Stevie Nicks Biography

by Chris Dicker

  Stevie Nicks Biography: The Amazing Life of Stevie Nicks and the Inside Rumors About Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac

  Chris Dicker

  Published By Chris Dicker At Smashwords

  Copyright © 2016-2017 Chris Dicker

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  It's impossible to talk about female singer/songwriters without the name Stevie Nicks cropping up. This pop/rock icon has been on the music scene for the best part of forty years, and still shows no signs of stopping. The contralto-voiced dreamer is famous for her love songs and her gypsy type clothing, and her troubled personal life has been talked about just as much as her career, but she remains true to her art and is just as committed to performing as ever.

  Here is her story so far.

  It all began on May 26th 1948, when Stevie was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Her father Jess Nicks was in charge of a meat-packing company, which led to the family changing locations a few times during Stevie's childhood. Her mother Barbara stayed at home to raise their family, and was very over-protective of Stevie, allowing her to go out as little as possible, preferring instead to develop an affection for fairy tales. Born Stephanie Lynn Nicks, she acquired the nickname Stevie due to the fact that the nearest she could get to pronouncing her name was "tee-dee." Her paternal Grandfather A.J.Nicks Sr., was a singer of country songs, and longed to be a successful performer and by the age of four years old, Stevie was singing duets with him, and tap-dancing in the bar that he owned.

  At the age of sixteen, Stevie received a guitar for her birthday and was already immersed in her own little world, spending most of her teenage years listening to music. The first band she joined was the folk group 'Changing Times', while she was Arcadia High School in California.

  While in her final year at Menlo-Atherton High School, Stevie met Lindsay Buckingham who at the time was in a psychedelic band named Fritz. At a gig one night, Stevie jumped onstage with him to join him in a rendition of 'California Dreaming' and the rest, as they say, is history. In 1967 Buckingham asked Stevie to replace the band's vocalist and she sang with the band for the next few years.

  Fritz gained quite a following and became a popular opening act for many stars including Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, who Stevie says had a major influence on her performing style, together with Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane. It's said that at one gig, Hendrix singled Stevie out and dedicated a song to her. During this time both Stevie and Buckingham attended San Jose State University, with Stevie leaving before she graduated.

  In 1972 Fritz broke up and Stevie and Buckingham carried on writing together as a double act, and recorded their demos on a four-track tape recorder. In 1973 Polydor Records gave them a contract and later that year they released the demos they had made on an album entitled 'Buckingham Nicks'. Stevie and Buckingham made several live performances to promote the album, but it was not financially successful, and the record company decided to part company with them.

  Around this time Buckingham became ill with a condition called mononucleosis and was housebound for some time, he used this time to continue song writing, while Stevie took jobs such as waitressing and cleaning to try and support them. At this time they were both living with Keith Olsen, a recording engineer whose house Stevie was cleaning, they then moved in with record producer Richard Dashut and it was about this time that Stevie took cocaine for the first time, believing it to be a fairly safe recreational drug. This would lead to the start of an addiction that lasted for the next ten years. When Buckingham had recovered sufficiently he managed to secure a gig-playing guitar with the Everly Brothers while they were touring, and this time Stevie stayed at home to write the songs. She also read a novel called 'Triad' by Mary Leader, which included a character named "Rhiannon," inspiring Stevie to write the song of the same name. In fact this was how the whole 'witch' thing originally started, after Stevie announced to an audience one night that the character in the song was actually about a Welsh witch. The press just took that one sentence and ran with it, spreading stories that Stevie must actually be a witch herself.

  After this they briefly stayed at her parent's house in Phoenix, where her father offered to pay for her to return to her education if her musical career came to nothing, and advised that maybe she should give it just six more months before making a decision. Stevie and Buckingham decided to relocate to Aspen for some inspiration, and stayed in a house overlooking the mountains, which just happened to have a piano in it. This writing period produced the song "Landslide" which is meant to be partly influenced by the Aspen mountains which surrounded her at the time, and partly about her deciding whether or not to continue with her relationship with Buckingham, but also her musical career, both of which could fall down at any time. The year was now 1974, and just three months after writing "Landslide", Stevie received a telephone call from Mick Fleetwood.

  Fleetwood had gone to Keith Olsen's house looking for somewhere to record, and while he was there Olsen played him one of Stevie and Buckingham's tracks, a song called "Frozen Love." Drummer Fleetwood had come across Buckingham's guitar work before, and approached him for replacing Fleetwood Mac's current guitarist, but Buckingham made it clear that he and Stevie only worked together as a package. In truth, Buckingham was more reluctant to join Fleetwood Mac than Stevie was. He was keen on holding out for the Buckingham Nicks collaboration to catch fire, but Stevie went and bought all of the Fleetwood Mac albums and listened to them, and was sure that they had something that they could bring to the band. This, together with the fact that Stevie and Buckingham were having relationship problems (not helped by the constant lack of money) encouraged them to seriously consider shutting down the whole Buckingham-Nicks idea. A few days later, they all met up together for dinner, along with the other members of Fleetwood Mac, John and Christine McVie. It was a unanimous decision that the addition of Buckingham and Stevie to Fleetwood Mac would be a good one, and for the first time the line-up of the band was not solely a British one, it had now become an Anglo-American one. 'Buckingham-Nicks' still had a few performances to honor and during these performances they made the announcement to their fans that they would now be joining Fleetwood Mac.

