Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums. She has been noted for her ethereal visual style and symbolic lyrics.
Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac on December 31, 1974, along with her then boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham. Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, 1977's Rumours, produced four U.S. Top 10 singles (including Nicks' song "Dreams", which was the band's first and only U.S. number one) and remained at #1 on the American albums chart for 31 weeks, as well as reaching the top spot in various countries around the world. To date the album has sold over 40 million copies worldwide.
Nicks began her solo career in 1981 with the 8 million selling album Bella Donna, and she has produced five more solo studio albums to date. Her seventh solo studio album, and her first in ten years, is currently in post-production with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame at the helm, and is due for release on May 3, 2011.
After the release of her first solo album, Rolling Stone deemed her "The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll". Overcoming cocaine addiction, dependency on tranquilizers, and chronic fatigue syndrome, Nicks remains a popular solo performer. She has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards and, with Fleetwood Mac, won the 1977/1978 Grammy for Album of the Year for Rumours. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Nicks has a contralto vocal range.
History
Early life
Nicks was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in
Phoenix, Arizona, to Jess Nicks, a corporate executive, and Barbara Nicks, a homemaker. Nicks' grandfather, Aaron Jess Nicks, a struggling
country music singer, taught Nicks to sing, performing
duets with her by the time she was four years old. Nicks' mother was very protective of her, keeping her at home "more than most people were" and fostering in her a love of fairy tales. As a young child, Nicks had difficulty pronouncing her given name Stephanie, instead pronouncing it "tee-dee", which became the nickname "Stevie".
Nicks' father Jess's career as a food business executive necessitated frequent moves, and the family lived in Phoenix, Albuquerque, El Paso, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco during Nicks' youth. With the Goya guitar that she received for her sixteenth birthday, Nicks wrote her first song called "I've Loved and I've Lost, and I'm Sad But Not Blue". She joined her first band "The Changing Times" while attending
Arcadia High School in
Arcadia, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles.
Nicks first met her future musical and romantic partner Lindsey Buckingham during her senior year at Menlo Atherton High School. She attended a Young Life Christian social event, saw Buckingham playing "California Dreamin'", and joined in with the harmony. Buckingham contacted Nicks a few years later and asked her to join him and his bandmates Javier Pacheco and Calvin Roper in a band called Fritz. Fritz became popular as a live act from 1968 until 1972, opening for popular musicians Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, among others, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Both Nicks and Buckingham attended San Jose State University in Northern California, where Nicks majored in Speech Communication. They dropped out in 1968 and moved to Los Angeles together to pursue a career in music when Nicks' family moved to Chicago.
Buckingham Nicks: 1972–1974
After Fritz disbanded in 1972, Nicks and Buckingham continued to write and record as a duo, producing demo tapes at the coffee plant belonging to Buckingham's father Morris. They secured a deal with
Polydor Records. Polydor used tracks from the demo tapes to release the album
Buckingham Nicks in 1973. The album was not a commercial success, despite the live shows that Nicks and Buckingham performed together to support it, and Polydor dropped the pair from the label. To support herself and Buckingham, who wrote music while recovering from
mononucleosis, Nicks worked a variety of jobs, which included waiting tables and a stint cleaning engineer/producer
Keith Olsen's house, where Nicks and Buckingham lived for a time. Nicks says that she first used cocaine during this time.
Nicks and Buckingham briefly relocated to Aspen, Colorado. While there, Buckingham landed a guitar-playing gig with the Everly Brothers, and toured with them while Nicks stayed behind. During this time, Nicks wrote "Rhiannon" after seeing the name in the novel Triad by Mary Leader, unaware at the time of the Mabinogi legend of Rhiannon. She also wrote "Landslide", inspired by the scenery of Aspen and her inner turmoil over her decision to pursue music.
Fleetwood Mac and Rumours: 1975–1978
Nicks and Buckingham joined
Fleetwood Mac on December 31, 1974, after
Keith Olsen played their track "Frozen Love" for drummer
Mick Fleetwood, who had come to
Studio City in California, in search of a studio to record Fleetwood Mac's next album. Fleetwood remembered Buckingham's guitar work after guitar player
Bob Welch's departure to pursue a solo career. Initially extending the offer only to Buckingham, Fleetwood later included Nicks in the offer when Buckingham insisted that they were "a package deal".
In 1975, the band achieved success with the album Fleetwood Mac. That same year, Nicks worked with clothing designer Margi Kent to develop Nicks' unique onstage look, with costumes that featured flowing skirts, shawls and platform boots.
Following the success of Fleetwood Mac, increasing tension between Nicks and Buckingham began to take its toll on their creativity, and Nicks ended the relationship. Fleetwood Mac began recording their follow-up album, Rumours, in early 1976 and continued until late in the year. Also, Nicks and Buckingham sang back-up on Warren Zevon's debut album.
