"Landslide" is a song written by Stevie Nicks and performed by British-American music group Fleetwood Mac. It was first featured on the band's 1975 eponymous album Fleetwood Mac. Along with Rhiannon, it would be Nicks' first original contribution to the band upon joining. A live version was released as a single 23 years later from the live reunion album The Dance.

Song creation[link]

Nicks has said that she wrote this song while she was contemplating going back to school or continuing on with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Buckingham Nicks had been dropped by Polydor Records and she and Buckingham were not getting along. She wrote the song while visiting Aspen, Colorado, sitting in someone's living room "looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us ... at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways."^[1]

Stevie Nicks version[link]

There are currently 7 different versions commercially available featuring Nicks on vocals:

• Fleetwood Mac (1975). The original recording also appears on the compilation albums 25 Years – The Chain (1992) and The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (2002).
• Live (1980). Recorded live in London, June 27, 1980, at the Wembley Arena during the Tusk Tour.
• The Dance (1997). Live track released as a maxi-single, which also included 3 remixes of the original 1975 recording.
• VH1 Divas Las Vegas (2002). Performed live with the Dixie Chicks.
• Live in Boston (2004)
• Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (2007). Performed live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
• The Soundstage Sessions (2009). Performed live in Chicago for the PBS program Soundstage. An alternate performance from this event is included on her Live in Chicago DVD.

The song is one of Fleetwood Mac's most frequently performed songs on tour. Nicks has performed it on every Fleetwood Mac tour since joining the band, with the exception of the Shake the Cage tour, as well as all of her own solo tours from 2005 onwards.^[2] Nicks also regularly performs it along with "Stand Back" during television guest appearances.

Personnel[link]

• Stevie Nicks – Vocals
• Lindsey Buckingham – Guitar
• Christine McVie – Keyboards — on live performances between 1975–1982
• Waddy Wachtel – Guitar — on Nicks's solo tours and appearances

Cover versions[link]

The Smashing Pumpkins[link]

Alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins made an acoustic cover of the song that was featured as the B-side to their 1994 single "Disarm" and later on their B-side collection Pisces Iscariot. The cover went on to be one of the rock band's most-beloved tracks and even had the approval of Nicks herself. As she told fans during a 1998 online chat with SonicNet, "There's nothing more pleasing to a songwriter than [someone else] doing one of their songs. ['Landslide'] also led me to being friends with Billy [Corgan] and the possibility that we'll work together," she said of the Smashing Pumpkins frontman. "Over this song, there's been this incredible connection ... he reached out ... I believe that my poetry is really meant for everyone, no matter what age." The cover was a hit, making it to the top three on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the U.S. that year and number 30 on the U.S. Airplay charts. The song was also featured on the U.S. version of their greatest hits album Rotten Apples.

Charts (The Smashing Pumpkins)[link]

Dixie Chicks[link]

The country group Dixie Chicks then covered "Landslide" on their 2002 Home album. This rendition, featuring the group's trademark two- and three-part harmonies reached the Top 10 of both the pop (number 7) and country charts (number 2) as well as several other charts. It became the Dixie Chicks' only number 1 single (to date) on the adult contemporary chart. Lead singer Natalie Maines said she was attracted, in part, to the song because she was then the same age that Nicks was when she initially performed it.

Charts (Dixie Chicks)[link]

"Landslide" debuted at #32 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart for the week of September 7, 2002.

Stacey Kent[link]

Jazz vocalist Stacey Kent made an acoustic cover of the song that was featured on her 2007 album Breakfast on the Morning Tram.

[edit] Glee version

Fox Broadcasting Company's Glee cover involving Gwyneth Paltrow, Naya Rivera, and Heather Morris launched in Season 2, Episode 15, "Sexy". Rivera's character Santana Lopez chose this song to express her true feelings for Morris's Brittany Pierce. Stevie Nicks attended the filming of the song and stated that it was a "beautiful mix" of the original and Dixie Chicks version. She stated she was overall very pleased with the performance and that she was honored to be part of the show.^[6]

Other covers[link]

• Bush (The Sea of Memories, 2011) It is a bonus track off of the deluxe edition of the album.
• The Backbeats (The Sing-Off, 2010)
• John Frusciante (The Viper Room, 1997)
• Sin Fang ("Landslide / The Only Living Boy in New York, 2010)
• Tori Amos
• Gavin Rossdale
• Miley Cyrus covered this song on her Gypsy Heart Tour.
• Paramore covered part of this song during their performance at the Fueled by Ramen 15th anniversary show.
• Jimmy Wong covered this song on his YouTube channel.
• Boyce Avenue covered this song on their YouTube channel.

