Little-Known Details About Stevie Nicks' Rock And Roll Life

Born Stephanie Lynn Nicks in 1948, her stage name "Stevie" actually originated when she was barely a year old. Unable to pronounce "Stephanie," she instead referred to herself as "tee-dee," which eventually became "Stevie."

Though pronunciation wasn't exactly her strong suit, music came naturally to Stevie as a child. Her first music teacher was her grandfather, country singer A.J. Nicks, who taught Stevie to sing duets when she was just four years old.

By age 16, Stevie was already writing music. Using the Goya guitar she was gifted for her 16th birthday, Stevie penned her first song, "I’ve Loved and I’ve Lost, and I’m Sad but Not Blue."

Stevie's passion for music led her to find love with Lindsey Buckingham. The pair met during her senior year of high school, and the rest was history. She fell head over heels for the young guitarist after hearing him perform with his psychedelic rock band Fritz. She must have enjoyed the performance because she later joined the band herself!

With Fritz, Stevie opened for big name music acts like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. It was these experiences that taught her the importance of having a captivating and enchanting stage presence as a lead vocalist.

Along with Lindsey, Stevie attended San Jose State University after high school where she studied to become an English teacher. However, just one semester before graduation, the couple dropped out to pursue their music careers.

After leaving Fritz, Stevie and Lindsey signed a deal with Polydor Records and became the musical duo Buckingham Nicks. Unfortunately, the couple's eponymous debut album was a commercial flop and they were dropped by the label soon after.

To make matters worse, Lindsey then contracted mononucleosis, forcing Stevie to work odd jobs like waitressing and cleaning homes to make ends meet. During this time, the stress of this string of misfortunes led Stevie to a dark place. She made some questionable choices and even dabbled in illegal pastimes.

Luckily there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, while Stevie was cleaning houses, she met music producer Keith Olsen. It was more than just a chance meeting, in fact, because the down-on-their-luck couple eventually ended up moving in with Olsen. Arguably, it was this change that opened the door for their return to the music industry.

It came sooner than expected, as Olsen soon met Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood and played him a recording of the Buckingham Nicks song "Frozen Love." Mick immediately invited Lindsey to join the band. Lindsey had one condition, though — he only agreed to do so if Nicks could join too. 

So when Buckingham was asked to join Fleetwood Mac, he insisted his girlfriend Stevie Nicks was brought into the fold. On paper, this seems pretty romantic. Unfortunately, things didn't pan out quite so well. The falling out and sniping at each other in their songs came later, along with an off-limits liaison with Mick Fleetwood. Not quite so rosy, after all. However, all this drama formed the basis for their album Rumours, so it's not all bad!

With Nicks and Buckingham in tow, a new iteration of Fleetwood Mac was born. And it was 1975 that saw their second eponymous album release, and to critical acclaim, no less. The song "Rhiannon," which Stevie had written years prior, became a major hit for the band. Not only that, but its live performances soon revealed the mystically energetic side of the young singer that would go on to become her trademark.

With the popularity of her presence on stage, Stevie began working with clothing designer, Margi Kent, to develop a look to match her signature energy. She started sporting flowing skirts, shawls, and platform boots. Nothing was left to chance, though. Each item was carefully selected to bolster her bohemian, carefree vibe.

It wasn't all fashion choices and good vibes, though. This period in Stevie's life also saw her starting a diary. It became a place to keep track of her experiences touring, making music, and interacting with her fellow bandmates. She'd planned to share her writings with her future "fairy goddaughters," but before long, her entries became far more personal than she'd first expected.

That's because while Fleetwood Mac's star status was on the rise, behind-the-scenes was a very different story. The band members' lives were quite literally falling apart. Vocalist Christine McVie and bassist John McVie were divorcing, Mick Fleetwood's wife was having a fling with his best friend, and Stevie had broken things off with Lindsey after nearly ten years together.

These tensions culminated in 1977's Rumours, which became even more successful than their previous release. Stevie's main contribution to the album was the top-charting hit "Dreams," which was inspired by her breakup with Lindsey. So on the surface, at least, things didn't seem entirely ruined for the group.

Unfortunately, the success of Rumours wasn't enough to overshadow the lingering animosity between band members. After so much turmoil behind closed doors, it was time for Stevie to embark on a solo career. And boy did she deliver! She released her first solo album, Bella Donna, in 1981, its critical success firmly establishing Stevie as "the Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll." But Stevie didn't enjoy this praise for long...

Despite enduring what seemed like enough anguish for an entire lifetime, shortly after Bella Donna's release Stevie was blindsided yet again. Tragically, her best friend, Robin Anderson, passed away. With a heavy heart, Stevie wed Robin's widower, Kim Anderson, to help him care for their child. Perhaps it's no surprise then that their marriage lasted just three months. 