Among Nicks' contributions to Rumours was "Dreams", which became the band's only Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit single to date. Nicks had also written and recorded the song "Silver Springs", but it was ultimately not included on the album because of space limitations for studio albums on vinyl records, which were limited to 24 minutes per side. Instead, it was released as a B-side of the "Go Your Own Way" single, and would remain in some obscurity until it appeared on the 4-disc Fleetwood Mac retrospective 25 Years – The Chain in 1992. The song, the rights to which are owned by Nicks' mother Barbara, has always been very special to Nicks, and she was devastated when told about the omission after the decision had been made.
In November 1977, after a New Zealand concert for the Rumours tour, Nicks and Fleetwood, who was married to Jenny Boyd, secretly began an affair. The pair mutually decided to end the affair, because, according to Nicks, "we knew it would be the end of Fleetwood Mac." Soon after, in October 1978, Mick Fleetwood left his wife for Nicks' best friend Sara Recor. After the success of the Rumours album and tour in 1977–78, Fleetwood Mac began recording their third album with Buckingham and Nicks, Tusk, in the spring of 1978. That year, Nicks sang back-up on Walter Egan's "Magnet & Steel".
Tusk, Bella Donna and Mirage: 1978–1982
By 1978, Nicks had amassed a large backlog of songs dating back to her Buckingham Nicks days that she had been unable to record and release with Fleetwood Mac because of the constraint of having to accommodate three songwriters on each album. Nicks wrote and recorded demos for the solo project during
Tusk sessions in 1979 and the
Tusk world tour of 1979–80. Nicks,
Danny Goldberg, and Paul Fishkin founded
Modern Records to record and release Nicks' material. Nicks recorded the hit
duets "Whenever I Call You Friend" with
Kenny Loggins in 1978, and "Gold" with
John Stewart in 1979.
Fleetwood Mac's Tusk was released on October 19, 1979. During 1981, Nicks toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and New Zealand band Split Enz as a guest.
Nicks released Bella Donna on July 27, 1981 to critical and commercial acclaim. Bella Donna was the first album to feature Nicks' back-up singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry, who have contributed vocals to all of Nicks' solo albums since then.
The day that Bella Donna reached #1 on the Billboard 200, Nicks' best friend Robin Anderson was diagnosed with leukemia. Robin gave birth to a son, appointing Nicks as the child's godmother. Following Robin's death in 1982, Nicks married Robin's widower Kim Anderson. They divorced eight months later.
In October 1981 Nicks embarked on the White Winged Dove tour, which she had to cut short to record the Mirage album with Fleetwood Mac. After the Mirage in 1982, Nicks prepared to record her second solo album.
Wild Heart and Rock a Little: 1983–1986
Nicks released
The Wild Heart on June 10, 1983. The album introduced songwriter and performer
Sandy Stewart as co-writer, vocalist, and musician.
The Wild Heart went double platinum, reached #5 on the Billboard album chart, and featured three hit singles. Nicks performed at the second
US Festival at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California, and later toured the U.S. from June 1983 to November 1983. Nicks appeared on
Saturday Night Live in 1983, performing "Stand Back" and "Nightbird".
Following the tour for The Wild Heart, Nicks commenced work on her third solo album. Originally titled Mirror Mirror, Nicks recorded songs for the album during 1984. However, Nicks was unhappy with the title track, and opted to record a new batch of songs in 1985. Rock a Little, as it was re-titled, was released November 18, 1985 to commercial success, supported by two hit singles.
Nicks toured in 1986 with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. The tour ended on October 10, 1986 in Sydney, Australia when Nicks was threatened by Australian authorities with expulsion from the country for not carrying a work permit.
The tour marked a turning point in Nicks' career: although she had achieved significant critical acclaim, drugs were taking a toll on her performing, affecting her vocals and changing her on-stage persona. In 1986, a plastic surgeon warned her of severe health problems if she did not stop using cocaine. At the end of the Australian tour, Nicks checked herself into the Betty Ford Center to overcome her cocaine addiction. Later that year, a doctor prescribed the tranquilizer Klonopin to help her avoid a cocaine relapse.
Tango in the Night and The Other Side of the Mirror: 1987–1990
In 1985, Fleetwood Mac began work on
Tango in the Night, which was released in April 1987. Nicks joined in the later stages of production in late 1986 after her stay in at the Betty Ford Clinic.
Creative differences and unresolved personal issues within the band led Buckingham to quit the group right before their world tour. A "physically ugly" confrontation between Nicks and Buckingham ensued when Nicks violently rejected Buckingham's decision to leave the band.
The band embarked on the Shake the Cage tour in September 1987, with Buckingham replaced by Rick Vito and Billy Burnette. The tour was suspended during Nicks' bout with chronic fatigue syndrome and developing addiction to tranquilizers, though it resumed in 1988. Tango in the Night met with commercial success and was followed in 1988 by Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits album in November 1988.
Also in 1988, Nicks began work on a fourth solo album with British producer Rupert Hine. The Other Side of the Mirror was released on May 11, 1989 to commercial success. Nicks became romantically involved with Hine.
