Stevie Nicks always knew she’d still be performing as she approached retirement age, even on her first tour with what would become the rock supergroup Fleetwood Mac. The then-28-year-old singer sketched out a version of her trademark black ensemble — flowing skirt, jacket and platform boots — in an El Paso, Texas, hotel room after discovering she’d put on 5 pounds and couldn’t fit into the makeshift stage wardrobe of street clothes she’d packed.
“It was a nightmare,” Nicks recalls with a laugh as she talks about Fleetwood Mac’s
Unleashed tour, which makes a stop at Quicken Loans Arena on April 17. “I was screaming. There were clothes everywhere. I sat down, and I started to draw an outfit. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to have a uniform. And my uniform is going to be such that I can wear it today at 28, and I can still wear it at 60.’ ”
But Nicks, now the 60-year-old she envisioned as she sat in that hotel room, and her bandmates — vocalist/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie — have been out of uniform for quite some time.
This tour is their first together in five years. Fleetwood says he and Buckingham joke that the group is “the worst-run franchise in the business,” one that now functions only when it “feels right.” The band doesn’t even have a new batch of songs to perform. The Unleashed tour features a re-release of the band’s 1977 album Rumours as part of a CD/DVD boxed set.
“We do this because everyone feels free and open and upbeat about what we’re doing,” Fleetwood explains. “And that’s how we hit that stage.”
Getting back together after years of separate lives and solo projects, Fleetwood adds, has never been a problem. Any musical rustiness or apprehension about regrouping disappears 30 or 40 seconds after the band begins rehearsing the first song.
“We’ll probably never have some analytical explanation to it,” Fleetwood says. “That’s the fascination we have as a band.”
“It was a nightmare,” Nicks recalls with a laugh as she talks about Fleetwood Mac’s
Unleashed tour, which makes a stop at Quicken Loans Arena on April 17. “I was screaming. There were clothes everywhere. I sat down, and I started to draw an outfit. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to have a uniform. And my uniform is going to be such that I can wear it today at 28, and I can still wear it at 60.’ ”
But Nicks, now the 60-year-old she envisioned as she sat in that hotel room, and her bandmates — vocalist/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie — have been out of uniform for quite some time.
This tour is their first together in five years. Fleetwood says he and Buckingham joke that the group is “the worst-run franchise in the business,” one that now functions only when it “feels right.” The band doesn’t even have a new batch of songs to perform. The Unleashed tour features a re-release of the band’s 1977 album Rumours as part of a CD/DVD boxed set.
“We do this because everyone feels free and open and upbeat about what we’re doing,” Fleetwood explains. “And that’s how we hit that stage.”
Getting back together after years of separate lives and solo projects, Fleetwood adds, has never been a problem. Any musical rustiness or apprehension about regrouping disappears 30 or 40 seconds after the band begins rehearsing the first song.
“We’ll probably never have some analytical explanation to it,” Fleetwood says. “That’s the fascination we have as a band.”