In Televised Singing Competitions[link]

• Kate Cook (Australian Idol, 2009, Top 10)
• The Backbeats (The Sing-Off, 2010)
• Lacey Brown (American Idol, 2010, Top 24)
• Javier Colon sang this song with Stevie Nicks on the Season 1 Final Results show of The Voice
• Lakoda Rayne (The X Factor, 2011, Top 12)
• Colton Dixon (American Idol, 2012, Top 9)
• Karise Eden (The Voice Australia, 2012)

Appearances in other media[link]

• The original 1975 song appeared in 2011 as a downloadable track for the music video game Rock Band 3.
• The original 1975 song is used at the end of the South Park episodes "You're Getting Old" and "Ass Burgers".
• Appears on a mixtape in the novel "The Perks of Being a Wallflower".
• The original 1975 song is played at the end of the Cold Case episode "Fireflies" and The Smashing Pumpkins cover is played at the end of the episode "Detention".
• The live version from The Dance is featured in the 1998 movie Jack Frost, though it did not appear on the soundtrack CD. It also appeared in the 2004 movie Jersey Girl directed by Kevin Smith.
• Mentioned by John Cusack's character in High Fidelity.

References[link]

This article needs attention from an expert on the subject. Please add a reason or a talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with the article. WikiProject Geology may be able to help recruit an expert. (November 2007)

Computer simulation of a "slump" landslide in San Mateo County, California (USA) in January 1997

A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments. Although the action of gravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, there are other contributing factors affecting the original slope stability. Typically, pre-conditional factors build up specific sub-surface conditions that make the area/slope prone to failure, whereas the actual landslide often requires a trigger before being released.

Causes[link]

The Mameyes Landslide, in barrio Tibes, Ponce, Puerto Rico, which buried more than 100 homes, was caused by extensive accumulation of rains and, according to some sources, lightning.

Landslides occur when the stability of a slope changes from a stable to an unstable condition. A change in the stability of a slope can be caused by a number of factors, acting together or alone. Natural causes of landslides include:

• groundwater (porewater) pressure acting to destabilize the slope
• Loss or absence of vertical vegetative structure, soil nutrients, and soil structure (e.g. after a wildfire)
• erosion of the toe of a slope by rivers or ocean waves
• weakening of a slope through saturation by snowmelt, glaciers melting, or heavy rains
• earthquakes adding loads to barely stable slope
• earthquake-caused liquefaction destabilizing slopes
• volcanic eruptions

Landslides are aggravated by human activities, Human causes include:

• deforestation, cultivation and construction, which destabilize the already fragile slopes

• vibrations from machinery or traffic
• blasting
• earthwork which alters the shape of a slope, or which imposes new loads on an existing slope
• in shallow soils, the removal of deep-rooted vegetation that binds colluvium to bedrock
• Construction, agricultural or forestry activities (logging) which change the amount of water which infiltrates the soil.

The landslide at Surte in Sweden, 1950. It was a quick clay slide killing one person.

Types[link]

The following text needs to be harmonized with text in Landslide classification.

Debris flow[link]

Amboori debris flow, occurred on 9 November 2001 in Kerala, India. The event killed 39 people.^[1]

Slope material that becomes saturated with water may develop into a debris flow or mud flow. The resulting slurry of rock and mud may pick up trees, houses and cars, thus blocking bridges and tributaries causing flooding along its path.

Debris flow is often mistaken for flash flood, but they are entirely different processes.

Muddy-debris flows in alpine areas cause severe damage to structures and infrastructure and often claim human lives. Muddy-debris flows can start as a result of slope-related factors and shallow landslides can dam stream beds, resulting in temporary water blockage. As the impoundments fail, a "domino effect" may be created, with a remarkable growth in the volume of the flowing mass, which takes up the debris in the stream channel. The solid-liquid mixture can reach densities of up to 2 tons/m³ and velocities of up to 14 m/s (Chiarle and Luino, 1998; Arattano, 2003). These processes normally cause the first severe road interruptions, due not only to deposits accumulated on the road (from several cubic metres to hundreds of cubic metres), but in some cases to the complete removal of bridges or roadways or railways crossing the stream channel. Damage usually derives from a common underestimation of mud-debris flows: in the alpine valleys, for example, bridges are frequently destroyed by the impact force of the flow because their span is usually calculated only for a water discharge. For a small basin in the Italian Alps (area = 1.76 km²) affected by a debris flow, Chiarle and Luino (1998)^{[citation needed]} estimated a peak discharge of 750 m³/s for a section located in the middle stretch of the main channel. At the same cross section, the maximum foreseeable water discharge (by HEC-1), was 19 m³/s, a value about 40 times lower than that calculated for the debris flow that occurred.

