Nicks to tribute Prince, her ‘Little Red Corvette friend’
Stevie Nicks is trying to whittle down the set list for her upcoming solo tour, but one song that definitely made the cut is her 1983 hit Stand Back with Prince. Originally written as a compliment, now it will be a tribute.
The Fleetwood Mac singer, who heard Prince’s Little Red Corvette on her car radio and loved it so much she decided to write an answer song, hasn’t played Stand Back since Prince died in April.
“I will be singing it for the first time without Prince being on the planet,” she said.
“That is going to be horrible, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to pay homage to my Little Red Corvette friend. I’ll sing it forever for him now.”
Nicks’ tour with The Pretenders — Canadian dates include Nov. 29 in Toronto and Dec. 9 in Vancouver — is in support of her 2014 album, 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault.
She never got a chance to promote the release since she spent most of the last three years on the road with Fleetwood Mac.
Nicks promises songs from 24 Karat Gold as well as old favourites like Dreams, If Anyone Falls, New Orleans, Bella Donna, Rooms on Fire and Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.
Stand Back will be there, fuelled by the memory of her having lured Prince into the recording studio to play keyboards on the song he inspired.
She said one of her deepest regrets is never getting him to join her onstage for a live version.
Though Nicks and Prince were friends, the two didn’t hang out much.
One thing they disagreed on was drug use.
“He hated them. And he hated that I did drugs and that’s probably why we didn’t hang out more,” she said.
“He was worried that I would die of an accidental drug overdose and my sadness is that he did die of an accidental drug overdose.
“He’s up there looking down, saying to me, ‘Sweetie, I can’t believe it happened either.’”
Nicks has no current record deal — “I’m free to do whatever I want” — after delivering 24 Karat Gold to Warner Bros.
It’s an album of orphan songs, demos mostly written between 1969-1987.
“These were written during the days when everybody was pretty high and crazy and there was a lot of love affairs going on and a lot of breakups going on and just a lot of emotion going on,” said the 68-year-old singer-songwriter.