  It was 1975 when Stevie and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac and later that year they released their first album under the new line-up. Simply called "Fleetwood Mac" it included Stevie's song "Rhiannon", which was vot
ed by 'Rolling Stone' magazine as one of the greatest 500 songs of all time. The album also included "Landslide" which achieved over three million airplays and went on to be covered a great many times, it's beautiful lyrics still breathtaking to this day, the now famous poignant line "The world gets bolder, children get older, I'm getting older too" still to this day evokes tears for many of the fans, completely summing up how Stevie felt at the time.

  During this period, clothes designer Margi Kent worked closely alongside Stevie to create her wonderfully bohemian stage wardrobe, and it became her signature look, still wearing flowing gossamers and gothic type clothing to this day, and reportedly it has proved expensive to maintain, with Stevie being well known for her various changes of outfits during performances, her shawls and her fingerless gloves being a vital part of not just her look, but her performance. When Stevie puts on a certain shawl during a live show, the crowd knows which song is coming; it's like a ritualistic robe. When Stevie dons a certain gold, fringed shawl, it is clear that she is going to perform the song "Gold Dust Woman," the story of a female drug addict who is desperate for another hit, and when Stevie performs this song, there is a kind of trance-like dance that she does, which the fans go crazy for, the band refer to it as "The Crackhead Dance." In fact Stevie is also well-known for her dancing antics, often spinning around, arms waving wildly, complete with baton twirling if necessary! (Her mother taught her how to do that). Apparently the wild dancing and baton twirling were originally was to get people's attention onstage because of how tiny she is, her viewpoint being that she could easily get lost among a group of people; she needed to stand out. Then there is also the famous top hat, which is synonymous with the "Go Your Own Way" song. The hat dates from the 1920's and is supposed to be the only one of it's kind. That is because of the rarity it has it's own box and even it's own roadie, who brings the hat onstage to Stevie when she is about to sing that song. In 1991 Stevie filed tax-deductible expenses for make-up and hairstyling at £$12,495, and for professional clothing and maintenance, $43,291. Even her microphone stand is usually adorned with silk scarves and flowers.

  Stevie and Buckingham's relationship became increasingly strained after the success of the 'Fleetwood Mac' album, which in turn minimized their creative ability, and Stevie made a decision to finish it. A heartbreaking decision for them both, and the fall-out carried on for years. Both of them writing songs to each other, their relationship becoming documented in many of the songs they went on to write. To this day they still squabble and there is still a tension that surrounds them, but underneath it all they will always hold each other in their hearts, and there is no doubt of their respect for each other as musical artists.

  In 1976 the band started to record the album "Rumours" which took most of the year to complete and included Stevie's song "Dreams," which became the first time that the band had ever achieved a number one single in the Billboard Hot 100. It was also during this year that Stevie underwent breast augmentation. Everything was fine for a few years, but then she started to feel unwell, convinced that it was something to do with the breast implants. She had various scans and tests, only to be told that there was no problem, the implants were intact. When Stevie made enquiries about getting them removed she was told that it was unnecessary; the implants were fine. It was a big operation to go through for no reason. However, Stevie's mother advised her to have them removed, and she went ahead and did just that. The outcome of that operation was the discovery that the implants had indeed been leaking, and due to the amount of silicone which had been travelling around in Stevie's system, she had contracted the Epstein-Barr virus, which she then suffered from for a further two years. There followed an ongoing treatment of acupuncture plus regular doses of vitamins, and having to continue to see doctor's three times a week. Stevie's advice following this incident is not to have breast implants in the first place as, invariably, they will have to be taken out at some point, and then further reconstructive surgery will have to follow which will then result in even more money being spent. Stevie also had a brief flirtation with Botox, but it was very shot-lived and she was really not keen on the actual procedure. Rumors have also circulated that, due to the damaged septum, Stevie underwent some re-modeling on her nose, but no one seems to be certain about this.

  Another song that Stevie had written and recorded was "Silver Springs" but it was decided not to include it on the "Rumours" album, because of it's length. Instead, a much shorter song of Stevie's was included - "I Don't Want To Know." Stevie was disappointed with the decision as "Silver Springs" was a song, which she had written about Buckingham. Ironically, this song became the B-side of a single called "Go Your Own Way" which was a song Buckingham had written about Stevie, and this record, unsurprisingly, became a collectors item for the Fleetwood Mac fans.