What is Stevie Nicks' biggest regret? It wasn't any of the internal turmoil within her band or the struggles she faced on her rise to fame. In reality, it was marrying Anderson. Nicks later told The Guardian about people's hostile reactions to the marriage. “It was insanity. Everybody was furious. It was a completely ridiculous thing. And it was just because I had this crazy, insane thought that Robin would want me to take care of [her infant son].” The union was unsurprisingly short-lived.

Stevie continued to spiral from there, and her illicit habit developed in the early '70s now spiraled into full-fledged dependency. But even the darkest clouds have a silver lining. While touring with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty in Australia, she was told her next hit could be her last. And thankfully, that was enough to turn the tables ever so slightly in her favor. Stevie's next decision would be vital for not only her future, but for her survival.

Thankfully, Nicks decided to check herself into the Betty Ford Center. Though clean from one vice, Stevie soon became hooked on the sedative Klonopin. As well as another dependency, it also caused her weight to balloon. As the public's attention shifted from her singing to her size, Stevie vowed she wouldn't return to the stage until she could kick her habit for good.

Fortunately, she did just that in the mid-'90s and has continued to draw sold-out crowds ever since. And that's not all — she remains the only woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not once, but twice! First with Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and again as a solo artist in 2019.

It's pretty obvious that Nicks was integral to Fleetwood Mac's mammoth success, but her onward fame is undisputed. The raspy-voiced singer has proved she can cut it as a solo artist with a string of hit singles, including the often-sampled "Edge of Seventeen." More recently, Nicks guested on American Horror Story, and in 2020 she collaborated with Dave Grohl on the single "Show Them the Way." Another of Nicks' songs continues to be controversial.

“Thunder only happens when it’s raining,” sings Stevie Nicks in the Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams.” But as lovely as that track from the mega-selling Rumours is, that lyric is simply not true. And as a result, some fans have taken umbrage. You see, there are dry thunderstorms, which often cause bushfires and have no rain. Luckily her fashion sense has got people talking about her for the right reasons, though...

Stevie Nicks brought a new kind of bohemian style to the ’70s. If you love velvet, chiffon, and wacky top hats, you’ve got her to thank in part: she made them super-cool. It's not even up for question that Nicks' unique sense of style has enchanted fans ever since she shot to fame. Luckily, these rare photos show just how much her iconic look has evolved over the years.

Nicks posted this dreamy looking throwback photo – one of many old Polaroids she’d found in a box – on Twitter in 2014. Nicks added the words, “Well, this is no ticket to dream land, a garden for feelings to grow in as I run to the door.” It’s a fitting caption for a poetic image. 

Nicks was always great friends with Christine McVie, her only female bandmate in Fleetwood Mac. So, the former was devastated when she left the group in 1998. Nicks told Vulture magazine in 2013 that the band wasn’t nearly “as fun” without McVie, but she totally supported her decision to leave.

If there’s one instrument associated with Stevie Nicks, it’s the tambourine. Here she is playing it on stage in October 1977 and looking utterly lost in the music. Fans of Nicks have adopted the tambourine as a symbol for themselves too, so you’ll find plenty of tambourine tattoos in Fleetwood Mac fandom.

In this picture, Nicks is alongside the man who gave Fleetwood Mac its name. They had a mad, short-lived relationship which, yep, started off as an affair. Mick Fleetwood was a married man when he and Nicks got together during a tour in 1977. The latter has some regrets about it now, but she still considers him one of the loves of her life.

Nicks went on a solo tour called The Other Side of the Mirror in 1989. One of the stops was London’s Wembley Arena, where this photo was snapped. She’s dressed to the nines, and you may notice that Nicks has got a lot of ribbons hanging from her mic stand, too. Interestingly, it was during this tour when the star brought out that particular trademark.

This picture – taken in 1976 – shows what looks like a moment of almost-normality for Nicks and McVie as they board the Fleetwood Mac tour bus. The band was massive by then, and touring was becoming more and more of an endurance test. They were also working on their album Rumours that year – adding to everybody’s stresses.

Nicks was just the most photogenic woman ever back in her day. Here, she is putting on her blood-red lipstick while wearing crucifix earrings. Nicks is about to rush back out on stage during a show in 1985. And yet she makes it look like this photo is a carefully constructed scene instead of a backstage snap.

Here, Nicks sits in the recording studio in 1975 doing her job with a tremendous amount of style. Somehow she’s managed to match her shirt to the nearby coffee cup – very impressive indeed. And check out those bracelets! It’s just something else which would become a big part of Nicks’ Look.

