Stevie Nicks

Maybe I am calmer now

Maybe things are fine

Maybe I made the whole thing up

Maybe it isn`t a lie

Maybe the reason I said these things

Is to bring you back alive

Maybe I fought this long and this hard

Just to make sure you survive

- Stevie Nicks, "Fall From Grace"

On the "Behind the Music" rock-star horrors chart, it ranks somewhere between the morning Motley Crue`s Nikki Sixx woke from a drug-induced stupor with a heroin syringe still stuck in his arm and Vanilla Ice`s comeback attempt. The former is really awful, while the latter is merely sad and embarrassing. And somewhere between the terrible and the humiliating lurks the hole inside Stevie Nicks` nose.

If you`ve seen the oft-repeated Nicks installment of VH1`s "Behind the Music" series, you know all about the hole. It`s the one she got from too much cocaine-sniffing. The one her doctor said could make her next coke party her last.

Thanks to Nicks` cheerfully frank confessions, you also know that Fleetwood Mac`s resident fairy princess kicked the cocaine habit in 1985, only to spend eight debilitating years addicted to Klonopin, the sedative her psychiatrist prescribed to help her stay off the white stuff. You know that Nicks kicked that drug, too, and lost the weight she gained while under the influence, and got her voice and her witchy glamour back in time to join Fleetwood Mac`s triumphant 1997 comeback tour.

In fact, if you save your snack breaks for the commercials, you will know more intimate details about this famous stranger than you`ll ever know about some of your dearest friends. And, believe it or not, Stevie Nicks is fine with that.

"A lot of people ask me, `Does it bother you to let all this personal stuff out?` And you know what? Maybe it`s because my life has been so public for so long, but it doesn`t bother me at all. I just hope my big, juicy dramatic life will help other people. That`s why I tell all these stories."

At the moment, Nicks is telling stories from her record-company`s offices in Los Angeles. Her speaking voice is as foggy as you`d expect, but she talks at a surprisingly brisk clip. And once she starts, stand back.

"I`m angry that I lost eight years of my life (to Klonopin), so why not tell everybody? Maybe somebody who is watching `Behind the Music` will know somebody who is taking Klonopin, or they`ll know somebody who`s about to take a whole bunch of cocaine, and maybe they`ll remember my hole-in-the-nose story and they`ll tell their friend about it. The whole thing about my poor old nose, that`s not a good thing. And if somebody had told me when I was 28 years old that doing cocaine would mess up my health for the rest of my life, I don`t think I would have done it.

"That`s why I am telling these stories," Nicks says, finally taking a breath. "And I do not feel bad about telling them, and I`m not embarrassed about it, because I want people to know. Because, maybe somebody will get help before they take that dive."

For further proof that the 52-year-old Nicks has survived her multiple headers in radiant style, pick up a copy of her new album. On the cover of "Trouble in Shangri-La" (in stores now), Nicks looks like she hasn`t aged a day in the 25 years since the "Rumours" photo sessions. Inside, she sounds more fired-up than she has in ages.

Working with a set of producers that includes John Shanks (Melissa Etheridge), David Kahne (the Bangles) and Sheryl Crow, Nicks whirls from biting rockers to melting ballads with a veteran`s confidence and a surplus of prove-it-all-night energy. The Crow-produced "Candlebright" and "Sorcerer" feature spare acoustic guitars and self-assured, resonant singing. "Fall From Grace" seethes with "Edge of Seventeen"-style fury; and while the lyrics don`t make a whole lot of sense, "Bombay Sapphires" swaths listeners in yards of that dreamy Nicks-ian magic.

This is Nicks` sixth solo album in 20 years, and her first since releasing the Klonopin-impaired "Street Angel" in 1994. From the swirling synthesizers and moody guitars to the images of bewitching sorcerers and black-ink darkness, Nicks` "Trouble in Shangri-La" is as singularly Stevie as her platform boots and bat-wing blouses. The pattern is vintage, but the results are spanking new.

"Somebody said to me once, `You know, on the `Street Angel` album, you didn`t twirl.` And I said, `That`s exactly right. I didn`t twirl, I didn`t dance, and I didn`t laugh,`" Nicks says. "But coming back to this record, the excitement level was very high. Meeting Sheryl Crow and having her involved, and getting `Sorcerer` and `Candlebright` done, I knew this was going to be great. I really do have a fire lit under me now."

"Trouble in Shangri-La" features guest appearances by producer Crow and Nicks` former boyfriend and Fleetwood Mac mate, Lindsey Buckingham. Macy Gray turns up too, along with Sarah McLachlan and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. But the celebrity who made the biggest impact on Nicks` new album doesn`t sing a note on it.

In 1995, Nicks was having dinner with her old friend Tom Petty when she asked him for a favor. A compulsive songwriter since she scribbled down her first tune at 16, Nicks had hit a wall. The "Street Angel" album had not been well received. And while her post-rehab solo tour had been a success, she was bedeviled by unfamiliar doubts. So she asked Petty to write a song with her. Just one, to get her going.

Petty said no.

"He said, `Stevie, the "Street Angel" thing is over, the Klonopin is over, you`re fine. Go back to your house and go sit at your piano and write your own songs. If I needed to help you, I would. But you don`t need my help. You just need to know that everything is OK now. This prescription thing you got on was not your choice; it wasn`t even your fault. Don`t let the next 10 years be about getting over that.`

"And I went back to my house that night and I did exactly what he said. I started writing, and my creativity just flowed back into me. It was like somebody had given me the permission to move on."

Nicks pays tribute to Petty`s tough-love wisdom on "That Made Me Stronger," singing, "Well you know me better than I know myself / Will you write this for me / He says no, you write your songs yourself / That made me stronger / It made me hold on to me."

Never one to shrink from autobiography, Nicks says that the bittersweet "I Miss You" was written about a close friend who died while Nicks was on the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour. And there are more than a few songs inspired by Buckingham and the band that changed their lives.

"It`s not just him, it`s the whole thing," Nicks says. "It`s my relationship with Mick (Fleetwood), my relationship with Lindsey, my relationship with Christine (McVie), my relationship with John (McVie). I can write about those four people all day every day, because it`s an incredible group of people. Songs can be about anything, as long as they affect you."

Yes, the story behind Nicks` music is one juicy drama. But once you get past the bold-type tragedies and big-ticket triumphs, you have a woman who gets her biggest rush from rock `n` roll. The story is messy, but the message is simple. And Stevie Nicks is hoping you will understand.

"I hope that my music makes people feel the way I used to feel when I went home with a record that I loved," Nicks says. "My favorite example of that is Joni Mitchell`s `Court and Spark.` I heard that record as I was joining Fleetwood Mac, so for me, it was the beginning of Fleetwood Mac. For days, I just lay on the floor and sang along with her and tried to learn how she phrases and how she gets all those words into one sentence, and I got such joy from that. When I hear one of those songs today, I just have to sit down, because I`m still so knocked out. That`s how I hope my music affects people."

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: Karla Peterson