Background

Nicks was born May 26, 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona. She was the first of two children born to Jess and Barbara Nicks. Her father’s stints as an executive with various corporations decreed that she move many times in her childhood and adolescence, living in the states of New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and California.

Education

According to Timothy White in his 1984 book Rock Stars, Nicks obtained her introduction to music from her eccentric grandfather, Aaron Jess Nicks, a failed country singer. He taught Stevie the female parts in some old call-and-response country standards well before her fifth birthday, and took her with him to perform in gin mills.

As Nicks' father rose through the corporate ranks, the Nicks family skipped around Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and California. By 1963, the family landed in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and Nicks enrolled at Arcadia High School. While there, she met her best friend, Robin, and joined Changing Times, a band patterned after The Mamas and The Papas. Her tenure with the group was short-lived; the Nicks family soon moved to Palo Alto, California, where Nicks attended Menlo Atherton High School. Here, Stevie met classmate Lindsey Buckingham, a guitarist, and fellow songwriter. The two shared a close bond and forged a strong musical partnership.

After high school, Nicks briefly enrolled in San Jose State College, but by 1968 she'd dropped out.

Career

Along with Buckingham, she joined the local band, Fritz, which established a small following. The group opened for bigger acts such as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix before they disbanded in 1971. Fritz opened for all of them at such legendary venues as the Fillmore and the Hungry I. Nicks was particularly fascinated with Joplin. "I was absolutely glued to her," Stevie once said, remembering the visceral connection between Joplin and her audiences. "It was there I learned a lot of what I do onstage."

after the couple had signed a deal with Polydor Records and released what came to be known as The Buckingham-Nicks Album, Stevie found the waitressing job. She had spent her last $100 on a blouse to wear for the cover photograph of the album (which, as it turned out, was discarded in favor of a topless shot), but the sales figures were so dismal that Stevie and Lindsay were forced to give up their apartment and move in with a friend. Her parents would only offer help, they said, if Stevie would move back to San Jose and return to school. "I'd get some money from them here and there. But … if I was going to be here in L.A. doing my own trip, I was going to have to do it on my own," said Nicks. Then, along came Mick Fleetwood.

Fleetwood had been one of the three founding members of the English band Fleetwood Mac, with guitarist Peter Green and bass player John McVie, in 1968. All three had met while playing for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. In 1974, as Fleetwood Mac was preparing to record its first album in America, Fleetwood happened to visit the studio where Stevie and Lindsay had recorded their disastrously received record the year before. When the studio owner played the record as a demonstration of the studio's acoustics, Fleetwood found himself listening more to the music itself, particularly to Buckingham's guitar work. The fact that Fleetwood only accepted Stevie to induce Buckingham to join the band led to some initial tension, but it soon became obvious that Stevie's voice blended perfectly with the band's other "girl" singer, Christine McVie (then John's wife), to help form the distinctive sound of the band that became one of rock's most influential and copied groups for two decades.

The band was famous for its smooth harmonies and tight instrumentation, but as had happened with her old band Fritz, it was Stevie Nicks who got a lot of the attention. Dressed in swirling capes, long skirts and boots, and with her flowing dark blonde hair, she was a magnet for viewers to fix on. And like her idol Janis Joplin, Stevie seemed to connect with the audience on a level much deeper than the music, although the songs she contributed to the band's repertoire were a big reason for its success. Indeed, Nicks gave the band its only song to reach #1 in America, "Dreams," and one of its most durable hits with 1975's "Rhiannon," a song she had written two years earlier based on a story drawn from Welsh folklore. She offered the song as soon as she and Buckingham were hired, after listening to every previous album the band had recorded.

Fleetwood Mac's durability during the 1970s and 1980s was due in large part to the intimacy among its members, although the romantic complications that sometimes developed threatened to upset the delicate balance that held the band together. One band member was fired after it was discovered he was having an affair with Mick Fleetwood's wife; another left after he and Christine McVie became lovers (John and Christine later divorced); and Stevie and Lindsay Buckingham ended their own relationship of ten years just as the band's landmark Rumours album was released in 1977, a project that all would later admit had been almost derailed several times by the band's internal stresses. It was a tribute to the band's cohesion that neither Stevie, Lindsay, John nor Christine, left the group after their mutual breakups.