Earth flow[link]

A rock slide in Guerrero, Mexico

Earthflows are downslope, viscous flows of saturated, fine-grained materials, which move at any speed from slow to fast. Typically, they can move at speeds from 0.17 to 20 km/h. Though these are a lot like mudflows, overall they are slower moving and are covered with solid material carried along by flow from within. They are different from fluid flows in that they are more rapid. Clay, fine sand and silt, and fine-grained, pyroclastic material are all susceptible to earthflows. The velocity of the earthflow is all dependent on how much water content is in the flow itself: if there is more water content in the flow, the higher the velocity will be.

These flows usually begin when the pore pressures in a fine-grained mass increase until enough of the weight of the material is supported by pore water to significantly decrease the internal shearing strength of the material. This thereby creates a bulging lobe which advances with a slow, rolling motion. As these lobes spread out, drainage of the mass increases and the margins dry out, thereby lowering the overall velocity of the flow. This process causes the flow to thicken. The bulbous variety of earthflows are not that spectacular, but they are much more common than their rapid counterparts. They develop a sag at their heads and are usually derived from the slumping at the source.

Earthflows occur much more during periods of high precipitation, which saturates the ground and adds water to the slope content. Fissures develop during the movement of clay-like material creates the intrusion of water into the earthflows. Water then increases the pore-water pressure and reduces the shearing strength of the material.^[2]

Debris avalanche[link]

Goodell Creek Debris Avalanche, Washington

A debris avalanche is a type of slide characterized by the chaotic movement of rocks soil and debris mixed with water or ice (or both). They are usually triggered by the saturation of thickly vegetated slopes which results in an incoherent mixture of broken timber, smaller vegetation and other debris.^[2] Debris avalanches differ from debris slides because their movement is much more rapid. This is usually a result of lower cohesion or higher water content and commonly steeper slopes.

Steep coastal cliffs can be caused by catastrophic debris avalanches. These have been common on the submerged flanks of ocean island volcanos such as the Hawaiian Islands and the Cape Verde Islands.^[3]

Movement Debris slides generally start with big rocks that start at the top of the slide and begin to break apart as they slide towards the bottom. This is much slower than a debris avalanche. Debris avalanches are very fast and the entire mass seems to liquefy as it slides down the slope. This is caused by a combination of saturated material, and steep slopes. As the debris moves down the slope it generally follows stream channels leaving a v-shaped scar as it moves down the hill. This differs from the more U-shaped scar of a slump. Debris avalanches can also travel well past the foot of the slope due to their tremendous speed.^[4]

Blockade of Hunza river

Sturzstrom[link]

A sturzstrom is a rare, poorly understood type of landslide, typically with a long run-out. Often very large, these slides are unusually mobile, flowing very far over a low angle, flat, or even slightly uphill terrain.

Shallow landslide[link]

Hotel Limone at the Lake Garda. Part of a hill of Devonian shale was removed to make the road, forming a dip-slope. The upper block detached along a bedding plane and is sliding down the hill, forming a jumbled pile of rock at the toe of the slide.

Landslide in which the sliding surface is located within the soil mantle or weathered bedrock (typically to a depth from few decimetres to some metres). They usually include debris slides, debris flow, and failures of road cut-slopes. Landslides occurring as single large blocks of rock moving slowly down slope are sometimes called block glides.

Shallow landslides can often happen in areas that have slopes with high permeable soils on top of low permeable bottom soils. The low permeable, bottom soils trap the water in the shallower, high permeable soils creating high water pressure in the top soils. As the top soils are filled with water and become heavy, slopes can become very unstable and slide over the low permeable bottom soils. Say there is a slope with silt and sand as its top soil and bedrock as its bottom soil. During an intense rainstorm, the bedrock will keep the rain trapped in the top soils of silt and sand. As the topsoil becomes saturated and heavy, it can start to slide over the bedrock and become a shallow landslide. R. H. Campbell did a study on shallow landslides on Santa Cruz Island California. He notes that if permeability decreases with depth, a perched water table may develop in soils at intense precipitation. When pore water pressures are sufficient to reduce effective normal stress to a critical level, failure occurs.^[5]

Deep-seated landslide[link]

Landslide of soil and regolith in Pakistan

Landslides in which the sliding surface is mostly deeply located below the maximum rooting depth of trees (typically to depths greater than ten meters). Deep-seated landslides usually involve deep regolith, weathered rock, and/or bedrock and include large slope failure associated with translational, rotational, or complex movement. These typically move slowly, only several meters per year, but occasionally move faster. They tend to be larger than shallow landslides and form along a plane of weakness such as a fault or bedding plane. They can be visually identified by concave scarps at the top and steep areas at the toe.^[6]

Causing tsunamis[link]

Landslides that occur undersea, or have impact into water, can generate tsunamis. Massive landslides can also generate megatsunamis, which are usually hundreds of meters high. In 1958, one such tsunami occurred in Lituya Bay in Alaska.

