Music Friday: Everything About Rock and Roll Icon Stevie Nicks Is '24 Karat Gold'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, the spotlight shines on two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stevie Nicks as she sings “24 Karat Gold,” the title song from her 2014 album.

Nicks revealed that the tune she penned in 1980 — but didn’t release until 2014 — was about her passionate, but short-lived, romance with Fleetwood Mac bandmate Mick Fleetwood. She described the relationship as having "its 24-karat moments.”

For Nicks, 24-karat gold represents absolute perfection. The phrase appears as the name of today’s featured song, numerous times in the song’s lyrics (“There were dreams to be sold / My 24 karat gold”), in the title of her 2014 album (24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault) and on the marquees of countless venues during her 2016-2017 concert series (“The 24 Karat Gold Tour”).

Nicks also uses the term "chain of chains" throughout the song. The jewelry term symbolizes an invisible chain that holds people together.

Fleetwood Mac fans are familiar with the the group's 1977 hit, "The Chain," a song that originally represented the internal fractures — both romantically and professionally — of the band members, but eventually came to symbolize their triumph in staying together.

While “24 Karat Gold” appears as the fourth single from Nicks’ eighth studio album, it was actually written 34 years earlier during the Bella Donna album sessions. The original 1981 no-frills demo, featuring Nicks playing the piano with an accompanying drum machine and bass, can be found on YouTube.

Born in Phoenix, AZ, Stephanie Lynn (Stevie) Nicks sang duets with her grandfather, Aaron Jess "A.J." Nicks Sr., when she was just four years old. The future rock legend learned how to play the guitar as a teen and wrote her first song as a 16-year-old. While in high school in California, she joined her first band, Changing Times.

As a senior, she met her future husband and Fleetwood Mac bandmate, Lindsey Buckingham, who invited her to replace the lead singer of his band, Fritz, in 1967. In 1975, both Buckingham and Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, helping to launch the band to the pinnacle of success.

The Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter is best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. Collectively, she’s scored 40 top-50 hits and sold more than 140 million albums. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album accounted for 40 million of those sales. That album was rated by Rolling Stone magazine as #7 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Nicks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, the first in 1998 as a member of Fleetwood Mac, and the second time in 2019 in recognition of her solo career that has spanned more than 40 years.

The 75-year-old Nicks is currently embarking on a summer tour, which includes a series of co-headlining concerts with 74-year-old Billy Joel.

Please check out the official lyric video of Nicks performing “24 Karat Gold.” Here are the lyrics if you'd like to sing along…

“24 Karat Gold”
Written and performed by Stevie Nicks.

Set me free, set me free
Is this what you wanted, to happen to me?
Golden wings in the sunset
Take me back
All alone I waited
But there was no one, out there

There were dreams to be sold (chain of chains)
My 24-karat gold (chain of chains)
There was some love to be sold (chain of chains)
You said you might be coming back to town (chain of chains)
All alone I waited

There was no one out there
In the rain she lay face down.
What is this freedom that she wanted
What kind of freedom…
What kind of game?

There were dreams to be sold (chain of chains)
My 24-karat gold (chain of chains)
There was some love to be sold (chain of chains)
You said you might be coming back to town (chain of chains)

Set me free, set me free
Is this what you wanted, to happen to me?
Golden wings in the sunset
Take me back
All alone I waited
But there was no one, out there

There were dreams to be sold (chain of chains)
You like my 24-karat gold, chain of chains
(chain of chains)
(chain of chains)
You like my 24-karat gold
(chain of chains)
Yes you like my 24-karat gold

Yeah
My love

Credit: Image by Ralph Arvesen, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sauce Gardner Welcomes Aaron Rodgers to NY Jets With Some High-Flying Bling

Last season's NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Sauce Gardner welcomed star quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets with a piece of jewelry that had the four-time Most Valuable Player grinning from ear to ear.

Emblazoned with Jets-green emeralds and white diamonds set in white gold, the #8 pendant is a nod to the jersey number the former Packer and 18-year veteran will be wearing during his first season in the Big Apple.

A short video posted by the New York Jets on Twitter and Instagram shows the 22-year-old defensive phenom briefly interrupting the 38-year-old's weight room session at the Jets' training camp on Saturday.

“Hear me out, hear me out. So you’re my jeweler’s favorite quarterback,” Gardner said, while toting a gift bag in his left hand. “You know what I mean, Al The Jeweler. So he wanted to cook up something special for you. He brought the idea to me. I said, ‘I think would be a good idea.’”

