Rare Behind the Scenes Footage of the Moment Stevie Nicks Turned a 1981 Rolling Stone Photoshoot Into a Gig

In September 1981, Stevie Nicks was sitting in Annie Liebovitz’s studio for a Rolling Stone photo shoot just after the release of her first solo album Bella Donna. While Nicks is having her makeup done, someone plays her favorite songs. The rest is magic!

In 1981, the year she released her chart-topping debut solo album, Bella Donna, Stevie Nicks would grace the cover of Rolling Stone magazine for the first time without her band, Fleetwood Mac.

The photoshoot for Nicks’ September 3 cover was conducted in Manhattan by photographer Annie Leibovitz (who famously photographed Fleetwood Mac’s first ever Rolling Stone cover in 1977), to promote Nicks’ new solo venture, which she would discuss in the magazine across a four page spread.

In rare behind the scenes footage documenting the day, the singer-songwriter can be seen glamorously posing while draped in pink and white fabric, with her permed hair volumized and blowing extravagantly behind her, thanks to that wind machine.

Meanwhile, the Rolling Stone team play out her songs – both solo and Fleetwood Mac releases – through the sound system to set the mood for the shoot, as Nicks sings along, dances, and happily goofs around.

Across the day, the Fleetwood Mac star performs to a number of tracks, including some that were at that time unreleased, such as “Enchanted”, which would go on to feature on her 1983 solo album The Wild Heart. There’s also footage where her solo swansong “Edge Of Seventeen” is played through the speakers: however during this moment the vocalist undergoes multiple wardrobe adjustments, which prevents her from dancing around too much.

Elsewhere, she sings to tracks then just recently recorded for Fleetwood Mac’s thirteenth studio album, Mirage, which would be released the following year, including “That’s Alright” and “Only Over You”. At the time, Nicks had just returned from recording sessions for the album held in the Château d’Hérouville in France.

During the “That’s Alright” video, Nicks also appears to go on a humorous rant about – what sounds like – some altercation where she was stopped from singing her songs inside a club, although the details aren’t entirely clear. Either way, it makes for a surreal and entertaining viewing.

The end result of the photoshoot would see Nicks posing on the magazine cover with a white cockatoo called Maxwellington, owned by her brother Chris, which appears in the section of the video where Rumours’ “Gold Dust Woman” can be heard.

(via Louder)