Related phenomena[link]

• An avalanche, similar in mechanism to a landslide, involves a large amount of ice, snow and rock falling quickly down the side of a mountain.
• A pyroclastic flow is caused by a collapsing cloud of hot ash, gas and rocks from a volcanic explosion that moves rapidly down an erupting volcano.

Landslide prediction mapping[link]

Global landslide risks

Ferguson Slide on California State Route 140 in June 2006

Landslide hazard analysis and mapping can provide useful information for catastrophic loss reduction, and assist in the development of guidelines for sustainable land use planning. The analysis is used to identify the factors that are related to landslides, estimate the relative contribution of factors causing slope failures, establish a relation between the factors and landslides, and to predict the landslide hazard in the future based on such a relationship.^[7] The factors that have been used for landslide hazard analysis can usually be grouped into geomorphology, geology, land use/land cover, and hydrogeology. Since many factors are considered for landslide hazard mapping, GIS is an appropriate tool because it has functions of collection, storage, manipulation, display, and analysis of large amounts of spatially referenced data which can be handled fast and effectively.^[8] Remote sensing techniques are also highly employed for landslide hazard assessment and analysis. Before and after aerial photographs and satellite imagery are used to gather landslide characteristics, like distribution and classification, and factors like slope, lithology, and land use/land cover to be used to help predict future events.^[9] Before and after imagery also helps to reveal how the landscape changed after an event, what may have triggered the landslide, and shows the process of regeneration and recovery.^[10]

Using satellite imagery in combination with GIS and on-the-ground studies, it is possible to generate maps of likely occurrences of future landslides.^[11] Such maps should show the locations of previous events as well as clearly indicate the probable locations of future events. In general, to predict landslides, one must assume that their occurrence is determined by certain geologic factors, and that future landslides will occur under the same conditions as past events.^[12] Therefore, it is necessary to establish a relationship between the geomorphologic conditions in which the past events took place and the expected future conditions.^[13]

Natural disasters are a dramatic example of people living in conflict with the environment. Early predictions and warnings are essential for the reduction of property damage and loss of life. Because landslides occur frequently and can represent some of the most destructive forces on earth, it is imperative to have a good understanding as to what causes them and how people can either help prevent them from occurring or simply avoid them when they do occur. Sustainable land management and development is an essential key to reducing the negative impacts felt by landslides.

GIS offers a superior method for landslide analysis because it allows one to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, and display large amounts of data quickly and effectively. Because so many variables are involved, it is important to be able to overlay the many layers of data to develop a full and accurate portrayal of what is taking place on the Earth's surface. Researchers need to know which variables are the most important factors that trigger landslides in any given location. Using GIS, extremely detailed maps can be generated to show past events and likely future events which have the potential to save lives, property, and money.

Prehistoric landslides[link]

Rhine cutting through Flims Rockslide debris, Switzerland

• Landslide which moved Heart Mountain to its current location, the largest ever discovered on land. In the 48 million years since the slide occurred, erosion has removed most of the portion of the slide.
• Flims Rockslide, ca. 13,000 km³ (3,100 cu mi), Switzerland, some 10000 years ago in post-glacial Pleistocene/Holocene, the largest so far described in the alps and on dry land that can be easily identified in a modestly eroded state.^[14]
• The landslide around 200BC which formed Lake Waikaremoana on the North Island of New Zealand, where a large block of the Ngamoko Range slid and dammed a gorge of Waikaretaheke River, forming a natural reservoir up to 248 metres deep.
• Cheekye Fan, British Columbia, Canada, ca. 25 km² (9.7 sq mi), Late Pleistocene in age.

Prehistoric submarine landslides[link]

• The Storegga Slide, Norway, ca. 3,500 km³ (840 cu mi), ca. 8,000 years ago, a catastrophic impact on the contemporary coastal Mesolithic population
• The Agulhas slide, ca. 20,000 km³ (4,800 cu mi), off South Africa, post-Pliocene in age, the largest so far described^[15]
• The Ruatoria Debris Avalanche, off North Island New Zealand, ca. 3,000 km³ in volume, 170,000 years ago.^[16]
• Catastrophic debris avalanches have been common on the submerged flanks of ocean island volcanos such as the Hawaiian Islands and the Cape Verde Islands.^[17]

Historical landslides[link]