Nicks toured the U.S. and Europe from August to November 1989, the only time she has toured Europe as a solo act. She has famously been quoted since as stating that she has "no memory of this tour" due to her increasing dependancy on the tranquillizer Klonopin, prescribed in ever increasing amounts by a psychiatrist between 1987 and 1994 in an attempt to keep Nicks from regressing to her former abuse of cocaine.
In 1989, Nicks set to work with Fleetwood Mac on a new album, Behind the Mask, which was released in 1990 to moderate commercial success in the U.S. In the UK, however, the album entered the chart at #1 and has been certified Platinum there. The band went on a world tour to promote the album, on the last night of which Buckingham and Nicks reunited on stage to perform "Landslide". After the tour concluded, Nicks left the group over a dispute with Mick Fleetwood, who would not allow her to release the 1977 track "Silver Springs" on her album Timespace – The Best of Stevie Nicks, because of his plans to release it on a forthcoming Fleetwood Mac box set.
Timespace and Street Angel: 1991–1996
On the tenth anniversary of her solo career debut, Nicks released
Timespace – The Best of Stevie Nicks on September 3, 1991.
Fleetwood Mac also released a four-disc box set, 25 Years – The Chain, which included "Silver Springs".
During the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, Bill Clinton used the Fleetwood Mac hit "Don't Stop" as his campaign theme song, and Nicks joined her band mates to perform the song at Clinton's 1993 Inaugural Gala. No plans for an official reunion were made at that time. Nicks was criticized for her weight gain.
In late 1993, while Nicks held a baby shower at her house, she tripped and cut her forehead near a fireplace. Not feeling any pain from the injury, Nicks realized she needed help and endured a painful 47-day detox from Klonopin in a hospital. Her weight had also reached a peak at 175 lb (79.4 kg).
Nicks used material written mostly in previous years to record a solo album in 1992 and 1993 entitled Street Angel, which was ultimately released following her detox in May 1994. Nicks has expressed major disappointment with the album, claiming that a lot of production work took place during her second stint in rehab, meaning she had little to no say over the final product.
Released May 23, 1994, Street Angel was poorly received. Despite praise from critics and fans for her vocals on the three-month Street Angel tour, Nicks was crushed by the focus on her weight and the poor reception of the album itself. Disgusted by the criticism she received during the tour for being overweight, Nicks vowed to never set foot on a stage again unless she slimmed down.
In 1995, Nicks was reunited with Lindsey Buckingham and contributed the duet "Twisted" to the Twister movie soundtrack, while in 1996 the Sheryl Crow penned "Somebody Stand By Me" featured on the Boys on the Side soundtrack, and Nicks also remade Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" for Fox's TV hit Party of Five.
The Dance: 1997–1998
In 1996 Lindsey Buckingham, working on a planned solo album, enlisted the help of Mick Fleetwood and
John McVie, which eventually led to a reunion of the entire band. A newly invigorated and slimmed down Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac for
The Dance, a highly successful 1997 tour that coincided with the 20th anniversary of the release of
Rumours. Prior to the tour, Nicks started work with a voice coach, to lend her voice more control and protect it from the stress of lengthy touring schedules.
The live CD release, The Dance, was released to commercial and critical acclaim, earning the group a Grammy nomination. Nicks was nominated for a Rock Vocal Performance Grammy for the live performance of "Silver Springs" from the album. In 1998, Nicks joined the group for its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This same year, she won the Outstanding Contribution at the BRIT Awards.
Nicks put work on a new solo album on hold when she was approached by Warner Music to release a solo career-spanning box set, to finish her contract with Atlantic Records in the US. After the culmination of the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour, Nicks settled down in Los Angeles and Phoenix with close friends and colleagues to devise a track list for this three-disc collection.
Enchanted and Trouble in Shangri-La: 1998–2001
The box set
Enchanted was released to acclaim on April 28, 1998 with liner notes from Nicks, as well as exclusive rare
photographs, and pages from her journals. Nicks supported the box set with a successful US tour. In 1998, Nicks contributed to the
Practical Magic soundtrack and performed in Don Henley's benefit concert for the Walden Woods Project.
Nicks had begun writing actively for Trouble in Shangri-La in 1994 and 1995 as she came out of her Klonopin dependency. According to Nicks, friend and former musical partner Tom Petty was responsible for convincing her to write music again when he rebuffed her request that he write a song with her. Nicks resumed recording songs for the Trouble in Shangri-La album with Sheryl Crow, who produced and performed on several tracks. When a scheduling conflict forced Crow to drop out of the project, Nicks first approached R&B; producer Dallas Austin, but these sessions have never surfaced. Nicks finally called on John Shanks to produce the remainder of the album, with additional contributions from David Kahne, Rick Nowels, Pierre Marchand, and Jeff Trott. Artists Natalie Maines, Sarah McLachlan, and Macy Gray contributed to some of the tracks.
