Stevie Nicks

• 1. Introduction

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  Stevie Nicks, born Stephanie Lynn Nicks on the 26th of May 1948, could not pronounce her own name as a toddler. The best she could manage was "tee-dee", and that slip turned into the nickname Stevie. Decades later, Rolling Stone placed her on its list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. The same magazine also placed her on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. How did a girl raised on fairy tales and Top 40 radio earn a place on both lists? What does it take to build a solo career inside one of the best-selling bands in history? And what did that double life cost the woman at its center?

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• 2. Before Fleetwood Mac

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  Aaron Jess "A.J." Nicks Sr. taught his granddaughter to sing duets with him by the time she was four. She had been born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, to Jess and Barbara Nicks. Her mother was protective and kept her at home "more than most people". Barbara also fed her daughter's love of fairy tales.

  When Nicks reached the fifth grade, her grandfather bought her what she remembers as "a truckload of records". She guesses there were 150 singles, running from country and rockabilly to the Everly Brothers. On Top 40 R&B radio she fell for the Shirelles, for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and for "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" by The Shangri-Las.

  Her father was a vice president at Greyhound, and his work kept relocating the family. They lived in Phoenix, Albuquerque, El Paso, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. On her 16th birthday she received a Goya guitar and used it to write her first song, "I've Loved and I've Lost, and I'm Sad but Not Blue". She spent her adolescence playing records constantly, living in her "own little musical world".

  At Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California, she joined her first band, the Changing Times. It was a folk rock group built around vocal harmonies. During her senior year at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California, she spotted a boy playing "California Dreamin'" at the Young Life club. She joined him in harmony. "I thought he was darling," she recalled. His name was Lindsey Buckingham.

  In mid-1967, Buckingham asked her to replace the lead singer of his psychedelic rock band, Fritz, because two of its musicians were leaving for college. From 1968 until 1970, Fritz opened for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Nicks credits both of those acts with inspiring her stage intensity. She and Buckingham then attended San José State University, where she majored in speech communication and planned to become an English teacher. With her father's blessing, she dropped out to chase music with him.

  After Fritz disbanded in 1972, the pair kept writing as a duo. At night they recorded demo tapes in Daly City, California, on a one-inch, four-track Ampex machine. Buckingham kept it at the coffee-roasting plant that belonged to his father. The tapes won them a deal with Polydor Records, and the album Buckingham Nicks arrived in 1973. It did not sell, and Polydor dropped the pair.

  Money vanished. Buckingham came down with mononucleosis, and Nicks took several jobs, waiting tables and cleaning the house of producer Keith Olsen. The couple lived there for a time before moving in with producer Richard Dashut. Around then Nicks began using cocaine. "We were told that it was recreational and that it was not dangerous," she told Chris Isaak in 2009.

  Buckingham found work as a guitarist touring with the Everly Brothers, so Nicks stayed behind and wrote. She took the title "Rhiannon" from a novel called Triad by Mary Leader. She wrote "Landslide" too, inspired by the scenery of Aspen and by her slowly deteriorating relationship with Buckingham. Five years later, a fan sent her the Mabinogion novels of Evangeline Walton, which featured the legendary Rhiannon. Nicks went on to buy the film rights, hoping to bring the epic to the screen.

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• 3. The Package Deal

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  On the 31st of December 1974, drummer Mick Fleetwood phoned Lindsey Buckingham with an invitation. Keith Olsen had played the Buckingham Nicks track "Frozen Love" for Fleetwood, who had come to Sound City in California looking for a recording studio. When guitarist Bob Welch left to pursue a solo career, Fleetwood remembered that guitar work. Buckingham turned him down. He and Nicks, he insisted, were "a package deal", and he would not join without her.

  The band chose to take both. Fleetwood Mac decided that adding the pair would improve the group. The first rehearsals confirmed it, because the harmonies of the newcomers gave the band's blues-based rock a pop accessibility it had lacked.

  In 1975, the album Fleetwood Mac brought the group worldwide success. Nicks's "Rhiannon" was later voted one of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone. Her live performances of it through the decade took on a theatrical intensity that the album version never had. Mick Fleetwood declared, "her 'Rhiannon' in those days was like an exorcism." Another song from that album, "Landslide", racked up three million airplays.

  Recording of Rumours began in early 1976 and ran until late that year. By then Nicks had ended her relationship with Buckingham, even as their professional partnership flourished. Her contributions included "Dreams", which became the band's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.

  She had also written and recorded "Silver Springs", but it missed the album. Early versions ran too long, and the band did not want too many slow songs. Studio engineer and co-producer Ken Caillat said Nicks was very unhappy about the decision. He called the song beautifully crafted and said it carried some of the band's best guitar work.

