• 2 days ago
What if I told you that classic rock superstars of the 1970s like Stevie Nicks, Phil Collins and James Taylor played with the same band? No, I’m not referring to some sort of supergroup, I’m talking about what has now become known as The Immediate Family, a crew of session musicians who recorded with just about every relevant rock musician of the era. The new documentary Immediate Family chronicles their time running amok in the industry and helping to write some of the world’s biggest singles of all time while, for the most part, flying under the radar. The documentary touches on the time they spent recording with Nicks in particular, and it’s no surprise that its members reflect on the past with the same nostalgic romanticization that the singer/songwriter did when she was watching Daisy Jones & the Six.

Recently, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame gushed about Daisy Jones & the Six, the Amazon Original show that uses Nicks’ career as inspiration for the titular character. Producer Reese Witherspoon, star Riley Keough and more were over the moon to hear that Nicks not only loved the show, but became emotional, feeling like a “ghost watching my own story.” When I brought this up to Immediate Family guitarist Waddy Wachtel, he reflected on his own experience with musician Willie Nile, calling both stories an example of their collective “musical heart”
Transcript
00:00I don't know. I don't see that really. At least not yet. I haven't noticed anybody
00:07directly stealing a portion of my life to actually write something valid about.
00:12But, you know, you hear things here and there. You go, gee, that kind of sounds like me,
00:17you know, in bands and things. But, you know, it's exciting when you hear, for me anyway,
00:24for these days, to hear a band that you like, you know, coming out of what we've come through
00:31and all the music we lived and played and rock and roll music coming up through
00:37all the beautiful songs we've done aside from the rock and roll songs. To hear, you know,
00:41like, for example, a dear friend of ours named Willie Nile is a great songwriter, a terrific,
00:48amazing entertainer. He had a couple of years ago, he's got a song called Forever Wild.
00:54And I'd heard of Willie Nile, but I really didn't know much about it.
00:59And I heard this song on the radio, Sirius XM played this single. And I came home with this
01:07huge grin on my face. I was just so happy to hear a song that captured all the essence of the rock
01:15and roll that I lived by and lived through and lived with. And I got home and I told my wife
01:21about it. And I called Cooch. And I said, Do you know this guy, Willie Nile? He goes, Oh, yeah,
01:26I know Willie. Did you know him? Did you got to give me his phone number right now? And he did.
01:32And so I called Willie and I just expressed everything I just said to you about the song.
01:37And now Willie is one of our dearest friends in the world. And the last time we played New York,
01:42he and his band opened for us and he sat in with us at the end of our set. He's tremendous. So to
01:48hear Stevie to go on and on about Daisy is like me going on about Willie. To hear something that
01:55really strikes you in the musical heart you have is a wonderful thing. Doesn't happen often enough.

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