Stevie Nicks on why Harry Styles is the musical “son I never had”
There usually tends to be an aura surrounding any massive artist. Even before they have played a note of music, the way they carry themselves and interact in public has most listeners drawn before they heard an album or seen one of their videos. While Stevie Nicks has already been known as one the greatest spiritual beings to come out of classic rock, she claimed she sees some of her trademark magic passed down to the next generation of musicians.
When looking at the way that Nicks got into the industry, to begin with, it was only natural for her to rely on her cosmic muse. While she may not have been the most talented musician in the world, her way of inhabiting her songs, along with her booming voice, made her stand out when she worked alongside Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar skills.
Even though Buckingham would be the one to get the call to join Fleetwood Mac, his insistence on Nicks’ joining as well led to massive hits for the band. Despite still being known as a blues band, Nicks transformed the group into a completely different entity, getting them in touch with the sounds of folk and pop when creating songs like ‘Rhiannon’ and ‘Landslide’.
Outside of her band configuration, though, Nicks was just as likely to work her magic throughout her solo career. Off the back of her massive debut album Bella Donna, Nicks would turn into a superstar in her own right, from writing caustic rock tracks like ‘Stand Back’ to reeling things back on ballads like ‘Leather and Lace’.
Even though Nicks’s musical inclinations may have been coming from a poppier direction, another pop star was looking to inject some rock into his solo career in the late 2010s. After being known as one of the leading forces of the boy band One Direction, Harry Styles would reinvent himself in his solo career, putting out songs indebted to his favourite rock bands on his debut record.
While many fans may have accused Styles of wearing the genre like an elaborate musical costume, Nicks could see that Styles took the medium very seriously. After her induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Styles, Nicks would talk about how well Styles pulled off his genre transition, going from various processed songs to tracks with the same melodrama as artists like David Bowie on ‘Sign of the Times’.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Nicks admitted to seeing a little bit of herself in Styles, recalling, “When Harry came into our lives, I said, “Oh my God, this is the son I never had.” So I adopted him. I love Harry, and I’m so happy Harry made a rock & roll record — he could have made a pop record, and that would have been the easy way for him. But I guess he decided he wanted to be born in 1948, too — he made a record that was more like 1975.”
Styles would continue to pay tribute to the sounds of classic rock further down the line, covering Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ and taking a stab at Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ in a live setting. Even though many artists might like to use their “rock” record as an excuse to let out their angst, Nicks thinks Styles is in the business for all the right reasons.
