Rock Goddess | 03/31/2009 8:05 am

Stevie Nicks: This Is What 60 Looks Like Now (Video)

No computer, no cell phone, no face-lift. ‘I am old-school all the way. School of rock.’

By Deborah Barrow, Editor-in-Chief

Stevie Nicks is a very busy woman.

Some 40 years into one of the most remarkable careers in music, she is touring the country with her famous supergroup, Fleetwood Mac, which still fills large venues with rapturous baby-boomer fans; she is releasing a new solo CD, "The Soundstage Sessions," as well as a new solo concert DVD, "Live in Chicago."

And that’s just March and April. So what’s with this sudden flurry of activity?

"It wasn’t meant to all be together," Nicks told wowOwow in an interview squeezed in during a short break in the concert tour. "Live in Chicago" was supposed to release last October, but with the Election, it was moved to this two-week period while the tour is on vacation."

What’s it like to be a rock goddess at the tender age of 60? "I would be lying to you if I told you it was easy. Our show is very hard and very long: two hours and ten minutes. Spinning around in seven-inch heels, it’s long. You have to be in really good shape. You have to take care of yourself."

In her new DVD, Stevie Nicks takes to the stage like the gypsy that she was: blonde hair to the waist. Morgane Le Fay wedding dress under a black jacket. Top hat. Feather. Ubiquitous scarves. As The Washington Post said about the Fleetwood Mac concert, "Nicks showed she still knows how to really work a shawl."

"I’ve never had a face-lift and I never will. I stopped laying in the sun at 28. I never go to bed with makeup on. I have creams and lotions and I take 20 minutes of rubbing it in my skin … like a little biochemist." Nicks tells her many female friends now in their 30s, "If you think you’re not going to care how you look when you’re 60, I’m here to tell you: You are going to care more. When you’re young and thin and cute, beauty, it’s your world. You will be sorry, later on, if you don’t take better care."

When asked about her online life, she skips barely a beat: "I don’t have a computer or a cell phone. I am old-school all the way. I am school of rock."

"In 1983 when I was going out with the love of my life, Joe Walsh (legendary rock god of James Gang and Eagles fame), he had built a room in a loft filled with pianos." According to Nicks, the first time she heard a tune she had just picked out on an electronic keyboard instantly played back by Walsh with full orchestration, she realized, "Everyone, even the violinists had been replaced."

Later that year, Walsh told Nicks he couldn’t be with her on her favorite holiday, Halloween, because he had to work on his computer.

"That means I have also been replaced. If computers are going to replace me in a man’s life and replace those violinists …"

That was the end of Nicks’s relationship with computers.

So no Facebook, no tweeting, no MySpacing for Nicks. She does have an official website, a good one — The Nicks Fix — which she infrequently posts to, but is kept up-to-date by her webmasters. (Great pictures, by the way.)

When asked who she wants to come back as in her next life, she says she wants to return as her Yorkie/Chinese Crested mix. "She only wears Ralph Lauren. She always wears Ralph Lauren. She travels like a rock star."

Live in Chicago <span class="caps">DVD</span>

For More:

Fleetwood Mac Tour Dates

Stevie Nicks Live in Chicago DVD

Stevie Nicks The Soundstage Session CD

DOWN MEMORY LANE: Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty’s 1981 "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" Music Video:

Stevie Nicks - New Music - More Music Videos

Read more about: Entertainment, Fleetwood Mac, Music, News, Stevie Nicks, Video

63 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

And show your face and be proud of it -And let your heart beam out of your eyes! I know, English teacher, run-on sentences!! Why do those English teachers still provoke so much guilt!?! Probably, in a strange way, they were right. Good night!

By Kris Merrill on 04/01/2009 11:07 pm

e-mail alert

Okay.

