Q 13

PLAYBOY: Were you offended by reviewers of Bella Donna who questioned your intelligence or who argued that the album was not a significant departure from your work with Fleetwood Mac?

Stevie Nicks: You mean when reviewers asked "Is she incredibly hip or incredibly silly?" It didn't bother me. They said a couple of rhymes were stupid, but I know those words aren't stupid, so it doesn't hurt me. I think the bit about not being a departure from Fleetwood Mac is also ridiculous. Bella Donna is in no way like Fleetwood Mac records. They didn't even play on the record. On Bella Donna, Jimmy [Iovine, the producer] left the songs as close to demos as possible, so it was really me--which is what I've always wanted. Sometimes I don't mind my songs' being changed around; sometimes it makes them better. But often, I would rather they stayed real simple, like Leather and Lace.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Do you think you're sexy?

Stevie Nicks: I can be. I do not normally try to be. In fact, there have been some reviews--which I've loved--that said I didn't try to sell my show on sex, that I sang my show.

On the other hand, I know I'm cute. I can dance. I don't have a bad figure. I know exactly what I am. I'm certainly no great beauty. I know exactly how far I can go.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: Have you ever considered acting, as many of your rock-'n'-roll peers have done?

Stevie Nicks: I wouldn't like to be in movies. Movie people are strange. They live a different life than musicians do. They get up early and work in the day. And I really think they're much wilder than we are. One time, four movie guys walked up to me at a party after a show. I was looking good. And they took me apart with their eyes. I was so completely insulted that I never forgot it. They were so slick and smooth and suited up--it looked like they all had had face lifts--with perfectly tanned faces. I'm just a hippie. I wouldn't fit very well into that world. Those guys gave me the creeps. The hair on my arms stood up.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: Do you support activist musicians who give anti-nuke concerts or participate in demonstrations?

Stevie Nicks: That's why I write. We need music very badly. The world is in pretty had shape and it scares me. But I'm not one of those people, like Jackson Browne, who went up to the Diablo Canyon nuclear protest. I said to him, "But they could have broken your fingers--your beautiful fingers that write all those beautiful songs. Are you crazy? We need you to write songs. We don't need you to be in jail." He said it "had occurred" to him. I said it should have. I think it scared him. I'm not a martyr. I would much rather be around to write the story than die for it and leave nothing behind. I believe you should put your talent where your talent is and stay out of the rest of it.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: You are very close to your father. What has he taught you that you've applied to your career?

Stevie Nicks: My dad said, "If you're going to do it, be the best, write the best, sing the best and believe in it and yourself." And as long as I didn't give up on that, it would be OK. It was great to have supportive parents, though I'm sure they really would have been much happier at one point if I'd done something else, because they didn't think I was strong enough. I was always sick and Lindsey and I had no money and whenever they'd see me, I'd be really down. My relationship with Lindsey was tumultuous and passionate and wild and we were always fighting, so I was never happy.

But my parents would hear me go into my room and sit there for eight hours with two little cassette players and sing and write and leave papers everywhere. I think they realized that I might not have been strong, but it was the only thing I wanted. My dad knew me well enough to know that I was just like him. So he told me that I should be what I want to be and not complain about it.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: What should men know about women that they don't?

Stevie Nicks: That we are stronger than they know. And maybe if they fed that a little bit, all of this women's liberation would go away and everybody would be happy. If men gave us just a little more credit and an extra hug and said. "Good job," that would solve a lot of it. Women want to be beautiful, sweet, feminine and loving. But they also want to be thought of as intelligent and necessary. And even if your woman is not all those things, you should want her to feel good about herself, to believe in herself.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: Your immediate entourage all seem to be beautiful young women. Do you and the girls ever go out together?

Stevie Nicks: We can't go anywhere. It's fine for all the guys, but if we go, like, down to Le Dome for a drink or to the Rainbow for spaghetti, we're immediately going to be classified as loose, roaming women. Me and some of the other female singing stars, like Ann and Nancy Wilson and Pat Benatar, can't just go out boogieing with our girlfriends. Anyway, I wouldn't be allowed out. I'd have to sneak out. I'm way too recognizable. I've been securitied up to my neck for the past seven years, so I'd also be severely scared. I once tried sneak out to a disco in Chicago with my girlfriend Christie, but we got caught. So the guys went with us. It was a bummer. Nobody in the disco would even come up to us. But people say it's for my safety. Women are getting raped all the time. And I don't need to get raped, because I'd never get over it. That's when my songs would stop. That's when my belief in the world would die. I know it happens, but its happening me is another story. It tends to take away one's spontaneity.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: Do you often think about death--especially since you believe in reincarnation?

Stevie Nicks: I'm not afraid of it at all. But I try to get as much done as I can, because you don't know how long you're going to be here. That's why it's important that I type a page or two every night--even if that's at 11 A.M. See, I think you live on earth a certain number of times until you finish what it is that you were meant to do here. And then you go on. I don't think I'll be back. I think I'm done.