Stevie was born May 26th 1948 to wealthy parents in Phoenix Arixona. Her full name is Stephanie Lynn Nicks but her family took to calling her Stevie after the young child had trouble pronouncing her name...it came out as "TeeDee". FIve years after her birth her brother Christoher was born.
By the age of four Stevie would occasionally sing with her grandfather in the tavern that her parents owned. Eventually however they discouraged this but young Stevie would not give up her love of music.
Taking her passion into account, Stevie's parents bought her her first guitar for her 16th birthday. That night, she wrote her very first song called "I have loved and I've lost".
Stevie continued to write music through her teens and while attending high school in California she joined the band Changing Times. In her senior year, following a move by her family she met Lindsey Buckingham at Menlo-Atherton High School. She, Lindsey and several friends then formed the band Fritz who enjoyed moderate popularity on the west coast opening for such people as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Stevie found her self more inspired than ever while watching Janis perform.
After high school Stevie went on to San Jose University where she was a studying speech communication and aspired to be a teacher. Conflicting resources say she was looking in the direction of English, Music or Speech Therapy.
Eventually, due to the immense popularuty of Stevie and Lindsey, the band broke up. The two moved to L.A. to chase thier dreams and became an official couple soon after.
In 1973 the two got a record deal and recorded Buckingham-Nicks. However, due to poor sales Polydor Records dropped the label.
Having little money and no place to go Stevie and Lindsey moved in with Richard Dashut, who they had worked with on Buckingham-Nicks. Richard payed Stevie $250.00 a month for cleaning his apartement. Hardly what you would envision a rock and roll star doing. At that time Lindsey and Stevie lived as though they were married.
When Stevies parents learned of her destitute life they encouraged her to set a time limit on how long she would continue this lifestyle. Stevie gave it 6 months. If she didn't have a record deal by then she would go back to school.
Just a short while later the two recieved a life changing phone call...it was Mick Fleetwood who had stumbled upon Buckingham-Nicks and was looking for a new guitarist for his blues band FLEETWOOD MAC. Linndsey insisted that he and Stevie were a package deal and so reluctantly at first, the band accepted Stevie as well. Right after that Stevie ran out and bought every Fleetwood Mac album to see what she could bring to the band.
Stevie and Lindey were now the second couple in Fleetwood Mac. Christine and John McVie were already married.
The band had their first record done in 6 months. In 1975, the self titled album Fleetwood Mac went on to sell millions and became a chart topper mostly due to Stevie's hauting song "Rhiannon". Even though there were othe songwriters in the band it was always Stevie who would steal the shows. The magma under the crust of Fleetwood Mac began to boil...
Ater the phenomenal success of Fleetwood Mac the band returned to the studio to record their second album, Rumours. This is where things get interesting and the best rock and roll story begins.
During this time Lindsey and Stevie's relationship fails and they break up. At the same time the McVies are going through a divorce.
Lindsey, who had always helped Stevie with her songs now had the feeling of not wanting to help her anymore. Stevie, unable to be in the same room with Lindsey for very long would ofetn take off to different parts of the studio to be alone and write. It was during one of these retreats that she wrote "Dreams", a song about her and Lindsey's failing relationship. A a metter of fact, all of the band members songs at this time were emotionally charged. Lindsey wrote "Go your own way" after Stevie began to casually date soemone else. He also wrote the acoustic "Never Going Back Again" which is really a nasty song sung in a sweet voice. These performers would have to then SING and DO BACKUP vocals on these derogatory songs about themselves. The studio became a private hell for the band filled with anguish, tears, madness and drugs. Eventually, one night Christine McVie took off and wrote "Songbird" which she says was about "everything and nothing", hoping to restore some form of peace to the ailing band.
It was also during this time that a lot of he-said, she-said garbage was going on in the band about who was dating whom or sleeping with whom and so the title Rumours seemed MORE that appropriate.
Even though the band was splitting at the seams, they kicked off the Rumours tour. The stress of this only upset the band more. John McVies alcoholism and subsequent rage got worse often sending Christine seeking shelter in Stevie's hotel room. It was also on this tour that Stevie and Mick slept together and had to confess it to Lindsey who was past the point of rage. "It was just another thing", he said.
