m gettin’ older, too