Every Nicks fan knows about her history with Lindsey Buckingham. The pair were a couple when they first joined Fleetwood Mac, but their story soon turned into an angst-fraught rollercoaster ride more dramatic than any movie. The two are essentially “divorced” these days – despite never having actually been married.

You might remember that Nicks played a black-clad witch in the TV show American Horror Story. But before that, she dressed up as a witch just for fun. Very much her style, right? Nicks posted this throwback shot on her Twitter account in 2014 – just in time for Halloween, of course.

This photo perfectly sums up the fame Nicks enjoyed during the ’80s. She’s on stage at the UCLA Rock N’ Run benefit show and clad in her usual black attire – holding a bunch of roses that match her lipstick. And stretched out behind her are thousands of people waiting in the sun to see their idol.

Here’s Nicks being very much herself on stage. It’s 1977, and she’s performing at the Oakland Coliseum in California – Nicks is giving whole generations of girls some exciting new fashion inspiration. The billowing black dress, top hat, jewelry… everything is there. And it is easy to recreate for yourself!

Here’s a slightly spooky selfie from Nicks – made long before selfies as we know them even existed. She posted it on social media in 2014 and wrote, “Some people don’t sleep at night – I am one of those people... these pictures were taken long after everyone had gone to bed.”

Stephen Wozniak was recovering from a plane crash in 1982 when he suddenly had the bright idea to throw a rock concert. The Apple co-founder spent a lot of money on getting big names to turn up, and one of them was Nicks. She appeared on stage with him and ensured everyone had a good time – even though Wozniak was reportedly out $5 million once the event was over!

Nicks apparently still remembers where the famous top hat look comes from. The star told Vogue magazine in 2020 that she’d decided 45 years earlier, “... I want beautiful handmade suede platform boots that are high but not bulky. And I want a top hat, which I will find out on the road myself.” Clearly, Nicks did just that.

Here’s Nicks at a press conference in 1979 – wearing pitch-perfect makeup but also the most incredible mane of 1970s hair. She knew the hairdo was part of her appeal, but the singer always wanted to cut it herself. Nicks told Harper’s Bazaar in 2011, “I’d take the top, measure it with my fingers and chop it off. I did it pretty well.”

Nicks’ love of dogs lasted far beyond this photo from 1975. Ever since the star became famous, she always made sure to take her dogs along on tour. And the rocker has had many furry friends throughout the years. These included a poodle called Ginny, an Afghan Hound named Branwen and a Yorkshire terrier mix going by the name of Sulamith.

In December 2014 Nicks’ social media team posted a rarely-seen picture of the singer looking absolutely radiant on stage in July 1983. It was captioned, “Stevie on the Wild Heart Tour at Capitol Centre in Landover, MD.” The comments were soon full of people excitingly saying they’d been there.

Nicks liked to dress in a witchy sort of way, as seen here, but that didn’t mean the star actually was a witch. And as her career took off, Nicks hated that people thought she was one. In a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the star remembered always thinking back then, “I just wear black because it makes me look thinner, you idiots.”

This picture – taken in 1977 – is just so perfectly Stevie Nicks. She’s got all her trademarks present: the tambourine, tumbling hair, jewelry, black clothes... Nicks said in a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, “I mean, I don’t do casual very well.” And she really wasn’t kidding!

Of course, we all know about the mirror selfie – people take them every day. Though Nicks was doing it long before it was cool. Check out this neat throwback photo that the star posted on social media in 2014! How did Nicks set all that up? We don’t know. She’s just that good.

Did you know that Nicks and Tom Petty go back a long way? Yep, this picture of them together is from 1981 – the same year they released their hit song “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” They were genuinely great friends as well as co-stars, and Nicks was understandably devastated when he passed away in 2017.

Nicks had cemented her on-stage look by 1979, and of course she would stick with it for the rest of her life. In a 2001 interview with the WSRS radio station she mused, “... It’s a timeless outfit, and it has made my life much easier because I don’t ever have to think about it.”

This old recording studio photograph is from 1975, so it was taken just as Fleetwood Mac were undergoing their meteoric rise to fame. You can see the beginnings of Nicks’ trademark fashion sense here – with the bracelets and patterned shawl. She still looks charmingly ordinary in this unguarded moment, though.

This wedding photo is so very awkward once you know what was going on between these people. Nicks had been having an affair with the groom Mick Fleetwood while he was married to another woman: Jenny Boyd. Then Nicks’ best friend Sara Recor – also married at the time – fell in love with Fleetwood when he may or may not have been still seeing Nicks. And Recor eventually ended up marrying him. So yep, there’s a lot behind those smiles here.

