Stevie Nicks is one of the most important figures in the history of music. In fact, she has been dubbed the queen of rock and roll and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Although she is one of the most successful artists of her time, she has struggled and overcome different addictions and toxic relationships. Here, we take a look at the good, bad, and sometimes ugly parts of Stevie Nicks’ exceptional life, the 10 Things Most Fans Don’t Know About Stevie Nicks:
Jimi Hendrix dedicated a song to Stevie Nicks
Jimi Hendrix was an artist who probably didn’t need any kind of introduction before performing, but before Stevie Nicks was the main attraction, she was the opening act for rock and roll legend Jimi Hendrix. Before Stevie Nicks and her bandmate, Lindsey Buckingham was part of Fleetwood Mac, they were in a rock band known as Fritz.
In the late 1960s, Fritz was touring and playing at a San Francisco music festival where Jimi Hendrix was also playing. Stevie Nicks reflected on this experience in an interview, recalling there were like 20 bands and then there was Jimi Hendrix. The advantage you get when you do that is that you can be on the side of the stage when Jimi Hendrix is on. And he actually looked at me and said, ‘This is for you, darling.’
According to Stevie Nicks, Jimi Hendrix had a great influence on her. In an interview in 2011, she stated that she had learned grace and humility from Jimi Hendrix.
She is one of the few women to have two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Many artists have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, usually for musical contributions in a band and as solo artists. However, many of the artists with multiple inductions appear to be men. In fact, Stevie Nicks was the only woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice for her time at Fleetwood Mac (in 1998) and for her solo career (in 2019). It wasn’t until 2021 that Carole King and Tina Turner joined her.
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were dating in high school
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks have had one of the most notorious on-and-off relationships of all time. Although they were romantically involved during their time at Fleetwood Mac, they actually began dating in high school. The duo met at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California. Lindsey Buckingham was performing a rendition of The Mamas and The Papas ‘California Dreamin’ and caught the eye of Stevie Nicks. Together they formed their first band, Fritz, and the rest is history!
She almost went blind
Stevie Nicks has been outspoken about her struggles around drugs and alcohol in the past, but at one point her partying lifestyle nearly made her go blind. The band decided to organize a party after the worldwide success of their album. Rumors before they started a tour.
This party went on for 48 hours straight, and in the midst of all this, Stevie Nicks forgot that he was wearing contact lenses, that she had forgotten to take off. Prolonged contact lens wear caused her cornea to wear away, but luckily the tour manager blindfolded her, helping her keep her eyesight permanently.
She has only been married once but regretted the decision
Stevie Nicks has been romantically linked to a number of different famous men but has only been married once. In 1983, Nicks’ best friend died of leukemia two days after giving birth to a son. Remembering this time, Stevie recalled ever since that she went “absolutely crazy when Robin died. The only thing I could think of was trying to take the load off Kim. [Anderson, Robin’s husband] marrying him and helping raise their son.”
In 1983, Stevie Nicks married her best friend’s husband, Kim Anderson. However, their marriage was met with great disapproval and many of their friends refused to attend the wedding. Stevie and Kim’s marriage lasted less than a year, and she has since called it “something completely ridiculous.”
She has been to rehab twice, for two different medications, in two different decades
In recent years, Stevie Nicks has stated that everyone at Fleetwood Mac was a drug addict, “but there was a point where I was the worst drug addict.” Nicks, who went on a solo tour in 1986, decided to enter Betty Ford’s rehab clinic at the end of her tour because of her cocaine problem. At the time, she had spent over a million dollars on her drug addiction, had a dime-sized hole in her nose, and was constantly warned by doctors that her health was rapidly deteriorating.
When she first came out of rehab, she has prescribed a tranquilizer called clonazepam (sold as Klonopin) to help her sleep. The drug, which was marketed as a “take as needed” drug, left Nicks in a dependent state for a period of eight years. She remembers this as “a total no-time. I just existed. It took away all my wonderful drama, my tempest, my compassion, my empathy.” However, after her years of dependence on the tranquilizer, she entered another rehab program and was completely detoxified in 1993.
His grandfather taught her to sing
Stevie Nicks has been performing since the age of five. Her grandfather AJ Nicks was a country singer in and around Phoenix, Arizona. He made Stevie her own guitar and taught her sections of different country songs. Stevie used to join her grandfather on stage during his performances, wearing cowgirl outfits to sing duets with him.
She wrote Landslide at a Young Age
One of Fleetwood Mac’s best-known songs is the hit Landslide, which appeared on their 1975 album, Fleetwood Mac. The song, which was written by Stevie Nicks, focuses primarily on growing up. In fact, Nicks wrote it at a time in her life when she was planning to go back to school or pursue music professionally with Lindsey Buckingham. Since then, the song has been covered by several different bands, including Smashing Pumpkins, The Chicks, and appeared in a Joy episode.
People thought she was a witch
During her rise to fame and stardom, Stevie Nicks was constantly plagued with rumors that she was a witch or practiced mystical arts. It didn’t help that Fleetwood Mac Rhiannon’s 1976 song was thought to be based on a witch. Nick’s style is also distinctively “warlock”, as she often wears flowing dresses and shawls while touring on stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcIVWnQJGFA
Fleetwood Mac’s first guitarist went grocery shopping and never came back
These rumors gained so much traction during the ’70s,’ 80s, and ’90s that Nicks at one point thought her life was in danger. As a result, she tried to change her appearance and get rid of the association with witches. However, in 2013, Nicks appeared in the third installment of the American Horror Story television series as a witch, a role she reprised in 2018.