"If you have stage fright, it never goes away. But then I wonder: is the key to that magical performance because of the fear?"
One of the greatest things about living in such a musically-driven culture is focusing on (more like obsessing over) iconic artists that shape you as a person with their raw words, pure talent and just overall coolness. There is no denying the love the whole world has for Stevie Nicks; just her name radiates the pure Fleetwood Mac gypsy princess that she is, and let’s face it we all wish we could be.
Here are six reasons, of many, why Stevie Nicks is ultimate life goals.
1. Her voice? Divine.
Before we go any further, can we just take a minute to focus on Stevie’s incredible vocal talent? You have to admit that her voice in the live version of “Landslide” has made you cry on multiple occasions (or every occasion). Back in the day during the band’s prime, Mick Fleetwood, co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, said that her live vocals during her self-written hit “Rhiannon,” cleverly written about a witch she read about once, were so impassioned that the live song “was like an exorcism.” Oh how I wish I could have seen that live.
2. She can write a song about anything, and the song will be genius.
Picture this. You’re driving down the freeway. You see a billion road signs pass by, but as you look up at this one sign and see two words that stand out to you…You do nothing. But Stevie didn’t — when she encountered the sign for Silver Springs, Maryland, she wrote a song about it. Just because she loved the name. And she related it to the guy she used to love, saying “you could be my silver spring…but time cast a spell on you, you won’t forget me.” Take that, male population. “Edge of Seventeen” was written when she heard someone mumble “age of seventeen,” and thought she said “edge.” Besides that, how many Fleetwood lyrics can you name that have made a mark on your soul? "Rhiannon?" Yeah, Stevie wrote that song. In ten minutes. "Landslide?" Five minutes.
“It was my 16th birthday — my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do — write songs and sing them to people.”
3. She lives life simply. It is what it is.
Stevie Nicks sees life as it comes, yet she has so much insight. She was a waitress before she became famous; her family moved from place to place, and she isn’t simply in the music business for the money or the fame. “Singing is the love of my life,” she said, “but I was ready to give it all up because I couldn't handle people talking about how fat I was.” To much of our culture’s dismay, she thinks being sexy is keeping yourself mysterious. Yet she believes in herself, and has more confidence than any singer I’ve ever seen. Conformity? No way. Cocaine addiction? “I got over it.” Breakup? “Right now I’m not involved with anybody. But I hope by 75 I will be again.”
4. She is loyal.
Sorry, Tom Petty and all your Heartbreakers, but you better get used to getting your heart broken. Tom is a good friend of Stevie’s and has asked her to join his band several times, but Stevie is just too loyal to the one that got her where she is today. Don’t worry Fleetwood fans, till death do us part from your favorite lead singer.
5. She is a gypsy. For real.
The song “Gypsy” fully encompasses what Mick Fleetwood says “crystallizes that whole period of the early 1980s, when we were in our mid-30s and beginning to look back at our lost youth,” but I really don't think Stevie ever lost her youth. She wrote songs about freedom, never having to be tied down. Still to this day she is all about singing and performing and writing songs, even after the tumultuous drama she had been through with her band and its members.
6. She and Lindsey Buckingham have the hottest romantic tension in the entire music industry.
“He and I were about as compatible as a rat and a boa constrictor.”
In Palo Alto, California while still in the awkward stages of high school, Stevie Nicks met Lindsey Buckingham, spontaneously jumping on stage and singing alongside him for a song. The two flames formed a pretty close musical partnership over the course of their high school careers while preforming in a band together. After high school when her family moved to Chicago, Stevie stayed with Buckingham and joined the band Fritz with him, which later became prominent enough to open for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. In 1972, they released a highly underrated album together, “Buckingham-Nicks,” which one of the songs, “Frozen Love,” pretty much represents their entire relationship (and what got them into Fleetwood Mac).
"Life gave me you; the change was made
And there's no beginning over
You are not happy, but what is love?
Hate gave you me for a lover...
And if you go forward, I'll meet you there
And if you climb up through the cold freezing air
Look down below you; search out above
And cry out to life for a frozen love."
They joined Fleetwood Mac together, where they endured an on-again, off-again type of relationship. In the midst of their fights and breakups and makeups, they knew each other so well that they could push each other’s buttons and know what each other was thinking. Lindsey was the star of many of Stevie’s lyrics, cursing him and loving him all within the same song. Since their final breakup, however, Buckingham has had three children. After the birth of his first child, that is when Stevie knew it was really over.
“It’s over. It doesn’t mean the great feeling isn’t there, it must mean that … you know, we’re beauty and the beast. It means that the love is always there, but we’ll never be together, so that’s even more romantic.”
That’s a 52-year relationship that just wasn’t meant to be in this lifetime. It’s frustrating yet beautiful all at the same time. But regardless, they are and always have been each other’s inspirations, so that’s something to respect.
Regardless of what kind of music you hold in your heart, I think we can all agree that Stevie Nicks is an artist worthy of great praise.
