Stevie Nicks, 60, hates computers and wants you to know about it. She dislikes them so much she won’t use a cell phone, write an e-mail or text message and it even sounds like she blames computers for all of society’s ills. Nicks is on currently on tour with Fleetwood Mac.
Friends who want to get in touch with Stevie Nicks know not to send an e-mail, call on a cell phone, or reach out by text message, because she won’t respond.
It’s not that she’s being rude: Nicks doesn’t own a computer or a cell phone. The 60-year-old rock legend, who is currently on tour with Fleetwood Mac, is a proud technophobe.
“I believe that computers have taken over the world. I believe that they have in many ways ruined our children. I believe that kids used to love to go out and play,” Nicks says in her famously smoky voice.
“I believe that social graces are gone because manners are gone because all people do is sit around and text. I think it’s obnoxious.”
Nicks does own an iPod, but she prefers to listen to music — which includes her new CD, “The Soundstage Sessions” — on a boombox. (The CD also comes packaged with a DVD.)
Better yet, give her a cassette version and she’ll be in musical heaven. “It sounds better and you’d be convinced,” she says.
AP: This is your first live project in 22 years. What took so long?
Nicks: I don’t really know exactly how that happened. Before I knew it, it was 2007 … (my) tour was over, and I’m sitting in my house going, “I can’t believe I’m sitting here again, and I didn’t film this show.” So I got on my phone and I called my managers, and I said, “Make some calls, because I need to film this show.” I’m very, very proud of it. I’m almost glad that I waited this long to do it, because maybe that’s what God wanted me to do.
AP: You say you hope this project is a blueprint for the next generation. Why do you think there’s a lack of strong rock acts?
Nicks: Because the music business is in terrible trouble. People are stealing our music. That’s all there is to it. In the old days … they would help you to develop into the artist that they knew you were going to be. In the last 10 years, the record companies don’t have the money to do that. I don’t know what the answer is to it. The only thing I can say to people is, “Buy music, do not steal music.” If you do, you won’t have any new music later on.
AP: If you and I were having lunch, and I pulled out my cell phone …
Nicks: I’m gonna put my hand on your hand and say, “Turn it off, for now. Just give me an hour, of you, I really want an hour of just you, and your heart. I don’t want you talking to someone else while we’re having lunch.” It’s love, you know, it’s relationships. I don’t want love and relationships to be lost, and I feel like that’s happening.
[AP via The Huffington Post]
I hope she has an answering machine. Do you think it’s digital or one of those tiny tape things from the 90s? I understand getting annoyed with people talking on the phone or texting when you’re at lunch but to say computers have “ruined our children” is ridiculous. Never in history have we had as much access to knowledge and to other people and cultures as we do now. Along with that comes a lot of junk that kids shouldn’t be exposed to and like everything else computers should be used in moderation. The good far outweighs the bad though. Kids just aren’t sitting in classrooms being lectured at anymore – they’re learning independently and making connections between information and ideas in ways that wouldn’t be possible without the Internet.
Yesterday I listened to part of a show on NPR’s “Whad’ya Know?” that was about Facebook. One of the women interviewed on the show said something that I found really profound. She said that you can connect with old friends on Facebook that you otherwise might not have any contact with again before you die. That’s powerful, and I never thought of it that way but it’s true! They also talked about the pitfalls of a “mediated life” in which people can think before interacting because they’re doing it through text message and e-mail and there’s a delay before you respond. There’s definitely something to be said about people hiding behind computers and blackberries and not interacting enough, but it’s a complicated issue and it’s vastly simplifying it to dismiss computers entirely. Maybe if you can’t use one and find it intimidating you would think of it as an entirely negative influence. Nicks hasn’t changed her hairstyle in 30 years so it’s not surprising that she hasn’t embraced the latest technology.
Nicks is shown on 3/31/09 promoting her new CD. Credit: PRPhotos
Says for the former coke head. Wonder what happened in her childhood.
I do think that computers and video games have killed kids’ imaginations. It’s also making them into fat little couch potatoes who don’t want to leave the house. My kids are considered weirdos because they still like to play outside everyday, climb trees, jump rope and ride their bikes, etc. Sure, we have computer time and video game time, but not all day long like most kids. There’s a boy up the street who is 12 years old and has never ridden a bike in his life! He plays “Call of Duty” for hours on end and his parents think this is ok because he is “learning about WWII.” I’m serious!
When I read the headline I thought she was talking about Twitter, Facebook, et al. Aren’t they supposedly warping kid’s minds?
Anyway, technology, like anything else, is as good as what you use it for. If you use it for brain deadening activities in place every other activity then of course it probably might have a problematic aspect. Otherwise it’s handy in as many ways as it’s a hindrance.
She’s not old enough to be saying these things. It’s like saying *all* TV is evil. Not really.
Ironically, I think Stevie Nicks has ruined our children…
I worship the ground she walks on.
But, technology has not ruined children.
Popular culture/ Media has done that.
As for Stevie, keep rockin’ great lady!
What ruined HER?
MSat: My husband plays Call of Duty and it’s far too violent for a 12 year old kid. (Body parts flying all over, etc.) That “learning about WWII” line must have been something he made up to get his parents out of his room.