Released May 1, 2001, Trouble in Shangri-La restored Nicks' solo career to critical and commercial success. "Planets of the Universe" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and Nicks was named VH1's "Artist of the Month" for May 2001. Nicks was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, was featured in a well-received Behind The Music episode, and performed an episode of the VH1 Storytellers Concert Program. Nicks made several television appearances in support of the album and performed at the 2001 Radio Music Awards.
Nicks supported the album with a successful tour, although some shows were canceled or postponed because of Nicks' bout with acute bronchitis. Shows were also canceled because of the September 11 attacks in the U.S.
Stevie Nicks appears in an episode of South Park, Osama Bin Laden has farty pants,as a goat.
Say You Will: 2001–2004
In 2001, Fleetwood Mac began work on a new studio album. After the end of her solo tour, Nicks convened with the other members of the band for recording during 2002.
Say You Will was released in April 2003 and met with commercial success but mixed reviews. Nicks joined the group to support the album with a world tour lasting until September 2004.
Nicks has subsequently stated in several interviews that she was not happy with the album or the successful world tour that followed, citing production disputes with Buckingham as a core factor, as well as the absence of fellow female band member Christine McVie. A documentary of the making of the album, Destiny Rules, was released on DVD in 2004 and chronicles the sometimes turbulent relationships between band members, especially Buckingham and Nicks, during that time in the studio.
Crystal Visions and Soundstage Sessions: 2007–2009
On March 27, 2007,
Reprise Records released
Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in the U.S. The album debuted at #21 on the
Billboard 200 Albums Chart.
The compilation includes her hit singles, a dance remix, and one new track, a live version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll". There are two versions of this album, one with just the audio CD and another version with an included DVD featuring all of Nicks' music videos with audio commentary from Nicks, as well as rare footage from the Bella Donna recording sessions.
A tour with Chris Isaak, opening in Concord, California on May 17, 2007 supported the release.
Reprise Records initially released two radio only promos, the live version of "Landslide" with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and "Rock and Roll". Both tracks failed to garner much airplay making an impact on the charts. Reprise Records released "Stand Back" (issued with club mixes) on May 29, 2007. "Stand Back", which peaked at #5 on the pop singles chart in 1983, reached #2 on the "Billboard Club Chart". Nicks previously reached #1 on this chart, with "Planets Of The Universe" (from Trouble in Shangri-La) in 2001. The remix single of "Stand Back" debuted on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart on September 15, 2007 at #10 peaking at #4 the following week. It also debuted on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart at #3 peaking at #1.
According to The Tennessean, in early 2008, Nicks was spotted "in Nashville recording an album with Joe Thomas for a CD that accompanies a DVD of Soundstage". On March 31, 2009, Stevie released the album, The Soundstage Sessions, via Reprise Records. The album debuted at #47 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart. The first single from the album was "Crash Into Me" and was released as a digital download, along with "Landslide" (orchestra version) as a B-side, on March 17, 2009.
Along with the CD, Nicks also released a DVD on the 31st, titled Live In Chicago. Both are of her October 2007 Soundstage performance which was filmed and recorded before an intimate audience at Grainger Studio in Chicago. The DVD features special guest Vanessa Carlton for whom Nicks provided backing vocals on her 2007 album Heroes & Thieves, and rare solo performances of stand-out tracks such as the Fleetwood Mac standard "Sara" and the celebrated blues ballad "How Still My Love" from Bella Donna. For unknown reasons, the soaring encore of "Beauty and the Beast" was omitted from the DVD release, but included on the CD.
In Your Dreams and other projects: 2010-present
In February 2010,
Michelle Branch commented on her
Twitter account that she was recording a song for a Fleetwood Mac tribute album, a cover version of the Christine McVie 1975 hit "Say You Love Me", and that Nicks was producing the track.
In late February 2010, David A. Stewart (musician and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics) revealed, using his Twitter account, that he was working with Nicks on at least four new songs, including one called "Everybody Loves You". A 38-second snippet of the song was posted on Stewart's Twitter account. He confirmed that he and Nicks were working on an album, and said that it is being done "in a very new way".
On March 16, 2010, Stewart reported on his Twitter that he and Nicks were now recording songs together. On BBC Radio 2 on May 3, 2010, he stated in an interview with DJ Simon Mayo that the new album will be recorded throughout June with a release later this year, however this proved to be premature.
On July 5, 2010, Stewart tweeted several pictures and messages about him and Nicks working in the studio. In one of the tweets, Stewart stated that he, Nicks, Waddy Wachtel, Mike Campbell (of the Heartbreakers), Mike Rowe, and Steve Ferrone were all working on the album, and that Mick Fleetwood has also contributed drums to at least one track. Waddy Wachtel has been Nicks' lead guitarist for most of her solo career, featuring prominently on all of her albums to date. Stewart also stated in that tweet that seven tracks have been completed thus far and it was their final day of these sessions in the studio together. Nicks was scheduled to play five live dates in the US in August, and then return to the studio to complete writing and recording on the album.
On July 19, 2010, Nicks posted a new letter on her official website addressing not only the fake Stevie Nicks on Twitter, but she also confirmed that she is working on a new album with Dave Stewart as her producer. She mentions that the new album is moving quickly and sounding great.