If anything good came out of the band's madness it was that Rumours went on to sell 25 million copies and became Album of the Year. Stevie's popularity increased tenfold and she started considering a solo career as many of her song never made it onto the Rumours album. Fleetwood Mac was the biggest band around and Stevie was "The girl every girl wanted to be and the girl every guy wanted to sleep with".
Amazingly, the band was able to return to the studio to record Tusk. The song "Sara" from that album became a huge hit and the band kicked off its biggest tour ever...over a year long. Although the tour was a big success the album only hit #4 on the charts and Stevie went off to create Bella Donna, her first solo album which included duets with such people as Tom Petty and Don Henley.
The Bella Donna tour was cut short however when Stevie learned that her best friens in the world, Robin, was dying. Robin was also pregnant and gave birth via C-Section shortly before her death. Stevie, wanting to take care of the baby married Robin's husband Kim but got divorced shortly thereafter. With her loyalty to Fleetwood Mac still strong, Stevie returned to the studio with them to record "Mirage" which hit number 1 in 1982. "Gypsy" hist number one as well and the band started a new tour. Lindsey and Stevie were still not getting along and it was during this tour that Lindsey mocked her on stage as she was dancing and kicked her in the shins in front of 10,000 fans.
After that, Fleetwood Mac took a five year break. During this time, Stevie recorded "Wild Heart" and "Rock a little". Following the success of those two albums, her addiction to cocaine became life-threatening. She saw a doctor who told her that her next snort of cocaine could be her LAST. She had burnt a hole through the cartilege of her nose. Scared, she checked herself into the Betty Fod clinic for a 90 day stint and came out sober and ready to start anew.
Shortly thereafter she got a call from Fleetwood Mac inviting her back to the studio to record Tango in The Night. After the album's release, Lindsey left the band and Billy Burnett and Rick Vito replaced him on the tour. Mac also released a greatest hits and Stevie began on her fourth album The Other Side of the Mirror
When Stevie returned from touring her album the band went on to produce the first ever album wothout Lindsey: "Behind The Mask. Needless to say, the album didn't do very well only selling 500,000 copies. Nevertheless, the band went on tour again.
When she returned, Stevie worked on putting together her greatest hits album, Timespace. Further problems with Fleetwood Mac drove Stevie to leave the band for good and it was then that she developed a dependency on, and abused Klonopin, a prescription drug used as an anti-anxiety. Because of the massive amounts she took, she was always tired and gained weight. Thinking it was because of her breast implants, she had them removed, but nothing helped.
In 1993, Fleetwood Mac finally came bact together to sing "Don't Stop" at Bill Clinton's Inaugural Ball. Instead of focusing on the fact that the band was back together, the media dwelled on her weight. Stevie also released her Street Angel album which didn't do well at all. Realizing that she again had a problem with addiction, she checked herself into Exodus Drug Rehab to kick the Klonopin.
After her emergence, Stevie lost weight, started eating better and was in the best shape and health of her life. She did the song "Twisted" for the movie "Twister" and generally spent a lot of time at home during the next three years just getting to know herself again.
In 1996, Lindsey began work on a solo album and called Mick to help him out. Mick, who always had wonderful dreams for Fleetwood Mac suggested that the band get back together. In May 1997, they kicked off their reunion with a private concert. Their new album The Dance went onm to be number one, selling over 5 million copies.
After The Dance tour calmed down Stevie released a solo boxed set (Enchanted) with her greatest hits, unreleased demos, B-sides and some newer songs. The album went gold and she enjoyed great success on her tour.
On May 21st of 2001, Stevie released her newest album Trouble in Shangri-La. She goes on tour this summer and although I wish her the best I hope she doesn't do anything REALLY HUGE for a while so I never have to type this much again....
INTERESTING STEVIE FACTS
-Stevie is a former 3-pack a day smoker. She only quit a few years ago.
-Stevie has been accused of being a hypochondriac.
-Stevie got breast implants but later had them removed.