  The song, about her tumultuous relationship with Buckingham, was released as the B-side of "Go Your Own Way". That single was Buckingham's equally critical song about Nicks. Copies became collector's items among fans. "Silver Springs" finally appeared on the four-disc retrospective 25 Years - The Chain in 1992.

  Rumours was the best-selling album of 1977 and has sold over 45 million copies worldwide. It stayed at number one on the American albums chart for 31 weeks. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978 and produced four top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Dreams".

  In November 1977, after a concert in New Zealand on the Rumours tour, Nicks and Mick Fleetwood secretly began an affair. Fleetwood was married to Jenny Boyd. "Never in a million years could you have told me that would happen," Nicks has said. She ended it soon afterward, and has said that had it continued, it "would have been the end of Fleetwood Mac". By October 1978, Fleetwood had left Boyd for Nicks's friend Sara Recor.

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• 4. Solo Queen

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  Three songwriters on every Fleetwood Mac album meant Nicks had a large backlog of songs she could not record with the band. The group began its third album with her and Buckingham, Tusk, in the spring of 1978. It came out on the 19th of October 1979. During those sessions, and again on the world tour of 1979-80, Nicks wrote and recorded demonstrations for a solo project. She, Danny Goldberg and Paul Fishkin founded Modern Records to release her material.

  Her voice was already in demand elsewhere. On Walter Egan's album Not Shy, she sang backup on virtually every track. One of them, "Magnet and Steel", was inspired by her and became a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1978. She also recorded the duet "Whenever I Call You Friend" with Kenny Loggins in 1978, and "Gold" with John Stewart in 1979.

  Her first solo album, Bella Donna, came out on the 27th of July 1981. It reached number one on the Billboard 200 and put four singles on the Hot 100. Rolling Stone called her the "Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll". The album also introduced her permanent backup singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry, who later became Lori Nicks by marrying Stevie's brother Christopher. Both have sung on every solo album since.

  The day Bella Donna hit number one, Nicks learned that her friend Robin Anderson had leukemia. Robin was pregnant and was given only three months to live. She gave birth to a son and named Nicks his godmother. "I never got to enjoy Bella Donna at all because my friend was dying," Nicks said. "Something went out that day; something left."

  After Robin died in 1982, Nicks married her widower, Kim Anderson, believing Robin would want her to care for the baby. They divorced three months later. "We were all in such insane grief, just completely deranged," she told the Telegraph in 2007.

  The work went on. She toured on the White Winged Dove tour in November 1981, then cut it short to record the Fleetwood Mac album Mirage. Her second solo album, The Wild Heart, followed on the 10th of June 1983. It went double platinum, reached number five on the Billboard 200 and produced three hit singles. It also introduced Sandy Stewart as co-writer and vocalist. That December she performed "Stand Back" and "Nightbird" on Saturday Night Live.

  Her third album started life as Mirror Mirror, with songs recorded during 1984. Nicks was unhappy with it and recorded a fresh batch in 1985. Retitled Rock a Little, it was released on the 18th of November 1985 and sold well, backed by three successful singles. She toured until October 1986, including shows in Australia alongside Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. That Australian run would become a turning point in her life.

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• 5. The Lost Years

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  Before the Australian tour, a plastic surgeon gave Nicks a blunt warning. She recalled on The Chris Isaak Hour in 2009 that he told her, "the next time you do a hit of cocaine, you could drop dead." At the end of the tour she checked into the Betty Ford Center for 30 days.

  The early deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix weighed on her. Part of her had wanted to go down with them, she said. Another part grieved that there would be no more work from either of them. Picturing a young singer wishing she had been more careful with her life, she said, made her "really look at the world through clear eyes."

  Friends feared a relapse, so later that year a psychiatrist prescribed her the sedative Klonopin. It became a trap of its own. Between 1987 and 1994 the doses grew ever larger, and she developed an addiction to the drug. She has said that "Klonopin was worse than the cocaine."

  Fleetwood Mac's Tango in the Night, released in April 1987, became the band's second-highest selling album behind Rumours. Nicks had been mostly unavailable while promoting Rock a Little, apart from a few weeks after the Betty Ford Center. That stay inspired the song "Welcome to the Room...Sara". She sent demonstrations of her songs to the band in her absence.

  Just before the world tour, Buckingham quit the group. According to bassist John McVie, a "physically ugly" confrontation followed when Nicks angrily challenged his decision. The Shake the Cage tour started in September 1987 with Rick Vito and Billy Burnette replacing him. It was suspended when Nicks fell ill with myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome, and it resumed in 1988.