In a July 26 interview for the Santa Barbara Independent, Nicks had mentioned a new song on the album, entitled "Italian Summer", whichy she wrote in 2009 while on vacation in Italy. Later, in a July 29 interview with the Ventura County Star, Nicks gave an in-depth interview about her career, her new album, and the August "mini tour" she's embarking on. She had this to say about the new songs:
There is an Italian love song I wrote when I was in Italy last summer. There is a crazy, wild rock 'n' roll song called "The Ghosts Are Gone". There is a song about a novel called "Wide Sargasso Sea", the precursor to Jane Eyre. It was a crazy movie in the '80s that I loved. There are two tracks that Michael Campbell wrote that I wrote songs on top of, and they are just magical. There are love songs, hard rock 'n' roll songs, really contemplative songs and very Bob Dylan-y songs and there are lots of good poems.
She also mentioned that the series of shows she is doing in August ("it's not really a tour," she said) will not contain any of her new music, because she doesn't want it to end up on
Youtube. The Santa Barbara show will benefit a little girl she knows in
Los Angeles with
rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer. A documentary is being shot and will be directed by Dave Stewart, which may come packaged with the new album. On the subject of the album's release date, Nicks said, "It’s basically close to being done now. I can’t really tell you, but I know we are trying to move fast because we have places to go and people to see."
The single, "Secret Love", will be available February 3.
Tours
After a few months' respite from the
Say You Will tour, Nicks did a four-night stint in May 2005 at
Caesars Palace in
Las Vegas, and then did a 10-show tour with
Don Henley. During the summer of 2005, Nicks continued the tour solo with pop singer Vanessa Carlton as the opening act, playing over 20 dates nationwide. She played venues at: Boston's Tweeter Center, Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Amphitheatre in Wantagh, New York, Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO, Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, and the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. She ended the tour where it began, at Caesars Palace. There her set included the rarely performed-live "If Anyone Falls", the moving "How Still My Love" from
Bella Donna and a rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll". At the "Fashion Rocks" concert of September 2005 at
Radio City Music Hall in New York City, soul singer
Joss Stone and singer
Rob Thomas covered the Stevie Nicks – Tom Petty 1981 smash hit "
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" to kick-start the Fall Fashion Week.
In October 2005, she attended the Melbourne Cup Week in Australia, and one of the horse racing stakes was named after her: The Stevie Nicks Plate. She used this opportunity to launch her promotion of an Australian/New Zealand extension to her Gold Dust Tour in February and March 2006. Nicks toured in Australia and New Zealand with popular Australian performer John Farnham. She also appeared in concert with Tom Petty in June near Manassas, Virginia and at the Bonnaroo Music Festival that same month. She later appeared as a guest performer with Petty during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August of the same year.
In 2006, Nicks also performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the first leg of their tour in the summer, and later in the year returned as a guest performer for a number of songs on the tour celebrating Petty's 30th anniversary since his debut album. Tom Petty's Homecoming Concert in Gainesville, FL, which contained performances with Stevie Nicks, was filmed for PBS Soundstage as well as DVD release for March 2007. Nicks was also the featured performer for Bette Midler's benefit function, Hullaween, in October 2006. On December 8, 2006, Nicks performed at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip as a benefit for the Epicurean Charitable Foundation.
On February 4, 2007 Nicks performed her classic solo hit song "Stand Back" at the 2007 Super Bowl XLI Pre-game Show on CBS. She also made performance appearances on NBC's The Today Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Beginning in May 2007, Nicks began touring with pop/rock artist Chris Isaak. The last Stevie Nicks/Chris Isaak show was June 17, 2007 at the Tweeter Center in Boston, MA. Nicks continued the tour solo, with Vanessa Carlton opening on some dates. The tour finished at The Borgata in Atlantic City on August 24, 2007.
In spring 2008, Nicks did a few spot shows and then conducted a brief one month tour in June 2008 before preparing for a 2009 tour with Fleetwood Mac.
In 2009, Fleetwood Mac embarked on a global hits tour. The Unleashed Tour took place in arenas on multiple continents. The tour ended in December with two sell-out shows of 35,000 people at the New Plymouth TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Zealand.
A handful of dates have recently been announced for a short 2010 tour. The official Stevie Nicks website has published details of shows which will take place in the US in August. Nicks has stated that none of the studio material recorded for the upcoming album will be performed at these shows because she does not want clips of the performances to be posted on Youtube.
Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks have joined forces for one of the most anticipated musical events of the year, The Heart & Soul Tour. Launching March 20, 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the tour will unite two of music’s most legendary forces for a series of arena concerts throughout North America – with performances already confirmed in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Montreal and more.