Stepford Wives 1

Modern Women 0

By roberta wickham on 04/02/2009 8:29 pm

e-mail alert

Sorry, you know, life is much better and full if you face reality and are grateful for the good things and don’t dwell on the negative aspects. Work to defeat the negative and strive to create a better world. THose who dwell in negativity drown in it. And calling names is what unhappy children do. Why get so nasty over something so NOT IMPORTANT?

By Kris Merrill on 04/03/2009 7:54 pm

e-mail alert

Isn’t that nice! You’ve got a slogan for everything. You must be very smart. Surely, all those slogans and bromides save you quite a lot of time, not to mention wear and tear on your gray matter. Probably the real reason why women have wrinkles by the time they’re 60 is that some of them spend too much time thinking. It’s soooo nice to know that positivity and sunshine will hold off the realities of aging and other bad bad, negative things.

By roberta wickham on 04/04/2009 9:04 am

e-mail alert

Roberta, Why are you being so nasty? This is not a topic of great importance. Save your venom for more serious things - or better yet, try communicating without stooping to personal attacks.

By Kris Merrill on 04/04/2009 1:07 pm

e-mail alert

She does look great. Not sure I’m buying the ‘never had a facelift’ bit, though. On the other hand, she doesn’t have that Priscilla Presley look. I do love her music and voice. But…Joe Walsh was the love of her life??

By Deena B. on 03/31/2009 7:43 pm

e-mail alert

I’m 42 and still get asked for ID when buying liquour. Boomers and all that came after (Like this Gen-Xer) are defying old age because old is becoming much older than we used to know. 100 is the new 70? Perhaps because I still feel, act, play and *%$# like I’m 23.

By Rebecca G on 03/31/2009 10:18 pm

e-mail alert

I have a daughter your age, and she looks youthful enough to be a model. But if you think that looking as if you are still in your twenties when you are twice that is going to last forever, then you are fooling yourself.

Also, I think it’s kind of obnoxious — not to mention smug — to imply that it’s somehow our own fault, if we develop wrinkles, if our jawlines begin to sag, or our waistlines thicken. It’s not entirely a question of lifestyle choices. It’s more often a function of estrogen. In a few years, you will be singing a different tune, and — no doubt — writing big checks to plastic surgeons so you can remain in denial.

By roberta wickham on 04/01/2009 8:41 am

e-mail alert

roberta, with all do respect, you need to switch to decaf. I’m having a little fun and enjoying this article. This is not something that needs to be taken so seriously. Also, I am not being obnoxious or smug and saying such things to me is impolite. I would not attack you as I have never met you, please do not call me names as you don’t know me. I was even light hearted in my last reply and poking some fun at myself with my "A girl can dream can’t she" line.

I have a magnet on my refrigerator. It reads, "Destined to be an Old Woman with no Regrets." That’s with or without wrinkles.

By Rebecca G on 04/01/2009 9:45 am

e-mail alert

I posted my response to you before you wrote "A girl can dream can’t she?" I take exception to the implied message of this thread that if you look old when you’re in your sixities, then it’s your own darn fault. And your statement seemed to reinforce that. Coming from a person who is still pre-menopausal, that seems a bit rich. I don’t think you are obnoxious, but I think your statement was. I’d be happy to substitute "unrealistic" for "smug." You statement reminds me a little of that joke about the man who jumped off the top of the Empire State Building, and was heard to remark as he passed the 50th floor, "so far, so good."

By roberta wickham on 04/01/2009 10:11 am

e-mail alert

Isn’t it interesting in this debate how many people rush to her defense, "Oh I love her…she uses creams." No one is attacking her talent, nor her expounding on sun damage to skin (which is true,) or using product to aid taking care of what you have—scalpel given or not. I wish the women on the attack, "Oh you’re just jealous because you lie in the sun by the pool and ruined your skin, and you didn’t take care of yourself, like Stevie." Listen. And this shouldn’t have to be said. I don’t lie in the sun by the pool, but it’s a nice image where I can have cabana boys running around bringing water with lemon and face towels soaked in lavender water. I also never consumed vast quanities of alcohol or did drugs (and those things do affect your appearance.) I come from stock where both mother (a classic beauty) and a grandmother, both had people standing over their coffins saying "Not a line on them." My mother had a great comeback line when she heard that said about her mother-in-law, "That’s because she never lifted a finger in her life!" However…she never said that in society. She was far too polite.