• The Goldau on September 2, 1806
• The Cap Diamant Québec rockslide on September 19, 1889
• Frank Slide, Turtle Mountain, Alberta, Canada, on 29 April 1903
• Khait landslide, Khait, Tajikistan, Soviet Union, on July 10, 1949
• Monte Toc landslide (260 millions cubic metres) falling into the Vajont Dam basin in Italy, causing a megatsunami and about 2000 deaths, on October 9, 1963
• Hope Slide landslide (46 million cubic metres) near Hope, British Columbia on January 9, 1965.^[18]
• The 1966 Aberfan disaster
• Tuve landslide in Gothenburg, Sweden on November 30, 1977.
• The 1979 Abbotsford landslip, Dunedin, New Zealand on August 8, 1979.
• Val Pola landslide during Valtellina disaster (1987) Italy
• Thredbo landslide, Australia on 30 July 1997, destroyed hostel.
• Vargas mudslides, due to heavy rains in Vargas State, Venezuela, on December, 1999, causing tens of thousands of deaths.
• 2007 Chittagong mudslide, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on June 11, 2007.
• 2008 Cairo landslide on September 6, 2008.
• The 2010 Uganda landslide caused over 100 deaths following heavy rain in Bududa region.
• Zhouqu county mudslide in Gansu, China on August 8, 2010.^[19]
• Devil's Slide, an ongoing landslide in San Mateo County, California
• 2011 Rio de Janeiro landslide in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 11, 2011, causing 610 deaths.^[20]

Extraterrestrial landslides[link]

Before and after radar images of a landslide on Venus. In the center of the image on the right, the new landslide, a bright, flow-like area, can be seen extending to the left of a bright fracture. 1990 image.

Landslide in progress on Mars, 2008-02-19

Evidence of past landslides has been detected on many bodies in the solar system, but since most observations are made by probes that only observe for a limited time and most bodies in the solar system appear to be geologically inactive not many landslides are known to have happened in recent times. Both Venus and Mars have been subject to long-term mapping by orbiting satellites, and examples of landslides have been observed on both.

See also[link]

An infra-red view of a landslide in the Valley of the Geysers

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Landslide

• NHAZCA – Natural Hazard Control and Assessment
• United States Geological Survey site
• British Geological Survey landslides site
• British Geological Survey National Landslide Database
• European Soil Portal, Landslides
• British Columbia government landslide information
• Slide!, a program on B.C.'s Knowledge Network, with video clips
• Pictures of Slope Failure
• JTC1 Joint International Technical Committee on Landslides and Engineered Slopes
• Landslide blog written by Professor David Petley, Wilson Professor, Department of Geography, Durham University, UK

Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks live in 2009.
Background information
Birth name	Stephanie Lynn Nicks
Born	(1948-05-26) May 26, 1948 (age 64)
Origin	Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Genres	Pop, rock, pop rock, soft rock, country rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar, percussion
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Modern, Atlantic, Reprise
Associated acts	Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham Nicks, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, David A. Stewart, Sheryl Crow
Website	stevienicks.net

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.^[1] 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 US Top 10 singles (including Nicks's song "Dreams", which was the band's first and only US number one) and remained at No.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, making it the eighth best-selling album of all time.

Nicks began her solo career in 1981 with the 8 million selling album Bella Donna, and she has produced six more solo studio albums to date. Her seventh solo studio album entitled In Your Dreams, and her first in ten years, was produced largely by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame and Glen Ballard and was released on May 3, 2011. After the release of her first solo album, Rolling Stone deemed her "The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll".^[2] Having overcome cocaine addiction, and dependency on tranquilizers, Nicks remains a popular solo performer. As a solo artist, she has garnered eight Grammy Award nominations^[3] and, with Fleetwood Mac, a further five, of which one was the 1978 award for Album of the Year for Rumours, which they won. As a member of Fleetwood Mac, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Nicks is known for her distintive voice, mystical visual style and symbolic lyrics as well as the famous (sometimes tense) chemistry between herself and former boyfriend and guitarist/vocalist in Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham.^[4]

History[link]

Early life[link]

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.^[5][6] As a young child, Nicks had difficulty pronouncing her given name Stephanie, instead pronouncing it "tee-dee", which became the nickname "Stevie".^[7] 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, California.

Nicks first met her future musical and romantic partner Lindsey Buckingham during her senior year at Menlo Atherton High School.^[8] She was attending a high school party and saw Buckingham playing "California Dreamin'", and joined in with the harmony.^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[11]

[edit] 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.^[12] They secured a deal with Polydor Records. Polydor used tracks from the demo tapes to release the album^{[clarification needed]} 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.^[13] Nicks says that she first used cocaine during this time.^[14]

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.^[15]

[edit] 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's unique onstage look, with costumes that featured flowing skirts, shawls and platform boots.^[16]

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.^[17][18] 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.^[19][20]