Solo tours
Bella Donna Tour: 1981
The Wild Heart Tour: 1983
Rock A Little Tour: 1985–1986
The Other Side of the Mirror Tour: 1989
Timespace Tour/Whole Lotta Trouble Tour: 1991
Street Angel Tour: 1994
Enchanted Tour: 1998
Trouble In Shangri-La Tour: 2001
Dreams: Live In Las Vegas (covering for Celine Dion): 2005
Two Voices Tour: 2005 (with Don Henley)
Gold Dust Tour: 2005–2006
Crystal Visions Tour: 2007–2008
Summer Tour: 2010
Heart & Soul Tour: 2011 (with Rod Stewart)
{| class="toccolours" border=1 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 style="width: 375px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #E2E2E2;"
|+ '''Touring band
|-
! style="background:#e7ebee;"| (2010)
|
Sharon Celani – Backing vocals (1981–present)
Waddy Wachtel – Lead guitarist, Musical director(1981–1986, 2001–present)
Lori Perry – Backing vocals (1981–1989, 1996, 2007–present)
Carlos Rios – Rhythm guitar (1988–present)
Lenny Castro – Percussionist (1994– 2001; 2007– 2008)
Brett Tuggle – Keyboardist (1998–2006)
Al Ortiz – Bass guitar (2001–present)
Scott Plunket – Pianist (2001–2002, 2008)
Taku Hirano – Percussionist ( 2001; 2005–2006; 2010)
Jimmy Paxson – Drums (2005–present)
Darrell Smith – Keyboardist (2005–present)
Jana Anderson – Backing vocals (2005–2008)
Ricky Peterson – Keyboardist (2007–present)
|}
Stevie Nicks' Band of Soldiers
In late 2004, Nicks began visiting Army and Navy medical centers in Washington, D.C. While visiting wounded service men and women, Nicks became determined to find an object she could leave with each soldier that would raise their spirits, motivate, and give them something to look forward to each day. She eventually decided to purchase hundreds of
iPod Nanos, load them with music, artists, and
playlists which she would hand select, and autograph them. She now regularly delivers these tokens of her appreciation, bringing her closest friends to share the experience.
In 2006, Nicks held a get-together to raise money for her charity work. Many of her peers made contributions. Nicks continues to develop this philanthropic endeavor.
Influence
Stacy Dupree,
Courtney Love,
Michelle Branch,
Belinda Carlisle, the
Dixie Chicks,
Mary J. Blige,
Sheryl Crow,
Nadia Ali,
Taylor Swift,
Laura Branigan,
Sarah McLachlan,
Kelly Clarkson,
Vanessa Carlton, Georgi Cussick,
Tori Amos, Michelle Hotaling,
Jennifer Hanson, and
Delta Goodrem have all cited Nicks as an inspiration. She has participated in
duets or provided guest vocals for several of their albums and some have returned the favour, notably Crow and the Dixie Chicks. The Dixie Chicks
covered her 1975 classic "Landslide", which became a Top 10 hit (#1 on the Adult Contemporary chart) and a #1 Hit on the Country Chart. Alternative rock band
The Smashing Pumpkins made an acoustic cover of the song that was featured on their 1994 B-side collection
Pisces Iscariot. The cover was a hit and made it to the top three on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the U.S. that year. She recorded a duet of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with
Chris Isaak on his 2004 Christmas album
Chris Isaak Christmas and sang with Isaak on his
PBS Christmas television special. Other successful covers have included
The Corrs' "Dreams", and
Courtney Love's band
Hole with "Gold Dust Woman". "Edge Of Seventeen" was sampled on
Destiny's Child's 2001 #1 single "
Bootylicious". Nicks appeared in the video for "Bootylicious" and in an episode of
MTV's
Making The Video that featured it, in which she expressed her admiration for both the song and the group.
Neil Tennant of the
Pet Shop Boys has expressed extreme interest in working with Nicks.
Lindsay Lohan covered "Edge of Seventeen" on her 2005 album,
A Little More Personal.
Deep Dish fulfilled their "Dreams" of working with Nicks in 2005 when Nicks offered to re-record vocals on a remix of her #1 penned song, "
Dreams". The
Deep Dish version went on to reach #2 on the
Billboard Hot Dance Airplay Chart, as well as providing Nicks with her third UK top 40 hit.
Nicks provided additional vocals and writing on Vanessa Carlton's 2007 album
Heroes and Thieves. Carlton had previously been on tour with Nicks in 2005 and 2006.
The Dixie Chicks' cover of Nicks' 1975 song "Landslide" also earned her a BMI Songwriters Award in 2003 when it won "Song of the Year" (the award is given to the songwriter of the track, regardless of the performer). According to BMI, "Landslide" also earned Nicks the 35th Robert J. Burton Award as "Most Performed Country Song of the Year". This distinction is given to the song tallying the most feature US broadcast performances during the eligibility period. Included on the Dixie Chicks' platinum Monument album Home, "Landslide" was a Country, Adult Top 40, Hot 100 and AC Billboard charts smash. Nicks previously collected a Pop Award in 1998 for Fleetwood Mac's recording of the song, which has achieved Million-Air status with over three million airplays.
