The Backup singers: Sharon Celani (part 1)
The first one, the OG, the most consistant one, (save for one or two times when she was sick) she's been at every Stevie show and performance.
They met in Maui in 1978 when Stevie was vacationing there, and Sharon was singing with her band at the Blu Max nightclub in Lahaina. More info on Sharon here.
Story from Sharon on how her and Stevie met:
I met Stevie while I was singing in a rock and roll band playing at a club in Lahaina, on the island of Maui. Stevie came to one of our shows and ended up on stage singing with us, and this was the beginning of our friendship. That night Stevie mentioned to me that she was staying in a place on the beach where the tropical atmosphere was inspiring her to want to write and that she wished she had a piano to work her ideas out with. I called up a friend and arranged to get a piano brought to Stevie’s place. When she got the piano she invited me over to sing with her on a new song idea and I’ve been singing with her ever since.
This is a photo from that night at the BluMax nightclub in Lahaina, Maui in 1978:
Stevie recalling their first meeting, from a 1983 interview:
I met Sharon ~ Sharon you'll have to help me ~ many, many, years ago. I was in Hawaii [in 1977] and Sharon was singing at the Blue Max and she was singing Poor Poor Pitiful Me and I know Warren Zevon very well so I love any songwriter that can write a line about a Waring Blender and get away with it. And I walked up to Sharon and said, 'My name is Stevie Nicks' and, of course, she knew I was there and she was totally dying of embarrassment cause I was there and not knowing how much I was enjoying listening to her sing and I walked up and said, 'So Sharon, what's happening? And I know that you love being in Hawaii and everything but...if I ever have a band, if I ever do a record will you consider coming and singing with me?' And I didn't know this girl, so it's not like...this could have been an unpleasant person, you know, that I had just nailed myself into a relationship with here. I didn't really know. I took it solely, completely on the way that she sang Poor Poor Pitiful Me.
They basically were inseperable ever since. I think at one point Sharon moved in with Stevie and Stevie would bring her along on the Tusk tour. She can even be seen in one of the pics that was taken in the studio during the Tusk recordings eventho she had no reason to be there (other than being Stevie's entourage):
In the Tusk tour program Sharon is credited as a "wardrobe supervisor" and for the longest time I thought that was just a symbolic title and she wasn't actual doing much except for tagging along with Stevie but recently I've found some pics of her handling stage clothes:
I read somewhere that at this time she was also dating someone from Fleetwood mac's touring crew, but I forgot who it was. More Sharon on the Tusk Tour with Stevie:
Ofcourse around this time Stevie started working on her first solo album, Bella Donna. Stevie brought in Lori Perry and luckily Sharon and Lori also clicked and the 3 of them would prove to be a golden combination.
Here's a "Leather and Lace" demo with Sharon singing Don Henley's parts:
Stevie decided very early on her backup singers where never going to be "just" backup singers, she envisioned a sort of 60's girl group and the girls would be prominent and featured in album photos and promos.
The tour:Lori Perry