  Her fourth solo album, The Other Side of the Mirror, arrived on the 11th of May 1989, made with English producer Rupert Hine. She toured the United States and Europe from August to November that year. Of that tour she later said she had "no memory of this tour". Fleetwood Mac released Behind the Mask in 1990. It was only a moderate success in the United States but entered the UK chart at number one.

  Shortly after the tour for that album, Nicks left the group. The cause was "Silver Springs". Nicks wanted it on her compilation Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks, but Mick Fleetwood refused. He wanted to save the song as a selling point for a Fleetwood Mac box set, since it had gained such a following among fans. Timespace came out on the 3rd of September 1991.

  The weight of those years showed. After the band's reunion at Bill Clinton's 1993 inaugural gala, where she sang "Don't Stop", Nicks was criticized for gaining weight. At 5 ft 1 in, she peaked at 175 lb (79.4 kg). "I lost those 8 years of my life," she has said. "I didn't write, and I had gained so much weight."

  In late 1993, she held a baby shower at her house. She tripped over a box, passed out and cut her forehead near a fireplace. "I knew it was the Klonopin," she said. A painful 47-day detoxification in a hospital followed.

  Her fifth solo album, Street Angel, was released on the 23rd of May 1994. It was poorly received and peaked at number 45 on the Billboard Top 200. Nicks later said much of its production took place during a second stint in rehabilitation, leaving her little say in the result. A three-month tour left her crushed by the focus on her weight. She vowed never to set foot on a stage again unless she slimmed down.

  She was, however, writing again in 1994 and 1995 as she came out of her Klonopin dependency. According to her, Tom Petty got her moving by refusing her request that he write a song with her.

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• 6. Witch Rumors and Platforms

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  At 5 ft 1 in, Nicks has said she felt "a little ridiculous" standing next to Mick Fleetwood, who is 6 ft 6 in. The solution was a 6 in platform boot. She told Allure in 1995, "Even when platforms went completely out of style, I kept wearing them because I didn't want to go back to being 5 ft 3 in in heels."

  Clothing designer Margi Kent helped her build a bohemian stage look of flowing skirts, shawls and platform boots. Nicks calls the result her "uniform". Reporter Ruth La Ferla of the New York Times wrote that at 60 she was still working the gossamer tunics and shawls that had influenced two generations of followers. In La Ferla's words, they gave her performances the feel of a Wiccan ritual.

  The look has roots. Nicks once saw a woman in her audience wearing dripping chiffon, a Gibson Girl hairstyle and big boots, and she knew she wanted something similar. She also owns a strand of Janis Joplin's stage beads. Her contralto voice has been called "gruff" and "feathery". She has decorated her microphone stand with roses, ribbons, chiffon, crystal beads, scarves and small stuffed toys.

  In the late 1970s, threatening mail began arriving that accused her of witchcraft. "I just wear black because it makes me look thinner, you idiots," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. At the time, though, the rumors frightened her. From roughly 1978 to 1982 she gave up black for colors such as apricot and seafoam green.

  She felt ugly in them and went back to black in 1983. That year she said she wished people would stop believing the rumor. "I spent thousands of dollars on beautiful black clothes and had to stop wearing them for a long time," she said, "because a lot of people scared me."

  In 2014 she turned the rumor into a role. She appeared in the third season of American Horror Story, Coven, as a fictional version of herself, a "white witch" with supernatural powers. She returned in the eighth season, Apocalypse, and performed "Rhiannon", "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?", "Seven Wonders" and "Gypsy". Of the show's request for her music, she said, "Of course, you can use my music. Take it!"

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• 7. Reunions and Returns

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  In 1996, Lindsey Buckingham was working on a planned solo album and asked Mick Fleetwood and John McVie for help. That led to a reunion of the entire band. Nicks joined The Dance, a 1997 tour timed to the 20th anniversary of Rumours. Beforehand she began working with a voice coach to protect her voice on long tours. She also dieted and started jogging.

  The live CD The Dance earned several Grammy nominations, including one for the performance of "Silver Springs". In 1998, Nicks joined the group for its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That same year Fleetwood Mac received the Outstanding Contribution award at the BRIT Awards.

  On the 28th of April 1998, Nicks released Enchanted, a three-disc box set. It carried her own liner notes, rare photographs and pages from her journals. The set let her finish her contract with Atlantic Records in the United States, after Warner Music approached her about it.