On January 31, 2010, Nicks performed with Taylor Swift at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Swift, who describes Nicks as one of her childhood heroes, introduced her to the audience by saying "It's a fairy tale and an honor to share the stage with Stevie Nicks."
Personal life
During the
Rumours tour, Nicks had a relationship with singer/songwriter
Don Henley of the
Eagles and with Fleetwood Mac concert promoter David Pesnell. Nicks ended her relationship with Henley at the beginning of the Tusk tour, but her relationship continued with Pesnell until the end of the tour.
Her only marriage was to Kim Anderson, the widower of her friend Robin Anderson, soon after Robin died of leukemia while Bella Donna was on the top of the charts. Stevie and Kim were soon divorced: "We didn't get married because we were in love, we got married because we were grieving and it was the only way that we could feel like we were doing anything."
On August 10, 2005 her father, Jess Nicks, died. Jess introduced his daughter during several of her concert tours and was a large influence on Nicks. Nicks remarked, after Jess's health had deteriorated, that she asked her father to "hang on" for her to finish her tour and his death came shortly after Nicks wrapped up her summer 2005 Gold Dust Tour. She was able to be with him when he died.
Nicks dated cable television pioneer Timothy O'Brien while living in Aspen, Colorado in the 1970s.
Of her lifestyle today, Nicks stated "I am a very different girl from the one who was so wrapped up in rock and roll and the drugs and everything else. I'll never take it all for granted again, ever. Because I also now really realize how quickly that it can go, and that you can be the darling one year, and be nobody the next year. So you have to learn to accept and deal with that."
Until July 2007 Nicks lived in Paradise Valley, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix in a home she had built in 1981 and shared with brother Chris, his wife Lori and their daughter Jessica. She announced in mid-2007 that her Paradise Valley home would be put up for sale, citing her aspirations to "downsize" and focus more on her charity work, and the fact that in the last year she had only "spent about two weeks there." The house was put on the market for a reported $3.8 million and many fans (feeling it was the end of a major era in her life and career) tagged it as a "Kingdom Up For Sale", a line from the song "Gold Dust Woman". She also owns a home in Pacific Palisades, California.
According to a September 2007 article in the Daily Telegraph (UK), Nicks says she is again selling her home, her recently purchased Pacific Palisades home (purchased two years before by Nicks, right down the street from a rental home she had for years in Pacific Palisades). She has said it is a "house for adults", "And even though I'm pushing 60 I don't feel that I'm that old yet." She will be moving to a penthouse apartment on the beach and the old house is already on the market.
Beginning in 2007, reports surfaced concerning Lindsay Lohan's interest in buying the rights to Nicks' life story and developing a motion picture in which she planned to play Nicks. In March 2007, while promoting her album Crystal Visions, Nicks was asked about this rumor. Nicks told Access Hollywood, "That is completely insane and crazy. There is no movie in the works on my life. Nobody can do a movie about my life without me being involved. Because nobody knows what really happened in my life until I tell them. So, nobody can make a movie about my life. And if anybody ever went and made a movie about my life without my permission and my being involved, I would slam it so hard to the press that it would never do anything." Nicks has gone on record to the New York Times as being strongly opposed to the prospect, and was quoted in 2009 as saying "Over my dead body. She needs to stop doing drugs and get a grip. Then maybe we'll talk."
Image
Stevie Nicks is known for her mystical image, her billowing
chiffon skirts,
shawls, layers of
lace and long blonde hair. Margi Kent, a designer from California, has worked with Nicks since the 1970s to perfect her style. Perhaps the most famous part of Nicks' wardrobe is her
platform boots. Nicks has worn
suede platform boots in various colors, usually black, cream, tan or maroon in almost all of her performances since 1975. Standing at , Nicks has stated she felt a little ridiculous standing next to the much taller Mick Fleetwood. For this reason she developed a penchant for platform boots. "Even when platforms went completely out of style, I kept wearing them because I didn't want to go back to being in heels", she told
Allure magazine in 1995. Over the years, Nicks has developed a style which she calls her "uniform", which is best exemplified by the outfit worn on the cover of Fleetwood Mac's
Rumours, perhaps the base inspiration for many of her costumes. Another trademark of Nicks' is a
Dickens-style gentleman's formal
top hat, which she began wearing in the late 1970s. During the early 1980s she wore
Renaissance poets'
velvet berets with plume feathers (as shown in the vintage photo used on the cover of her March 2007 CD release
Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she wore fashionable ladies hats on stage and to this day, often still sports a black top hat adorned with giant plumes.
Many of Nicks' shawls and capes also have an association with her songs in her live performances, many becoming as signature in live performances as the songs themselves. These include a red/crimson shawl for "Sara", white for "Edge of Seventeen", gold for "Gold Dust Woman" and black with round gold circles for "Stand Back". One of her trademarks is twirling across the stage with shawls flying during the interlude of her classic songs, notably "Stand Back" and "Gypsy".