By the late 1980s, as Fleetwood Mac seemed to reach a plateau in its development, Nicks released her first solo album, Bella Donna, while continuing to tour and perform with the band. After a return to Fleetwood Mac for the 1982 album Mirage (which featured her hit "Gypsy"), Nicks released her second solo effort, The Wild Heart, highlighted by the Top Five smash "Stand Back." Rock a Little, which featured the single "Talk to Me," followed in 1985.

After a long hiatus (during which time Nicks was treated for a chemical dependency problem), Fleetwood Mac reunited for the album Tango in the Night; The Other Side of the Mirror, Nicks' first solo record in four years, followed in 1989. After a series of lineup changes and dropping sales figures, she left Fleetwood Mac in 1993 and issued Street Angel a year later. In 1997, she rejoined the reunited Fleetwood Mac on tour and on the album The Dance. In 1998 Nicks, along with her Fleetwood Mac bandmates, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the same year that her three-disc Enchanted box set landed in stores.

Nicks returned to the studio in 2001 with friends Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines for the solo album Trouble in Shangri-La, and again in 2003 for the Fleetwood Mac reunion album Say You Will. Reprise released the CD/DVD Crystal Visions: The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in 2007, but it wasn't until 2011 -- almost a decade to the day after Trouble in Shangri-La's release -- that Nicks returned with a new solo album. Produced by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, In Your Dreams found her singing a mix of Bob Dylan-inspired folk songs, Italian love ballads, and rock anthems. In Your Dreams debuted at six on Billboard's Top 200 and generated an adult contemporary hit in "Secret Love." Nicks rejoined Fleetwood Mac in 2013 for the Extended Play release and a reunion tour that eventually blossomed into a full reunion with Christine McVie. In 2014, Nicks released 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, a collection of newly recorded versions of old songs; it debuted at seven on the Billboard charts. In 2015, she continued to tour with the reunited Fleetwood Mac and the following year her first two albums, Bella Donna and The Wild Heart, were given deluxe reissues.

In 2016 and 2017, Nicks toured with the Pretenders. As Fleetwood Mac was gearing up for a 50th Anniversary tour in 2018, the group parted ways with Lindsey Buckingham, replacing him with Neil Finn and Mike Campbell. Nicks was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act in 2019, making her the first woman to be inducted twice. To accompany her induction, Rhino/WMG released the anthology Stand Back: 1981-2017. In October 2020, she released the song "Show Them the Way," which featured contributions from Dave Grohl and Dave Stewart.

Achievements

• 

  Stevie Nicks' singing and songwriting were responsible for many of the hit singles that brought Fleetwood Mac superstar status in the late 1970s, including "Rhiannon" and "Dreams." Though Nicks has continued as a productive member of the band, she has also released several successful solo albums, from 1981 ’s Bella Donna to 1989’s The Other Side of the Mirror. She has had smash duets such as "Whenever I Call You Friend" with Kenny Loggins and "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" with Tom Petty, and popular solo hits, including "Stand Back," "Talk to Me," and "Rooms on Fire."
  
  In 1998, Nicks was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac. In 2019, she’ll be inducted again as a solo artist. This will make Nicks the first woman to ever be inducted into the Hall as a member of a group and for her own solo career.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • American Horror Story

    (After 300 years of witches living in secrecy, new attacks...)

    2014
  • Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams

    (In 2010 Stevie Nicks embarked on the recording of a new s...)

    2013
  • American Horror Story: Apocalypse

    (Underneath lies a battlefield for the final conflict betw...)

    2018

• music

  • Buckingham Nicks 1973
  • Fleetwood Mac 1975
  • Rumours 1977
  • Tusk 1979
  • Bella Donna 1981
  • Mirage 1982
  • The Wild Heart 1983
  • Rock a Little 1985
  • Tango In The Night 1987
  • The Other Side Of The Mirror 1989
  • Street Angel 1994
  • Say You Will 2003
  • 24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault 2014

• musiс

  • Behind the Mask 1990
  • Trouble In Shangri-La 2001
  • In Your Dreams 2011

Religion

Nicks became an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church.

Politics

Stevie Nicks may have always leaned left–she started donating to Democratic candidates back in 1984 and has continued to do so here and there over the decades. But she says she was never particularly political until the beginning of her seventh decade. In 2009, when asked if she was affected by the struggling economy, she said: "Absolutely, I want to go home and write Bob Dylan songs, I want to go write radical, rebellious "let’s try to make it better" songs. I’m very affected by everything going on... I have never actually been very political before, and I’m starting to feel more political every day."

