Stevie Nicks on Film: 'The World Used to Give You More of a Chance'

Since the early ‘70s, iconic songstress Stevie Nicks has been living and sharing her dreams through music that has touched a universal nerve over the years — even if you’re not a fan of Nicks or Fleetwood Mac, you’ve heard the mega hits like “Dreams,” “Landslide,” and “Stand Back” on the radio, on the jukebox, or over the P.A. at the grocery store.

As part of the Hamptons International Film Festival, Nicks shared her thoughts about her sweeping musical career and her latest solo album, entitled “In Your Dreams,” to a lively audience at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor on Sunday afternoon before the debut of a music documentary that chronicles the making of the album.

“The world used to give you more of a chance — they might not like everything on your album, but they might like some of it, so they’re going to listen to all of it,” she said during a Q&A session at the Bay Street.

Nicks and longtime musical soul mate, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, took the love of album-based songwriting to new heights right out of the gate with “Buckingham Nicks,” an acoustic-driven songfest that is still available only in its original 1973 vinyl form — much to the chagrin of a few fans from Westhampton Beach who stood in line outside of the theater with that very album in hand Sunday morning.

“We hope they can get back together again and perform these songs,” said Lisa Pastor of Westhampton Beach, holding the “Buckingham Nicks” album for a photo opp. “We just love Stevie — you can just relate to her songs, everyone can.”

Nicks and Buckingham, Christine and John McVie and Mick Fleetwood got together, broke up, and got together again over the years, and through their own raw emotional experiences made one of the best — and best-selling — albums in 1977 called “Rumors,” and that album and those songs — “Dreams,” “Second Hand News,” “Go Your Own Way” — permeate the world of popular music to this very day.

Before taking the stage for the Q&A Sunday, the Stevie Nicks of then and now was featured in a teaser clip of “In Your Dreams,” explaining that she never took lessons or played by any rules creating songs — rules take away from the authenticity of the heart, she said.

But with the help of producers Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and Glen Ballard, “In Your Dreams” does follow the rules Nicks laid out for herself with Buckingham long ago, with and without Fleetwood Mac — the concept of the album is everything. Released in May of last year, the solo album is the fifth to crack Billboard’s top ten for this down-to-earth songstress with lasting universal appeal.

“The old way, up until not that long ago, was the only way,” Nicks said during the Q&A. “And that meant, you know, you make a record, you sequence the songs so that even if someone doesn’t like the third song they’re probably going to listen to it anyway because it comes out of the second song and goes into the fourth song beautifully.

“And I wanted to make this new record at my house, because, as Fleetwood Mac did even as recently as 2003, you don’t have time limits as you would in a studio, and you are instantly more calm. You are able to really be yourself.”