The point being…the MAJOR POINT BEING….If you have had work, for God’s sake media, stop throwing intelligent women this pap about "This is the new sixty." Edit. "This is the new sixty with plastic surgery and other procedures now available to help us acheive this look." Name the good doctors who gave you this. Be glad you can go in and get the injections and fills and mini’s. I don’t want to sit here and call anyone a liar, but I have an institutional memory, and I would remind people who do…prevaricate? The internet has a long memory, too. Someone ambitious enough just has to go back into archives and findfindfind, clicksaveclicksaveclick save and easily produce before and afters that make you go…wait a minute….. It’s a disservice to men and women and, as Roberta and others have said, to the skill and technologies that have evolved to help you look that way. I know I find it highly insulting to have the person in denial, fueled by a kind media, saying, "THIS is sixty." Please.

I am not taking from Ms. Nicks’ many talents. Those are hers, and we thank you. Just stop (and this is an all-inclusive statement to those in denial and the media,) stop feeding us this and expect us to sit there, the passive, unintelligent "ok…I’ll buy that" public who will not come back with data, photographs, references and any other hoo ha you want to throw in there. You might find a weary of hearing this stuff public ready to turn into a little research team and come back with a sledgehammer of facts, wishing you had given us the truth in the first place. I know I have been vocal enough within this piece, because I am tired of being lied to. Stop it. It’s insulting.

and a postscript? John F. Kennedy would be regretting he ever unzipped his careless pants and named his secretaries "Frick" and "Frack" chasing them around the interior White House pool during "nap time." There’s a new book being issued as I type, if not out already, exposing all of that lovely behavior at taxpayer expense; and an insult to his intelligent, talented wife. Back when he was doing it? The media knew, and buried it. Now? Proclaim something that isn’t true, and someone, somewhere out there is going to get tired of being insulted and go to work in the archives. Stop insulting us.

By Washington Cube on 04/01/2009 10:01 am

e-mail alert

Thank you so much for posting this. You have hit the nail on the head. I once interviewed a famous star, I’ll call "Wonder Woman." Back then, I was in the process of editing one of those swimsuit magazines for my publisher. "Wonder Woman" — who had been a Miss SomeStateorOther before she’d become an actress, said that she thought that these swimsuit issues were a poor idea because they made women fell badly about their own bodies. She went on to say that ordinary women, looking at these pictures, have no idea how much cosmetic help the women in these pictures have, not to mention assistance via non-cosmetic tools such as Photoshop. I quoted her in my story, but the editors removed that statement. I agree with you that the media needs to stop lying to us, and I also wish that the media would quit holding people who have had plastic surgery up to ridicule.