Then Gardner opened a necklace case, revealing a dazzling pendant dangling from a long gold chain. Rodgers could see that the "8" was rendered in diamonds and outlined in emeralds. Raised white gold lettering on one side of the pendant spelled the signal caller's name, while the other side in similar lettering spelled out "NEW YORK JETS."

Despite his low-key persona, Rodgers seemed really pleased with the piece designed by New Jersey-based Al The Jeweler. Rodgers smiled broadly and told Gardner, "You've got to put it on me." Gardner secured the #8 pendant and then the two embraced.

Rodgers can be heard saying, "Thanks, man, I appreciate it."

The post earned 1.7 million views on Twitter and 94,000 Likes on Instagram.

Gardner had teased during a Friday press conference that he had a “welcome to New York” gift for Rodgers that he thought the QB would like.

Gardner knows a little bit about spectacular necklaces. Back in February, Al the Jeweler (whose real name is Al Bekdas) designed a diamond-encrusted "Sauce" necklace for the Jets' first-round draft pick. That piece — in the shape of a hot sauce bottle — was reportedly made up of 20 carats of VS-quality diamonds.

(Sauce's first name is actually Ahmad, but he has been known as "Sauce" since a youth coach gave him the nickname when he was six years old.)

“When I look good, I feel good," he told the NFL Network. "When I feel good, I play good."

Credits: Screen captures of the pendant presentation via Twitter / New York Jets. Side view of pendant screen capture and photo via Twitter / Paul Andrew Esden Jr.

After Brutal Encounter With Bison, AZ Woman Accepts Proposal From Hospital Bed

Arizonan Chris Whitehill had planned to pop the question to Amber Harris on a picturesque land bridge at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming last week. But just 12 hours into their vacation, a brutal encounter with a hotheaded bison landed Harris in the hospital with multiple vertebral fractures and collapsed lungs.

Undaunted, Whitehill proposed to Harris from her bedside with a beautiful emerald-cut diamond in a halo setting.

"So my love got down on one knee beside my hospital bed last night and formally asked me to be his wife," Harris captioned a Facebook post, which included a close-up of her new engagement ring. "Without any hesitation, I said 'yes.'"

Whitehill had planned to propose to Harris on Wednesday, July 19, which would have marked the three-year anniversary of their first date. But they never made it to the park's natural land bridge that rises 51 feet above Bridge Creek.

On Monday morning, they had gotten coffee at the lodge and then decided to stroll through a field to Yellowstone Lake. They were about halfway to the lake when they encountered 20 elk and two bisons. One of the bisons was acting strange.

“We stopped and looked at the massive beast, about 50 yards away on the trail, hidden at first in the shadows of the trees,” Harris told Phoenix-based TV station KTVK. “We watched him drop and roll in the dirt, like a dog would. He got up on his feet and started walking, then running, toward us.”

Whitehill screamed to distract the animal, but the bison hit his fiancée "square on, with his head right in her abdomen area. And I looked up and he launched her into the air about 8 to 10 feet."

“When it’s someone you love and you witness something so tragic like that, you feel helpless,” Whitehill told KTVK.

Harris was airlifted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, where she was treated for multiple injuries.

She wrote on Facebook, "pain meds, CT, MRI and I sustained 7 spine fractures, bilateral collapsed lungs and bruising all over. Glory to God all my vital organs look good.”

Bison attacks at Yellowstone National Park are rare, but not unheard of, especially during mating season, which runs from late July through August. The last bison attack at the park occurred about a year ago.

Bisons are the largest land animals in North American, and males (called bulls) can weigh more than 2,000 pounds and stand 6 feet tall. What's more, they are unpredictable and fast — really fast. Bisons have been clocked at 35 MPH, significantly faster than sprinter Usain Bolt in his prime (27.3 MPH). The National Park Service advises Yellowstone visitors stay at least 25 yards away from bisons, but an aggressive male can make up that ground in a hurry.

Bisons nearly became extinct during the last century, but conservation efforts have helped save the species. The National Park Service claims Yellowstone is now home to 6,000 bisons.

Whitehill established a GoFundMe page to help pay for his fiancée's medical expenses.

"Medical bills have started to pile up," Whitehill wrote. "Anything helps at this point. Amber is a beautiful person inside and out and cherished by all."

In a followup post, Whitehill noted that, while no surgery is needed, Harris does have to wear a back brace to keep her spine immobilized.

"Many thanks for your prayers and generous donations," he wrote. "Amber and I are very grateful."

Credits: Ring photo via Amber Harris/Facebook. Couple photo via GoFundMe.com. Bison photo by Jack Dykinga, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Public Domain.