  Sheryl Crow produced and performed on several tracks of Trouble in Shangri-La until a scheduling conflict forced her out. Nicks then approached R&B producer Dallas Austin, but those sessions have never surfaced. John Shanks produced the remainder. Natalie Maines, Sarah McLachlan and Macy Gray contributed to some tracks. The album, released on the 1st of May 2001, restored her solo career to critical and commercial success. "Planets of the Universe" earned a Grammy nomination, and VH1 named her its "Artist of the Month" for May 2001. Bronchitis and the September 11 attacks forced some tour dates to be canceled or postponed.

  Say You Will arrived in April 2003 without Christine McVie, leaving Nicks as the only woman in the band for the first time. It sold well but drew mixed reviews. Nicks later said she was unhappy with the album and the tour, citing production disputes with Buckingham. The 2004 DVD documentary Destiny Rules chronicles the sometimes turbulent relations in the studio.

  In 2010, Nicks began her first solo album in a decade with David A. Stewart of Eurythmics. In Your Dreams came out on the 3rd of May 2011. Its lead single, "Secret Love", was a song she wrote in 1976 as a demo for Rumours. The demo had circulated among fans for many years. Rolling Stone wrote, "It's not just her first album in 10 years, it's her finest collection of songs since the Eighties." The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with 52,000 copies sold in its first week.

  The release day brought a coincidence. Fox broadcast a Glee episode called "Rumours" that featured six songs from the 1977 album, including "Dreams". Rumours re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 11 that same week. Nicks told Billboard her new record was "my own little Rumours".

  In 2013 the band toured as a four-piece, and on the 30th of April it released the EP Extended Play. One of its songs, "Without You", dated from the Buckingham Nicks sessions. Her eighth solo album, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, followed in September 2014 and reached number seven on the Billboard 200. The On with the Show tour ran from September 2014 to November 2015 with Christine McVie back in the lineup.

  In April 2018, Buckingham was fired after disagreements with Nicks and Mick Fleetwood. Nicks helped recruit his replacements, Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House. In April 2019, she was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, becoming the first woman inducted twice, once with Fleetwood Mac and once as a solo artist.

  On the 9th of October 2020, she released her first new music in six years, "Show Them the Way", with a video directed by Cameron Crowe. That December, Primary Wave bought an 80% stake in her song catalog. The Wall Street Journal valued the deal at US$100 million. In September 2024 she released "The Lighthouse", written with Magnus Birgersson and Vincent Villuis to promote women's rights.

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• 8. Beyond the Stage

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  In late 2004, Nicks began visiting Army and Navy medical centers in Washington, DC. Seeing wounded service members there, she wanted to leave each one something to lift their spirits. She settled on hundreds of iPod Nanos, loaded with music and playlists she picked herself, and autographed them. "I call it a soldier's iPod," she said. The effort grew into a charity foundation, Stevie Nicks's Band of Soldiers.

  Mick Fleetwood often came along. Over three days they went from room to room through the halls of two hospitals and gave out every iPod. Right before she left for DC, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry dug into their pockets and handed her $10,000.

  Nicks has kept a journal nearly every day since she joined Fleetwood Mac. She says her fairy goddaughters and her niece can sit on the floor someday and go through them, where they can "smell the gardenia perfume on the pages". She has said she would write a book only if she could tell the truth, and that she would "mostly revel in the fantastic parts".

  She chose not to have children, because of her demanding career. "My mission maybe wasn't to be a mom and a wife," she has said, "maybe my particular mission was to write songs to make moms and wives feel better." She calls herself the "crazy auntie". After her brief marriage ended, she reunited with her former stepson when he was a teenager and put him through college. In 2020 she told The Guardian that his daughter, named Robin after her late grandmother, calls her "Grandma Stevie".

  In 2013, she became an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. On the 27th of December 2013, she officiated at the wedding of Deer Tick singer John McCauley and Vanessa Carlton.

  Other artists have taken her songs and made them their own. The Dixie Chicks recorded "Landslide", which topped the Country chart and earned Nicks the BMI Songwriters Award for Song of the Year in 2003. The Smashing Pumpkins covered it acoustically on their 1994 collection Pisces Iscariot. Hole recorded "Gold Dust Woman". Destiny's Child sampled "Edge of Seventeen" on their 2001 number-one single "Bootylicious", and Nicks appeared in the video.

  On the 31st of January 2010, Nicks performed with Taylor Swift at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. Swift, who calls Nicks a childhood hero, introduced her by saying, "It's a fairy tale and an honor to share the stage with Stevie Nicks." On the 19th of April 2024, Swift's song "Clara Bow" included the lines, "You look like Stevie Nicks / In '75, the hair and lips." Nicks answered by writing a poem for the album's liner notes.

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