Among Nicks's contributions to Rumours was "Dreams", which became the band's only Billboard Hot 100 No.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 four-disc Fleetwood Mac retrospective 25 Years – The Chain in 1992. The song, the rights to which are owned by Nicks's mother Barbara, has always been very special to Nicks, and she was devastated when told about the omission after the decision had been made.^[21]

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.^[22][23] The pair mutually decided to end the affair, because, according to Nicks, "we knew it would be the end of Fleetwood Mac."^[24] Soon after, in October 1978, Mick Fleetwood left his wife for Nicks's best friend Sara Recor.^[25] 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 virtually every track of Not Shy, recorded by musician Walter Egan, a friend of both Nicks and Buckingham. One track, "Magnet & Steel", prominently featured Nicks on back-up vocals and became a hit single on Billboard's "Hot 100" chart during the summer of 1978. Lindsey Buckingham also played guitar and sang back-up on some of the tracks recorded for that album.

[edit] 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.^[26] 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's 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's back-up singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry, who have contributed vocals to all of Nicks's solo albums since then.

The day that Bella Donna reached No.1 on the Billboard 200, Nicks's 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.^[27]

In November, 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 tour in 1982, Nicks prepared to record her second solo album.

[edit] 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 No.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 US 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 album, and opted to record a new batch of songs in 1985.^[28] Rock a Little, as it was re-titled, was released November 18, 1985 to commercial success, supported by three hit singles.

Nicks toured for Rock A Little in 1986. The tour ended on October 10, 1986.

The tour marked a turning point in Nicks's 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.^{[citation needed]} In 1986, a plastic surgeon warned her of severe health problems if she did not stop using cocaine.^[29] At the end of the Australian tour, Nicks checked herself into the Betty Ford Center to overcome her cocaine addiction.^[30] Later that year, a doctor prescribed the sedative Klonopin to help her avoid a cocaine relapse.^[31]

[edit] Tango in the Night, The Other Side of the Mirror, and Behind The Mask : 1987–1990

In 1985, Fleetwood Mac began work on Tango in the Night, which was released in April 1987.

Creative differences and unresolved personal issues within the band led Buckingham to quit the group right before their world tour. According to bassist John McVie, a "physically ugly" confrontation between Nicks and Buckingham ensued when Nicks angrily challenged Buckingham's decision to leave the band.^[32]

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's 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.^[33]

Nicks toured the US 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 dependency on the tranquillizer Klonopin,^[34] 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 US. In the UK, however, the album entered the chart at No.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".^[35] 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.^[36]

[edit] 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 US 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.^[37] Nicks, who is 5 feet 1 inch (1.55 m), had gained weight, peaking at 175 lb (79.4 kg).

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.^[38]

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.^[39]

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.^[40]

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.

[edit] 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. She also went on a diet and started jogging to lose weight before the tour as well.

The live CD release, The Dance, was released to commercial and critical acclaim, earning the group several Grammy nominations. 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.

[edit] 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's 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's bout with acute bronchitis. Shows were also canceled because of the September 11 attacks in the U.S.

[edit] Say You Will: 2001–2004

during Fleetwood Mac's 2003 tour.

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.^[41] 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.

[edit] Crystal Visions and Soundstage Sessions: 2007–2009

On March 27, 2007, Reprise Records released Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in the US. The album debuted at No.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's 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 and made no impact on the charts. Reprise Records released "Stand Back" (issued with club mixes) on May 29, 2007. "Stand Back", which peaked at No.5 on the pop singles chart in 1983, reached No.2 on the "Billboard Club Chart". Nicks previously reached No.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 No.10 peaking at No.4 the following week. It also debuted on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales Chart at No.3 peaking at #1.

On March 31, 2009, Stevie released the album, The Soundstage Sessions, via Reprise Records. The album debuted at No.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 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.

[edit] In Your Dreams: 2010–present

After completing the Unleashed Tour with Fleetwood Mac, Stevie began work on her first solo album in a decade with David A. Stewart (musician and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics), who announced this via his Twitter in February 2010. During 2010, Stewart used Twitter to confirm various facts about the album; 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's lead guitarist for most of her solo career, featuring prominently on all of her albums to date. It was also later confirmed that Lindsey Buckingham would appear on the track "Soldiers Angel".

Nicks performed in a series of shows in August 2010 ("it's not really a tour," she said). They did not contain any of her new music, because she does not want it to end up on YouTube. The Santa Barbara show benefited a little girl she knows in Los Angeles with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer.

