Stevie Nicks Gave John Mulaney the ‘Greatest’ and ‘Longest’ Rejection of His Career
Stevie Nicks serves as an inspiration to many, and people dream of collaborating with her. One such person was comedian John Mulaney, who asked Nicks to appear in his comedy special John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch. Not only did she turn him down, but she rejected him in a very extended way. Here’s why he described it as the “greatest pass” of his career.
John Mulaney’s Netflix special featured many celebrities
In 2019, Mulaney released John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch, a children’s musical comedy. During the special, Mulaney and a group of children tackle adult, existential topics through song and comedy bits.
“In the news there would be stories of ‘What should we tell our kids?’ and ‘What are our kids thinking?’” Mulaney told Entertainment Weekly. “I just thought, you can ask them? You can make it an open conversation.”
The special also featured a number of big names, including Richard Kind, David Byrne, Natasha Lyonne, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
John Mulaney wanted Stevie Nicks to join the project
Mulaney revealed that there was another star he wanted to join the project: Nicks. While he was very interested in having her join the cast, he said she was difficult to contact. He tried for roughly a month with no response.
“I finally called her manager, and I said, ‘This is John Mulaney,’” he said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “And she went, ‘Oh, you’re that guy.’”
Mulaney said that Nicks’ manager initially gave him an easy letdown.
“She said, ‘Listen, Stevie heard about the project, but she’s on tour, and she has a limited break, and so it’s just not something she can do,’” Mulaney explained.
He said he completely understood, but Nicks’ manager kept talking.
“She said, ‘Also, Stevie listened to the song, and she doesn’t think it’s funny.’ And I said, ‘Oh, OK, you know the first answer was good enough.’”
She added that Nicks only appeared on American Horror Story: Coven because she could sing one of her own songs. On Mulaney’s special, she’d perform a parody song. Despite directly hearing that Nicks didn’t like the music, Mulaney said he couldn’t help but laugh because it was “the longest pass I’d ever heard in about a decade of entertainment.”
He summed up the whole experience: “When she passes on a TV project, she really passes on it.”
John Mulaney might still meet Stevie Nicks
The rejection may have stung, but Mulaney still told Nicks’ manager to say hi to the Fleetwood Mac singer for him.
“Please thank Stevie for me and just tell her I said ‘hello,’” he said, “and basically tell her I wrote the part because I want to hang out with her.”
Nicks’ manager had a somewhat surprising response to this.
“Her manager said, ‘Well then come hang out. We have people in the backyard all the time.’”
In the end, though, Mulaney isn’t sure that he’ll go hang out with Nicks. “She didn’t like my song,” he joked.