Here’s Nicks in all her glory on stage. The star has spoken in interviews about wanting to portray a “fairytale” image during performances, which probably everyone would agree she succeeded at. In 1982 Nicks told High Times magazine, “My fantasy is giving a little bit of the fairy princess to all the people out there that maybe don’t have the Hans Christian Andersen books, and the Grimm’s fairy tales. If that’s the only thing I can do for them, well, that’s fine.”

Nicks’ iconic style fit just as well into the 1990s as any previous era. This image shows what she wore at the 1991 MTV Music Awards, and it’s pretty amazing. There’s the black dress, of course, and the massive crucifix around the neck. But there’s also some fantastically wacky red earrings.

Nicks looks fabulously goth and witchy in this portrait from 1987. She once said in a 2019 Rolling Stone magazine interview, “Halloween is my favorite day, but I never have to wonder, ‘What am I gonna be for Halloween this year’? A witch, of course. Wearing my Stevie Nicks clothes.”

If Nicks hadn’t wanted to be a rock star, she probably could have made it as a supermodel. This dreamlike photo was taken backstage during a Los Angeles concert in 1985 and Nicks’ gaze is instantly arresting. And she also looks very androgynous, which was the fashion at the time.

It wasn’t just top hats Nicks liked; she looked great in all forms of headwear. And the singer looks like a boho queen in this image from Atlanta’s Omni Coliseum in 1977. Nicks describes herself differently, though. The star said in a 1991 interview with newspaper USA Today that she had a “Dickensian, London street-urchin look...”

Nicks is wearing uncharacteristically bright colors in this shot, but of course she looks fantastic in them. The floaty fabric makes her look downright ethereal. Nicks posted this throwback photo on Facebook back in 2014, alongside the mysterious caption, “Well I got your demons. They’re cryin’ out for love.”

Nicks was actually a singer long before Fleetwood Mac got started. In fact, she was doing it at the age of five! Her grandfather – a country music singer – knew she had what it took and was having her perform at an early age. Asked by The Guardian newspaper in 2020 what it would mean to her if she stopped singing, Nicks answered, “It would kill me.”

One of Nicks’ trademarks was her beautiful hair. She styled it in lots of different ways, and every look was spectacular. This one from 1987 is particularly awesome, and check out that lipstick and the earrings too! Nicks told Harper’s Bazaar in 2011 that she “didn’t want to look like anyone else,” and mission accomplished.

Looking at this photo from 1975, you can see why Nicks was considered a sex symbol of her era. The rocker wasn’t so sure herself, though. In 1994 she told Details magazine, “If physical beauty is the only reason people buy my records, then I don’t know why I’m doing this.”

This pic from July 1981 is of Nicks attending an event in Illinois – all dressed up in the perfect summer outfit. She told the Record Mirror newspaper in 1989, “I’ve always liked long, flowing clothes... I used to rummage around in my grandmother’s trunks trying to find them. I love the feeling of chiffon and lace.”

Here’s Fleetwood Mac in 1975, before the band reached the iconic status they hold today. A year prior to this picture being taken, there had been only three band members – Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and her husband John. Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were struggling in their careers when they joined in 1975, and their lives changed forever after that.

The rocker is wearing everything in this shot and it’s amazing. There’s a headband, a cape… and feathers? Who knows where she got it all from, but man did she make it work. When speaking to High Times in 1982, Nicks remarked that she’d rather wear drapes than “anything you could sell me from Bloomingdale’s.”

Nicks turned up at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards looking every bit the ’80s babe she was. She had on a daringly low-cut dress – in black, of course – and a matching sparkly band in her hair. Nicks and bandmate Christine McVie presented the award for Best Group Video that night.

Nicks has such a timeless beauty that this photo looks like it could’ve been taken in the modern era. But it’s actually a throwback picture that Nicks posted to Twitter in December 2014. She captioned it with the words, “I see through that smile, and I see through the heart of you.” Yep, that little poem perfectly matches her intense gaze.

This picture was taken in 1998 as Nicks and Buckingham attended a Rolling Stone party. By this point, they’d already broken up and had maintained a strange up-and-down almost-friendship over the years. Nicks might have summed it up best when she told Women’s Own magazine in 1990, “He and I were about as compatible as a boa constrictor and a rat.”

Nicks hadn’t even joined Fleetwood Mac when this 1974 photo was taken; she and Buckingham became band members on the last day of that year. The singer had been making a living doing waitressing and cleaning jobs while trying to make it as a musician. So in this pic, she has absolutely no idea what amazing things are to come for her.