  In 1977 Stevie and Fleetwood began an affair (after being left alone after a party one night, and apparently being fairly high on cocaine and booze), despite the fact that he was a married man, and despite the fact that Stevie regarded his wife as a lovely woman and was supposed to have had a huge regard for his family. The affair was short-lived due to the damaging situation, and the anger it was causing among their peers, and Stevie has said that if it had continued, the band would not have survived. It was during this time that Stevie started to wear her trademark high-heeled boots, as standing at 5 ft. 1 inch, she felt ridiculous standing next to Fleetwood, who is 6 ft. 6 inches, and she has never stopped wearing them. In 1978 Fleetwood abandoned his wife for Stevie's best friend, Sara Recor - supposedly the subject of the song "Sara", although other rumors have since circulated that at one point Stevie was actually pregnant with Don Henley's baby, and that she chose to terminate the pregnancy. The story goes that before deciding on the abortion, Stevie had already chosen the name 'Sara' if she found that she was expecting a girl. Don Henley reportedly alerted the press to this fact and Stevie was meant to be extremely hurt that he had gone public with this information, adding that she would never have done anything so cruel to him.

  Following the success of the "Rumour" album and tour, in 1978 work began on a third album, "Tusk." Due to the fact that three member of Fleetwood Mac were songwriters, it was sometimes difficult for Stevie to get her songs included in the albums, and by now she had a vast collection of material that was not being released, so while the "Tusk" album was being produced, Stevie and a couple of colleagues founded "Modern Records", solely for the purpose of recording and distributing her songs. Stevie also recorded songs with Kenny Loggins and John Stewart.

  The "Tusk" album was released in 1979 and over the next couple of years Stevie often appeared with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers while they were touring. Stevie has mentioned in interviews that 'The Heartbreakers' are her favorite band ever, Tom Petty rumored to have even given her the chance to join them if ever she wished to do so, despite 'The Heartbreakers' usual 'strictly no girls' rule. Petty has even sent Stevie a sheriff's badge inscribed 'TO THE ONLY GIRL IN THE HEARTBREAKERS.' Then In 1981 "Rolling Stone" declared Stevie "The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll," after the release of her first solo album, "Bella Donna", which saw four singles reaching entering into the Billboard Hot 100. The co-producer of that album was Jimmy Iovine, with whom Stevie had an affair. Unfortunately, on the same day that the album reached number one in the Billboard 200, Robin Anderson, Stevie's best friend, was diagnosed as having leukaemia. Before she sadly passed away, she had a son and named Stevie as his godmother. Her death was a huge blow to Stevie, and in her grief-stricken confusion, she thought that the right thing to do was to marry Robin's widow, Kim Anderson, and help to raise her godson. The marriage ended after eight months, both of them realizing that their marriage had been made through grief, not love, and Kim seeing that in reality Stevie had very little time to devote to raising a family. Stevie had very little to do with her godson again until he became a teenager, she then financed him through college and has since had regular contact. To date, this is still Stevie's only marriag
e, and she has never had her own children, maintaining that her lifestyle did not really leave much room for children, and making this her choice as she never felt that the role of mother was for her, preferring instead her role as a godmother and aunt, which she enjoys greatly. Tragically, one of her Godson's passed away after mixing tranquilizers and alcohol at a party, aged just twenty years old.

  Relationships with men have always encountered problems, Stevie believes, due to the fact that she is unwilling to compromise her life for them, especially her music. If she dates a man who is also in a band, he will expect her to be the one to quit and stay at home, if she dates a man who is not involved in music, he will not understand her depth of commitment to her band, if she dates someone younger she is usually too embarrassed to step outside the house with them, if she dates someone older she fears that he might die, and her viewpoint on men the same age is that, invariably, most men of that age seem to want to go out with twenty five year old women. However, Stevie maintains that, despite some people's worries that she might get lonely, she is not unhappy being single. She has a large array of family and friends, and knows that she will always be surrounded by people, she is vary rarely actually on her own, she has lovely homes, she has her animals, and above all, she has her music. All the romantic ground has been covered, she has previously had wonderful, intense and very special relationships and experiences, her memories being so full of amazing times that she honestly feels no desperate need to try and duplicate them. Her friend Vanessa Carlton once asked her what the secret of a happy life was with regard to success with work and relationships. Stevie presented her with pages and pages of messages and advice to read, the basic mantra being that whatever you find yourself doing, make sure that it is your choice, and that whatever path you choose in life will have advantages and disadvantages, and accepting the bad times associated with whatever path you have chosen, knowing that this is the choice that you have made, is the key. As far as men are concerned, Stevie wrote "‘He must have a good job. He must be happy and satisfied with his own life. You are there to enhance his life, not take away from it, and he is there to enhance your life, not fuck it up."