Steve Nicks’ heartbreaking regret about David Bowie: “Maybe we could get together”
Stevie Nicks has lived her life to the full. The rock icon has successfully crammed more into her time on the planet than most could squeeze into a dozen lifetimes. Professionally speaking, Nicks has achieved plentiful feats that she didn’t deem possible when beginning her journey, and fulfilled her potential alongside her comrades in Fleetwood Mac.
When she joined the group in the mid-1970s, Fleetwood Mac were already an established and revered act. However, the dynamics shifted with the arrival of Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham; therefore, nothing was guaranteed regarding their future. Thankfully, Fleetwood Mac became more popular than ever, placing Nicks on a pedestal, and allowing her to rub shoulders with musical figures she considered heroes.
In many cases, Nicks became friendly with artists she admired, such as Tom Petty, who proved to be pivotal during the early stages of her solo career. The late David Bowie was another musical act that she believed had greatness running through his veins. Sadly, Nicks didn’t have the privilege of getting to know the man behind the music, which is a deep regret.
Despite the peaks of their careers overlapping, their paths didn’t intertwine. Naturally, most would assume that the two hung around in the same circles during their respective hedonistic heydays, but astonishingly, Nicks doesn’t remember meeting Bowie but greatly admired him artistically.
While she may have encountered him fleetingly, Nicks doesn’t recall such an event taking place and Bowie wasn’t a forgettable character that camouflaged in the background. In truth, it’s almost unbelievable that they never found themselves at the same glitzy showbiz party, awards ceremony, or even backstage at a festival.
The pair shared a coterie of mutual friends, but somehow that wasn’t enough to bring them together. Despite not meeting each other, Nicks knew precisely what would have been on the agenda if she did have a chance encounter with ‘The Starman’. “You know what, I don’t even know that I ever met David Bowie,” the singer told Dazed in 2020.
“Had I ever met him, I probably would have said the first thing I usually say whenever I meet somebody who is one of my heroes: ‘Maybe we could get together and work on a song or something?’ That’s usually my first line, because that’s all I really want from all these people – to be in their presence and study what they do.”
“I missed out on that,” Nicks reflected. A collaboration between the two is the material that dreams are made of for music fans, and it’s an almighty shame that the Fleetwood Mac vocalist never got to work her magic on Bowie to convince him to collaborate.
She continued: “I loved a lot of his songs. A great singer-songwriter. He was also a performance artist. He had a lot of talent and in a lot of different ways. He was a special guy. Really special. I am sorry, because you look back on your life and think, ‘Why didn’t I get on an aeroplane and go see David Bowie? Why didn’t I get on an aeroplane and go see a lot of people that I’ll never get to meet now?’”
Bowie’s death was a heartbreaking reminder that tomorrow won’t always be waiting around their corner and to make every day count. Nicks will forever live with the regret that she decided against getting on a plane to meet Bowie and initiating a conversation with him while it was still possible. While that incident isn’t relatable to us mere mortals, everybody has similar regrets of not taking opportunities when they present themselves that later haunt the mind as our head hits the pillow. Instead, it’s now left to our collective imaginations to imagine what they could have created together in the studio.
