Dave Grohl’s Plan To Make Stevie Nicks Relatable

Artists need to stay relevant if they want to be on firm ground in a competitive environment like the music industry. Time goes by, and everything is inclined to change in the blink of an eye. Some genres were so popular in the past, but they have faded now. A song is popular one day but forgotten the other day. The world was shaken to its core with the unstoppable wave of rock and roll, but now it’s pop, rap, and hip-hop that dominate the charts. So, it’s important to seize the moment, especially if you’re a rock star.

When Stevie Nicks rolled up her sleeves to record her first solo album since 2001’s ‘Trouble in Shangri-La,’ she was pretty excited to come up with new music efforts. She teamed up with Dave Stewart and started working on ‘In Your Dreams.’ Following the release of the lead single ‘Secret Love’ and its music video, the album hit record stores on May 3, 2011. Nicks put so much effort into promoting the album, with appearances on various television shows.

‘In Your Dreams’ brought Stevie Nicks chart success: it debuted at number 6 on Billboard 200 and peaked at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart. Besides, the album sold 52,418 copies in its first week of release. Later on, Nicks realized that she wasn’t pleased with the record’s success, as it was only short-lived. She had documented the recording process, but her frustration prevented her from editing the footage and turning it into a documentary. Two years passed, and Dave Grohl came to Stevie’s aid to ensure the documentary remained relevant.

During a period marked by disappointment and frustration, Stevie Nicks poured her feelings out to Dave Grohl. Learning that Nicks had recorded the makings of the album, Grohl advised her to ask Dave Stewart to continue working on the footage to turn it into a documentary. Nicks decided to follow Grohl’s suggestion and called Stewart, fearing the film wouldn’t be relevant if they continued to wait. They then edited the footage for five months and released ‘Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams’ on December 3, 2013. In a 2014 interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, the Fleetwood Mac singer reflected on the process.

“At the very beginning of 2012,” Stevie Nicks recalled, “that’s when I went to do some crazy shows and also do my interview with Dave Grohl. I said, ‘If you know, I’m just heartsick today because my record is dead. I’ve been on tour all year and on every TV show known to man. You know, I’ve done 5000 interviews, in person, by phone, or as you name it; I’ve done it. And I’m so disillusioned with the music business.’”

Remembering what Dave Grohl had told her, Nicks continued, “He said, ‘Did you film it?’ I said, ‘Yes, we did film it. It was the best year of my life. We filmed it.’ He’s like, ‘Is it done?’ and I’m like, ‘No, it’s not edited. It’s edited down to three hours.’ He said, ‘Go home, call Dave Stewart, and say ‘Dave, come here tomorrow; we have to talk about this. Put it out because it’s the only way ‘In Your Dreams’ will get a second run for its money.’”

“And I did,” Stevie said, revealing she weighed Dave Grohl’s words and decided to follow his advice. The singer added, “I went home, called Dave, and said, ‘Dave, if we wait any longer, this whole thing will not be relevant. We’re going to wait too long. It will be too long between when we did it and the record. We’re going to put out this film 500 years later!’ So, Dave came up, and we started.”

Looking back on the makings of the documentary, the vocalist explained, “We worked, we worked all; we started probably in March-April, and we worked off and on, all the way through the summer and into the fall, with the two big editing screens. And I edited it with his editor, Shane. So, with Shane and my assistant Karen, we edited it from three hours to an hour forty. That took five months. It was very hard to do.”

So, Dave Grohl gave Stevie Nicks the strength and the hope she needed by persuading her to continue working on the documentary. Before talking to Grohl, Nicks had only completed editing three hours of footage. However, she followed his plan and began working relentlessly to complete the editing process. Thanks to Dave, Stevie completed the work in five months — before it was too late.