@ MSat: at first i wanted to laugh at your post about the kid who has never ridden a bicycle but then i realized you were serious and i gasped. i wonder if he knows there is a big fiery orb in the sky that feels warm on your skin, and soft green stuff on the ground that feels nice between your toes?! that is sad.
I love her, but LOL about the hairstyle comment! Yeah, it is a sweeping generalization on her part, but some people just really really hate change. I don’t understand it, but that’s just the way some people are. Oh well.
i will listen to anything that woman says. she is my hero.
Computers have ruined our children? More like cocaine has ruined your nose and brain, Stevie.
She’s a self-obsessed nutjob. Have you seen any interviews with her? She seriously makes me nervous – there is a reason why Courtney Love worships her. They’re cut from the same cloth, IMO.
That being said, I do like “Landslide.”
She got it wrong it is parents that allow unlimited unmonitored tv, video games and other electronics to babysit their kids for them. Moderation is the key.
It definitely is to broad a statement, but I work with college kids who don’t even know basic social skills (how to ask for something, how to be professional, how to think critically) and I do believe that texting, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are partially to blame. There isn’t enough face-to-face interaction in their lives to teach them these soft skills organically. I love technology, but we really are losing some of the artistry of everyday communication.
Also, I do believe Stevie is using some “technology” in her facial maintanence!
“I love technology, but we really are losing some of the artistry of everyday communication.”I couldn’t agree with you more. I am around these kids and they do struggle to speak and write coherently and the subtleties of communication are completely lost on them.
It’s not just the youngest generation though, my husband who is in his late twenties is part of the wave of computer and TV addicted kids (I’m 9 years older). My childhood was spent outdoors, computers weren’t available yet and almost every spare moment was with my friends – face to face. Even now when we have free time I went to head outside or socialize. He automatically plonks down in front of the TV or video game. It is more insidious than we even realize.
Hey Stevie, how about these wacky motorcars?
*sigh* And she used to be so awesome.
wow, what a psycho… she’s way too young to be acting like a crotchety old lady… so she’s ok with tape technology and house phont technology… but not cd technology and cell phone technology? makes a lot of sense… crackhead!
No computer, but she owns an iPod? How did she buy the music and put it on the iPod?
That’s what I was wondering…maybe she borrows someone else’s computer. But it is true about the kids. But I guess at least they’re safer indoors away from all the predators, if they can avoid the ones online that is.
I hate complaining luddites who actually depend upon technology to exist.
Poor Stevie. As soon as she mentioned that God might have intervened in her career, I was prepared to discount most of her reasoning. What a joke.
Yeah, Stevie, instead of sitting around rich as hell and living the high life of a celeb, are you out there working to develop children so that they can truly have the skills to succeed in life?
What are YOU doing to come up with a new model for rock acts (or anyone for that matter) to profit in this day and age of the computer?
Nothing I’ll bet – just complaining and demonizing everyone else. You are not relevant anymore
(I still love Rhiannon though).
I agree with her, but every generation has its plagues. There’s no comparison to the sheer joy of being outside and in ‘real time’ to using electronics for half of our relations to the rest of the world.
You can only take the word of someone with experience with both. If you don’t have the experience, it’s like anything else – you can only observe/comment without knowing.
I really don’t think Stevie Nicks kept up with much of anything in her glass bubble, but she IS starting to sound like an old peevish dowager. Her Royal Witchyness is clearly in danger of becoming a caricature of herself. Kind of like Mae West did. But she shouldn’t feel too alone. I suspect Madonna will go the same route. But Stevie will be less pitiful in her dotage, I think.
She is aging gracefully, if I do say so myself.
The internet is great in that it allows people to comment about what they are passionate about. I am passionate about used video games
I agree with Stevie! The English language is also as lost as our kids because of texting. Kids have no creativity any more because a machine does it for them, so they think!
Whenever I hear about Stevie Nicks I have to relate a story that shows her true colors to be nothing more than Hollywood trash. I was working at a veterinary hospital in Sherman Oaks, CA during the 90’s and she came in one late night after hours. She was working late at night at a recording studio and her little dog (now the dog was cute…which turned out to be perfectly fine, by the way) accidentally got caught in a closing door. She wreaked of alcohol and acted like she was coke’d up as well. She was obviously impared, having to be helped out of her long white limo. Long story short, she said she didnt have any cash on her and just to send her the bill. Not only would she pay it, but she’d send us an signed copy of the album she was working on. Well multiple letters were sent, multiple calls were ignored and I finally gave up. The $60.00 emergency fee was not worth going through small claims court. To this day, however I never miss the opportunity to let people know about the real Stevie Nicks. I’ve had quite a few experiences like that while growing up in Hollywood. You cant hear a few nice chord progressions and come to the conclusion that a person is “classy” You still owe me $60.00 you old piece of dried up Hollywood leather!
Its fascinating how people attack her because she hasn’t embraced our beloved crack-tech. Could she possibly have a POINT? Maybe she’s right when she says, just turn off the phone and spend some time with me? No, of course she can’t be right, she has used cocaine, that automatically makes you wrong about everything. Oh, and she didn’t pay a bill once. Oh my GOD, forget about it, that means she can’t make a good point about how all this connectivity has disconnected us from the world.