By roberta wickham on 04/01/2009 10:20 am

e-mail alert

Roberta: The plastic surgeon I cited knowing? He works on all the Miss USA’s and Universes, because he knows Donald Trump who sends them all there. (Trump owning the contests.) "I" was so naive, I didn’t know they had work done. He said, "Please," giving me a hard look. He has strippers in his office. He has fourteen year old girls in his office with their mama’s. As for the beauty contestants, working girls and teenagers? They went to a superior doctor. No one will ever know. And don’t get me started on fourteen year olds having anything done. It is being done. Accept it. The ones I’ve seen though are usually getting laser hair removal or rhinoplasty. You remember that reality show where the doctor in L.A. was doing all of the breast work? After he was done, his clients were flying 3,000 miles to find my guy. I asked him, "Is it harder for you to "undo" and correct the work? "Absolutely," he said. By then natural scar tissues have been forming. Some things may have been removed that were necessary to achieve the good look in the first place. It makes my work twice as hard to go back in and redo." This is why I keep stressing when I applaud the surgeons. Chose carefully. Another thing he told me, (because I grilled the poor man to death, which is what the reporter of this piece should have considered) was his own philosophy was "don’t take it too far, or you will not receive a natural look." So he doesn’t give a AAA cup a double D. He won’t pull your face tighttighttight, even if you are screaming through the anesthesia mask, "I want more!" He makes sure you know what you are getting, and he gives it to you. I was thinking, Roberta, as an "example." Someone, an editor, on this blog says to the writer, "Go interview _____. You can even tell ______, we are promoting this piece as "This is the new ____." At that point, the writer goes forth, or calls, or submits her questions via email…whatever, and these are the answers she gets back. She could take it further, invesitgate and go back to the "star," and say, "You know. I found out…." Does she make that choice and inflame the featured subject? Does she tell her boss she wants to pursue this further? Does she risk losing her job, getting taking to task, etc. because she did say "The Empress has no clothes?" It’s a tough call. I see so many ways this could play out. Ex: The screaming boss. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT TO CHALLENGE THE ANWERS? ARE YOU INSANE? We don’t want a lawsuit, we aren’t here to question veracity (ya should be…it’s called reporting.) I feel I have ripped at this subject enough with a #10 scalpel. Keep shoving your fingers in your ears, those in denial, and just go "lalalala" and make all the bad stuff go away.

By Washington Cube on 04/01/2009 11:00 am

e-mail alert

I agree that it’s very important to choose one’s surgeon very carefully. And "less is more" is a good rule of thumb. I think, too, that people who are contemplating plastic surgery need to think long and hard about what their goal really is. In theory, a good way to find the right surgeon would be to look around for someone who has had good work done on them and ask them for the name of the artist, but it’s one of those things you’re not supposed to talk about. Not yet, anyway.

In most cases — at sane publications — the writer doesn’t risk losing her job for not reporting the story the way the editor wants her to. Sometimes the story that the editors are looking for simply isn’t there. Sooner or later, though, every writer comes across an editor who is willing to distort what she has written — that’s when it’s time to move on, obviously, because it’s the writer’s byline that appears on the story, and not the editor’s.

As for reporters asking stars prying questions, you try to ask the embarrassing questions at the end of the interview — if you are forced to ask them at all. Writers who specialize in "hit jobs" don’t have very good career longevity as a rule. Nowadays, publicists vet the reporters who get to write about their clients, and a writer who has a track record of nasty articles will probably be excluded. To any public figures who might be reading this: the editors make us do these things. It’s easy for them to come up with absurd wish lists, because they don’t have to be in the room to watch the mutual mortification of the reporter who is asking rude questions, or the person who is being asked them.

Blame editors for headlines like "This is what the new 60 looks like" — especially if it’s NOT at all what the new 60 looks like. Of course, there are entertainment celebrities and news personalities who see fit to announce without being asked that they’ve had NO plastic surgery. Sophia Loren was another person who did that. Editors are especially fond of those "Fabulous at Fifty" and "Super at Sixty" pieces. Sadly, we need to go to our class reunions to see how we’re really supposed to look at our ages.

Facelifts are the procedures we seem to hear about the most. I once asked a bunch of plastic surgeons which procedure seemed to bring the greatest satisfaction to the most people, expecting the answer would be rhinoplasty, or facelifts. To my astonishment, most of them answered "breast reduction." For what it’s worth, they also agreed that smoking is far more damaging to the appearance than exposure to the sun.

I once spent a few days on the set at "Hee Haw" and one of the stars of that show was talking about the late Dottie West. She said, "if Dottie gets one more facelift, she’s gonna have a beard."

Believe it or not, somebody actually had to explain that joke to me.

By roberta wickham on 04/01/2009 11:57 am