Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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(You thought playing Never Going Back Again night after night would be easy?)
Unsurprisingly, there was the requisitegossipy domino effectof headlines for the next few years.
Oh yeah, and about Stevie Nicks.
We gave them something totally different.
You might make the case for saying thatRumoursas an album was overrated, and it wasnt.
It was just the success detached from the music, and it became about the success at some point.
You lose maybe a certain faction of people when you move that far to the left.
It also has become understood in terms of why it was done and is appreciated for that.
But in the moment, it definitely divided up the room.
Guitar solo that makes your fingers hurt the most
The stage version of Big Love.
It was the first single fromTango in the Night, but it was an ensemble piece at the time.
I dont think it ever got more rigorous than Big Love with the actual demands of the part required.
Its a finger-hurter, for sure.
I dont really do any finger exercises, by the way.
I was never interested in vocal exercises.
I was blessed with never having been nervous going onstage.
I just go out there, plug it in, and hopefully become psychically plugged in as well.
Most fulfilling album
I would go back toTusk.
Everything wed done to that point had come from within.
So that was one.
In terms of solo work, I might have to chooseOut of the Cradle.
The demands of Fleetwood Mac had been pretty all-encompassing and I hadnt even been able to tour besides that.
Or use is perhaps a better word.
That left me in a position of freedom that I hadnt ever had before.
I took a couple of years to prepare and let the dust settle.
I worked on what I wanted to do and thought about it a lot before I even got started.
The resulting album a few years later wasOut of the Cradle.
That would be Soul Drifter fromOut of the Cradle.
Its very much an Americana kind of feel song, very much a pop song.
Song that reminds you most of Stevie Nicks
There are so many.
Lets see, probably Dreams.
There are a lot of reasons for that.
Obviously it was written about me.
So there is that.
That was the architecture around the song.
If you take all the architecture that sets the sections off away, its really diminished greatly.
So all of that comes to mind when I think of Dreams.
Theres a song called Shut Us Down, which is a solo song that I frequently perform live.
Like,How do you do that?
On one level, it was sort of empowering, because everyone else was in party mode 24/7.
I wasnt so much, or at least comparatively I wasnt.
So we got things done.
I mean, they were to some degree, but it was through a certainlens, shall we say?
Getting to the end ofTango in the Nightwas a bit of a triumph.
We actually made it through!
Because that album probably took about a year to record.
During that time, I swear to God, we probably saw Stevie for only a few weeks.
Maybe three at most.
I dont even know how we got the stuff out of her.
Mick didnt want to drive home at night.
Basically for months, he was living in a trailer in my front yard.
So the whole thing was a bit less than ideal on that level.
It was sort of a harbinger of dysfunction.
Obviously, the whole subculture of rock and roll was living that life to some degree or another.
But it didnt happen yet.
So they were really sort of hitting a critical mass.
The time I had away from Fleetwood Mac was nothing but constructive.
Song you wish you never recorded
To be honest, I dont think I have any.
Im far more interested in looking forward.
But I hadnt really gone back and listened andlistenedto everything.
Of course, so that curate that album, I had to do just that.
It was so cathartic to me.
Thats not something that I do or tend to want to do.
I tend to want to look ahead.
Weirdest place youve heardRumours
ThatTikTok video.
I mean, it was so random.
The whole context of somebody drinking cranberry juice on a skateboard is pretty funny.
They might be coming to my solo shows to hear new things, and thats a whole different audience.
That becomes more and more appropriate over time.
Thats an incredible accomplishment.
Ihad respondedto the video only because of my daughter.
She rides horses and we were out at the stables.
She didnt even tell me what she had in mind.
She goes, Dad, can you go pick up some cranberry juice?
I said, Sure, okay.
I thought she was thirsty and just wanted some cranberry juice.
So I went to a 7-Eleven and came back.
And then she was like, Now will you take that and get on this horse?
I was already vaguely aware of the original TikTok at that point.
I had heard about it, but I didnt put two and two together.
Suddenly she gets out her phone and starts filming me, riding.
And I went,Oh, okay.
Legacy of being part ofSNLs long-running What Up With That?
sketch
I dont recall how long theyd been doing those sketches until I was aware of it.
Bill Hader was brilliant at doing me.
Just this whole premise of me the repeating theme of Diondre Cole never letting me talk.
So there was an element that rang true to me in terms of my own life.
And Lorne Michaels, I mean, I dont know how hes done it all these years.
Its just an amazing thing.
And then they got to be back on Monday to construct a new show.
Its not for the faint of heart, I got to tell you.
I didnt think it was necessarily something that should come up.
I was trying to have a when in Rome mentality when I was there.
I never found out about that.
It always seems somewhat random, but a huge compliment.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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