On January 13, 2011, Reprise announced Stevie's upcoming album In Your Dreams would be released on May 3, and the lead single, "Secret Love", would be released on February 8. Reprise provided a free download of the single to fans who pre-ordered the album via certain websites. Nicks originally wrote "Secret Love" in 1976 and recorded a demo of it for Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album, Rumours. It did not make the final cut for the album. The demo version had been circulating among fans for many years prior to its inclusion on In Your Dreams. Nicks promoted the song with a video directed by Dave Stewart. Nicks' goddaughter Kelly appears in the video wearing a vintage dress that Nicks wore on stage in 1976. According to Nicks, Kelly portrays the young Stevie Nicks blending with the soul of Nicks' 62 year-old self. On the US Billboard Charts, "Secret Love" was a modest hit on the Adult Contemporary Singles Chart, peaking at #20, and at #25 on the Triple A Singles Chart.

In Your Dreams received overwhelmingly positive reviews, rivaling that of Stevie's 1981 debut. Rolling Stone commented "It's not just her first album in 10 years, it's her finest collection of songs since the Eighties", which mirrored the reception from most other critics and music industry members. The album debuted at #6 on the Billboard 200 giving Nicks her fifth top ten album on that chart,^[42] with 52,000 copies sold in the first week. Elsewhere, the album has made numerous Top 50 debuts, including #24 on the Australian ARIA Chart and #22 in Canada.

The same day that Nicks' new album was released, Fox Network broadcast the Glee episode (Season 2, Episode 19) "Rumours" that featured six songs from Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album, including Nicks' song "Dreams" (the band's only #1 song on the US charts).^[43] The show sparked renewed interest in the band and its most commercially successful album, and Rumours reentered the Billboard 200 chart at #11, the same week that In Your Dreams debuted at #6. (Nicks was quoted by Billboard saying that her new album was "my own little Rumours."^[44]).^[45]

Nicks contributed a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" for the tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, which was released in September 2011.^[46][47]

On March 29, 2012, Nicks made a guest appearance as herself on the NBC sitcom Up All Night. The show featured an excerpt of the 1981 track "Sleeping Angel", as well as new duets with both Maya Rudolph and Christina Applegate of "Whenever I Call You Friend" and "Edge of Seventeen". Rudolph and Applegate have said they are fans of the singer.^{[citation needed]}

Tours[link]

Nicks on the 2008 leg of her "Crystal Visions" tour.

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.

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.^[48] She also appeared in concert with Tom Petty in June near Manassas, Virginia and at the Bonnaroo Music Festival that same month.^[49]

In 2006, Nicks 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.^[50]

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 2008, Nicks embarked on the Soundstage Sessions Tour in the U.S.

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.

Rod Stewart and Nicks co-headlined The Heart & Soul Tour. Launched March 20, 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the tour united the two singers for a series of arena concerts throughout North America – with performances in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Montreal and more.^{[51][dated info]}

A solo tour for In Your Dreams began on August 9, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. Nicks announced on her July 27 appearance on America's Got Talent that Michael Grimm would be going on tour with her. She then continued on an Australian and New Zealand leg of the tour accompanied by Dave Stewart until December 2011.

In recent weeks, a series of summer 2012 dates have been announced as Stevie will reunite with Rod Stewart for another leg of the very successful Heart & Soul Tour. Dates announced are currently for arena concerts in US cities only, but further announcements are being released to the internet daily.

Dates are also now being advertised for a continuation of the 'In Your Dreams' tour, kicking off in June 2012 and calling at several US cities.

Solo tours[link]

• Buckingham Nicks Tour: 1974–1975 (with Lindsey Buckingham)
• White Winged Dove (Bella Donna) Tour: 1981
• The Wild Heart Tour: 1983 (with Joe Walsh)
• Rock A Little Tour: 1986
• The Other Side of the Mirror Tour: 1989
• Whole Lotta Trouble (Timespace) Tour: 1991
• Street Angel Tour: 1994
• Enchanted Tour: 1998
• Holiday Millennium Tour: 1999–2000
• Trouble In Shangri-La Tour: 2001 (on select dates with Sheryl Crow)
• Two Voices Tour: 2005 (with Don Henley)
• Gold Dust Tour: 2005–2006 (with Vanessa Carlton)
• Crystal Visions Tour: 2007–2008
• Soundstage Sessions Tour: 2008 (with Chris Isaak)
• Heart & Soul Tour (with Rod Stewart): 2011, 2012
• In Your Dreams Tour: 2011, 2012

Touring band (2011)[link]

• Sharon Celani – Backing vocals (1981–present)
• Waddy Wachtel – Lead guitarist, Musical director (1981–1986, 2001–present)
• Lori Nicks – Backing vocals (1981–1989, 1996, 2007–present)
• Carlos Rios – Rhythm guitar (1988–present)
• Al Ortiz – Bass guitar (2001–present)
• Lenny Castro – Percussionist ( 1994–2001, 2007-present)
• Jimmy Paxson – Drums (2005–present)
• Darrell Smith – Keyboardist (2005–present)
• Ricky Peterson – Keyboardist (2007–present)