Views

Even her brief periods as a child attending Catholic schools were used in crafting her music, Nicks citing her fondness for Gregorian chant as an influence on the structure of her songs. And while her themes were frequently about lost love and its tragic consequences, she insisted that there was a lesson to be learned from them. "I don't write really happy songs," she admitted, "but I don't ever write a song that leaves people with no hope. I try to make it so that people say … life goes on, no matter how bad or what kind of tragedy you're involved in."

Another one of Nicks’ great passions is spending time with wounded soldiers. She’s been doing it regularly since at least 2006 and was honored by the USO for her work with veterans in 2015. According to the Military Times, she holds the USO record for most hours spent visiting combat-wounded service members over a five-year span.

Women’s rights have been also on Nicks’ mind since the death of her “hero”, the US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, last month. "Abortion rights, that was really my generation’s fight. If President Trump wins this election and puts the judge he wants in, she will absolutely outlaw it and push women back into back-alley abortions."

Quotations: "I wouldn't like to be in movies. Movie people are strange. They live a different life than musicians do. And I really think they're much wilder than we are. One time, four movie guys walked up to me at a party after a show. I was looking good. And they took me apart with their eyes. The hair on my arms stood up."

"I'm going to spend my life writing poems, turning them into music that will affect people and touch their hearts. I'm going to write the songs that people can't write for themselves."

Personality

According to Time, in 2017, Nicks revealed that her hero was former first lady Michelle Obama. "She has such an optimistic outlook," Nicks said of the Obama. "I think she’s wisdom personified."

Physical Characteristics: Stevie Nicks sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center in 1986 for cocaine addiction and was prescribed the tranquilized Klonopin to help avoid a relapse. In 1993, she entered detox from Klonopin in a hospital which led to her subsequent weight gain.

Stevie is 5 feet, 1 inch.

Interests

• Writers

  Oscar Wilde, John Keats, Evangeline Walton, Charlotte Brontë

• Music & Bands

  Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell

Connections

Stevie Nicks was married once, in 1982, to the former husband of her high school best friend, Robin Anderson. Robin was diagnosed with leukaemia while she was pregnant with her first child and died shortly after his birth. Nicks’ marriage to Robin’s widower, Kim, lasted three months. "That wasn’t really a marriage," says Nicks. "We did it to take care of her son. And, three weeks later, we realised that that wasn’t going to work."

Father:

Jess Nicks

Mother:

Barbara Nicks

Acquaintance:

Harry Styles

Grandfather:

Aaron Jess Nicks

husband:

Kim Anderson

Friend:

Chris Isaak

Friend:

Tom Petty

Bandmate:

Lindsey Buckingham

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were arguably rock and roll’s favorite couple during their on and off romances. The two managed to make the whole world jealous with just how beautiful they were together. With Stevie‘s hypnotizing beauty and Lindsey’s dashing good looks, these two were the perfect match.

colleague:

Dave Grohl

colleague:

Janis Joplin

colleague:

Jimi Hendrix

Friend:

Bette Midler

Stevie Nicks is close friends with Bette Midler and performed at her annual "Hulaween" ball at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City in 2006.

colleague:

Don Henley

In 1976, Stevie Nicks became involved with the Eagles band member, Don Henley. They eventually collaborated on a song resulting in a duet called "Leather and Lace," which was released on Stevie's 1981 album, "Bella Donna."

Acquaintance:

Courtney Love

Acquaintance:

Taylor Swift

References

• Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks Gold Dust Woman gives "the gold standard of rock biographers" (the Boston Globe) his ideal topic: Nicks' work and life are equally sexy and interesting, and Davis delves deeply into each, unearthing fresh details from new, intimate interviews and interpreting them to present a rich new portrait of the star.
  2017
• Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams & Rumours Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks is a musical visionary, a poet, and an enduring style icon with a truly phenomenal life story. The Omnibus enhanced Stevie Nicks: Dreams, Visions & Rumours is a celebratory examination of this tale, tracing Stevie’s life from her Arizona childhood, the magic moment when she joined Fleetwood Mac and the hedonistic turbulence that followed.
  2014
• Stevie Nicks - Official Website