Nicks has said that her vocal style and performance antics evolved from female singers like Grace Slick and Janis Joplin. She admitted inspiration when she saw Joplin perform live (and opened for with her first band "Fritz") shortly before Joplin's death. Nicks owns a strand of Joplin's stage beads. She also commented that she once saw a woman in her audience dressed in dripping chiffon with a Gibson Girl hairstyle and big boots and Nicks knew she wanted something similar. She took the look and made it her own. Another important part of Nicks' image is her jewelry. Nicks typically introduces one signature piece of jewelry during each tour. Such items have included silver bracelets, crescent moon pendant, pyramid-shaped pendant, winged-heart pendant, gold crosses and, most recently, a Tiffany pendant with diamonds meaning "longevity." The crescent moon pendant is arguably the most iconic of all Nicks' jewelry – the original was bought while she was in England on tour with Fleetwood Mac during the Tusk era. Nicks then had her personal jeweler, Henri David of Philadelphia, make replicas of the moon pendant which have become treasured gifts to her friends. In recent years, celebrity pals such as Bette Midler and ice-skating star Tai Babilonia have been photographed wearing their "Stevie moons".
Nicks has even commented in interviews recently that she never would have dreamed that her trademark "Bella Donna/Witchy Woman" image would have been taken so seriously by her fans, often joking that she doesn't live her private life in her stage clothes and "Stevie garb" as many people seem to think. However, she greatly credits her career/stage image for its role in giving her a trademark that has made her unique and "timeless."
Microphone and tambourine
Stevie Nicks is known for her use of the
Sennheiser MD-441-U5 microphone. It was a frequent sight in Nicks' early tours. Also synonymous with Nicks' microphone are the items with which she chooses to decorate her microphone stand. Over the years, such items have included roses, ribbons, chiffon, crystal beads, scarves and small
stuffed toys.
Upon being asked in a question forum on her official website about playing the tambourine, Nicks stated that she began playing the tambourine upon joining Fleetwood Mac in 1975, feeling the need to do something onstage during songs that featured Lindsey or Christine. Like her microphone, her tambourine usually features scarves and/or streamers. Nicks' trademark tambourine since the early 1980s is in the shape of a black half-moon.
Rumors of witchcraft
A rumor that has trailed Nicks through the years is that she is a
witch and is heavily involved in
Wicca. While she admits to having a high regard for the mythic and gothic, she denies any solitary dedication to any one religion, including Wicca. She speaks about this erroneous image in a 2006 interview. Nicks' music is copyrighted under the name
Welsh Witch Music, a reference to her song
Rhiannon, which she introduced as "a song about a Welsh witch" in concerts between 1975 and 1978. In a
Yahoo! interview on April 28, 1998, Nicks said of the rumor: "I have no idea what precipitated those rumors… I am not a witch. Get a life!" Nicks also stated in a 1983
Entertainment Tonight interview: "I spent thousands of dollars on beautiful black clothes and had to stop wearing them for a long time because a lot of people scared me. And that's really unfair to me, I think, for people – other people – to conjure up their ideas of what I am or what I believe in." In a 1998
Redbook magazine article, Nicks spoke of her faith, stating that she believes in angels and knows that she is alive today because "there was a God looking out" for her during her years of addiction.
Discography
Solo
Studio albums
Bella Donna (1981)
The Wild Heart (1983)
Rock a Little (1985)
The Other Side of the Mirror (1989)
Street Angel (1994)
Trouble in Shangri-La (2001)
In Your Dreams (2011)
Live album
The Soundstage Sessions (2009)
Compilations
Timespace – The Best of Stevie Nicks (1991)
Enchanted (3 CD box set) (1998)
Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2007)
Solo videos and DVDs
Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert (VHS) (1982)
Live at Red Rocks (VHS) (1995)
Crystal Visions - The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (Deluxe Edition – Disc 2) (2007)
Soundstage: Stevie Nicks Live (Sears-exclusive Blu-Ray) (2008)
Live in Chicago (2009)
As Buckingham Nicks
Buckingham Nicks (1973)
With Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac (1975)
Rumours (1977)
Tusk (1979)
Live (1980)
Mirage (1982)
Tango in the Night (1987)
Greatest Hits (1988)
Behind the Mask (1990)
25 Years – The Chain (2 CD & 4 CD Boxset) (1992)
The Dance (1997)
The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (2002)
Say You Will (2003)
Live in Boston (2004)
See also
List of number-one dance hits (United States)
List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
References
External links
The Nicks Fix: The Official Stevie Nicks Website
Reprise Records
Five audio interview segments with Stevie Nicks discussing her Bella Donna Album
Category:American contraltos
Category:American dance musicians
Category:American diarists
Category:American female singers
Category:American rock singers
Category:American singer-songwriters
Category:Atlantic Records artists
Category:Female rock singers
Category:Fleetwood Mac members
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Musicians from Arizona
Category:People from Phoenix, Arizona
Category:People from Paradise Valley, Arizona
Category:San Jose State University alumni
Category:1948 births
Category:Living people
Category:People with chronic fatigue syndrome
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