"Stevie Nicks' Band of Soldiers" charity work[link]

Nicks has started a charity foundation entitled "Stevie Nicks' Band of Soldiers" which is used for the benefit of wounded military personnel.^[52]

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:^[53]

"I call it a soldiers' iPod. It has all the crazy stuff that I listen to, and my collections I've been making since the '70s for going on the road, when I'm sick...Or the couple of times in my life that I have really been down, music is what always dances me out of bed." - Stevie Nicks. The Arizona Republic

She now regularly delivers these tokens of her appreciation, bringing her closest friends along to share the experience:^[53]

"So, as Mick [Fleetwood] and I went from room to room delivering their tiny iPod, they told us their stories. Mick became his tall, loving, father figure, English self, taking in every word they said, remaining calm (at least on the outside) inspiring them. We floated from room to room down thru the halls of the 2 hospitals over a three-day period. We gave out all our iPods. Right before I left for D.C., Stephen Tyler and Joe Perry dug into their pockets and came up with $10,000 for me. In my eyes they went from the coolest rock stars to generous great men; as my press agent Liz Rosenberg said, every returning wounded soldier should be given an iPod. It will be an integral part of their recovery." - Stevie Nicks^[53]

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.^[54]

Influence[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2011)

Many celebrities - among them Courtney Love, Michelle Branch, Belinda Carlisle, the Dixie Chicks, Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow, Nadia Ali, Florence Welch, Taylor Swift, Laura Branigan, Sarah McLachlan, Kelly Clarkson, Vanessa Carlton, Georgi Cussick, Tori Amos, Michelle Hotaling, Jennifer Hanson, Ruston Taylor, and Delta Goodrem - have 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 No.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 US 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 No.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 No.1 penned song, "Dreams". The Deep Dish version went on to reach No.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's 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.^[55]

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."^[56]

On February 4, 2012 (the 35th anniversary of the release of Rumours), the group Mirabelle released Crystal Revisions, a tribute album consisting of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks covers.^[57]

Personal life[link]

During the Rumours tour, Nicks had a relationship with singer/songwriter Don Henley of the Eagles. Nicks ended her relationship with Henley at the beginning of the Tusk tour in 1979.

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."^[27][58]

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, 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.^[59]

Beginning in 2007, reports surfaced concerning Lindsay Lohan's interest in buying the rights to Nicks's 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."^[60] She has since cleared up her comments and praised Lohan's talents.^[61]

Image[link]

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's 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 5 feet 1 inch (1.55 m), Nicks has stated she felt a little ridiculous standing next to the much taller Mick Fleetwood.^[62] For this reason she developed a penchant for 6-inch (15 cm) platform boots. "Even when platforms went completely out of style, I kept wearing them because I didn't want to go back to being 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) in heels", she told Allure magazine in 1995.^[63] Over the years, Nicks has developed a style which she calls her "uniform",^[64] 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's 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's 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.^[65] Another important part of Nicks's 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's 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^[when?] 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 does not 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[link]

Stevie Nicks is known for her use of the Sennheiser MD-441-U5 microphone.^[66] It was a frequent sight in Nicks's early tours. Also synonymous with Nicks's 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.^[67]

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 Buckingham or McVie. Like her microphone, her tambourine usually features scarves and/or streamers. Nicks's trademark tambourine since the early 1980s is in the shape of a black half-moon. The tambourine is sometimes silenced using tape. She has spoken of being embarrassed about handing President Bill Clinton a silenced tambourine when he joined Fleetwood Mac on stage.

Rumours of witchcraft[link]

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.^[68] Nicks's 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[link]

Solo[link]

Studio albums[link]

• 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[link]

• The Soundstage Sessions (2009)

Compilations[link]

• 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[link]

• Stevie Nicks: Live in Concert (VHS) (1984)
• I Can't Wait: The Music Video Collection (VHS) (1986)
• Live at Red Rocks (VHS) (1986)
• Crystal Visions - The Very Best of Stevie Nicks (Deluxe Edition with DVD) (2007)
• Soundstage: Stevie Nicks Live (Sears-exclusive Blu-Ray) (2008) (later released on DVD as Live in Chicago in 2009)

[edit] As Buckingham Nicks

• Buckingham Nicks (1973)

With Fleetwood Mac[link]

• 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)

Awards & nominations[link]

Grammy Awards[link]

Solo:
Stevie has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards as a solo artist, holding the record for most nominations for Best Female Rock Vocal without a win.

With Fleetwood Mac:
Stevie has been nominated for nine competitive Grammy Awards as a member of Fleetwood Mac, winning the 1978 Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Rumours, and received the 2003 Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

See also[link]

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart

References[link]