Months after first revealing that she had recorded vocals for an upcoming Gorillaz song, Stevie Nicks can now be heard on the virtual band’s new track, “Oil.”
Videos by American Songwriter
Before joining the band, led by Blur‘s Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, Nicks said that she had “one demand” before recording with them, which was to get turned into one of their animated caricatures.
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“I want to be a Gorilla, and I want to have big, false eyelashes, and I want to have blonde hair,” joked Nicks in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 in 2022. “And so they’re doing it as we speak.”
The song is featured on the Gorillaz’ eighth album, Cracker Island, and Nicks is one of a number of special guests on the release, along with Tame Impala and Bootie Brown on “New Gold,” Beck on “Possession Island,” Bad Bunny on “Tormenta,” and Thundercat on the title track.
Nicks said she was excited to become an “honorary Gorilla” while working with Albarn, Hewlett, and their band of four fictional characters and musicians.
“Well, I have to tell you, it was really great,” said Nicks. “Because [‘Cracker Island’ co-producer] Greg Kurstin sent [the song] to me. I call Greg back, and I go, ‘Oh, I think this is now our new favorite song, and I haven’t even sung on it yet. But yes, I would love to do this.’”
Nicks added, “I learned that song as if I had written that song and as if I was an Englishman, with that accent. And I love it so much.”
Cracker Island is Gorillaz’s first album since Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez in 2020.
Nicks recently shared a new cover of Buffalo Springfield‘s 1966 hit, “For What It’s Worth.” In October 2022, Nicks also lent her vocals to the song “Face to Face,” along with Dave Stewart, Russian musician Boris Grebenshchikov and Ukrainian artist Serhii Babkin.
Written by Stewart, Grebenshchikov, and Babkin, the song was launched along with Collaborate For Peace, to help raise awareness for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s UNITED24 initiative, which provides medical care and more for people impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage
