2008 was the first election I was old enough to vote in, and I was so excited. I sent in an absentee ballot so that I could vote against California’s Prop 8 (an anti LGBTQ+ bill) and watched the results come in live from my dorm room in NYC. When it was called for Obama, everyone in our hall threw coats on over our pajamas and ran out to celebrate at Union Square Park, where someone had brought a HUGE American flag that we all danced under. It was a simpler time. Looking back on that hippie dippie scene, I guess I was channeling my inner Stevie Nicks, which is somehow cosmically fitting since Stevie recently revealed that she never voted in her youth. In fact, she didn’t vote at all until she was 70! But, how, Stevie?! She’s disclosing this now, what she calls “a big regret,” as part of her appeal to women to vote in this election. It’s one of many topics covered in a sprawling, really great interview from Rolling Stone. A few highlights:
Still so much left to do! I haven’t been able to do a lot of the creative things that I love in many, many years. I draw, I write songs, and I write poetry. I’d like to make a perfume because I actually have a smell that I love. I like to design blankets. Cashmere blankets are my favorite thing. That is what I buy for my friends if there’s a special occasion. I bought Travis Kelce a blanket.
She regrets not voting until she was 70: I’m going to reach out to women and say, ‘You have to vote.” You have to. I never voted until I was 70 years old because I wasn’t at all political. I was incredibly busy, I was having a fitting, and I didn’t want to do jury duty. It’s a big regret.
The meaning behind “The Lighthouse,” the song she wrote in reaction to Roe v. Wade being overturned: So I am the lighthouse, because I am the wisdom and I have the stories.” We are the women that can tell all these young women from 15 up to 45. We are the light that goes out, and we bring the ships in so they don’t crash. We save lives every day. The way I feel about this upcoming election is that Kamala Harris is the lighthouse, too.
That time she told Katy Perry to get off the internet: About 10 years ago, Katy Perry was talking to me about the internet armies of all the girl singers, and how cruel and rancid they were. I said, “Well, I wouldn’t know because I’m not on the internet.” She said, “So, who are your rivals?” I just looked at her. It was my steely look. I said, “Katy, I don’t have rivals. I have friends. All the other women singers that I know are friends. Nobody’s competing. Get off the internet and you won’t have rivals either.”
Her secret talent: It’s a silly thing to say, but I do my own nails. This is the first time they’ve been white in 20 years — I didn’t have time to put the gold on them before the last show. People say, “Who did your nails?” And I go, “Me, because I’m the best manicurist in the world.” Nobody does them as good as me, so why would I let anybody else do them?
Reader, please do some math with me. “Cashmere blankets are my favorite thing. That is what I buy for my friends if there is a special occasion.” + “I bought Travis Kelce a blanket.” = A special occasion Stevie bought Travis a blanket for, right? Why’d you buy Travis the blanket, Stevie?! Taylor Swift and the Kelces actually make a few appearances in this article. Aside from Stevie totally shipping the couple and wanting them to have a happily ever after, Stevie also just recorded a Christmas song with Jason Kelce. I wonder how Taylor feels about her possible future brother-in-law horning in on her turf? It’d be pretty smooth if she posted a pic of herself sleeping while listening to the song. And speaking of smooth, that Katy Perry interaction was flawless, as is being noted on the internet, ironically.
Anyway, there is so much more in this interview, I highly recommend giving the whole piece a read. She says she’s gonna call producers so she can record another version of “Crystal” for the Practical Magic sequel, and of course she wants to jump off the roof like a groovy witch. And if you thought the excitement of getting the Barbie treatment had waned in a year, well, she has two displayed in her bedroom: the Rhiannon prototype and the final Gold Dust Woman doll. This Barbie says, VOTE!
Photos credit: MediaPunch/Backgrid/InStar Images