Stevie Nicks on what might’ve happened if she “hadn’t joined Fleetwood Mac”
A trailblazer for women in rock, a witchy style icon, and the mind behind some of the most beloved songs in music history, the cultural importance of Stevie Nicks cannot be overstated. Finding success as the frontwoman of Fleetwood Mac, she penned future all-time greats, including ‘Dreams’ and ‘Silver Springs’, infusing her words and delivery with unparalleled emotion.
Nicks became integral to the band’s innovative songwriting and subsequent mammoth success, despite Mick Fleetwood only initially recruiting her partner, Lindsey Buckingham. But long before the entanglements of Rumours were even set into motion, Nicks nearly gave up on pursuing music entirely. Uninspired and broke from waitressing, mourning the failure of a series of musical projects that preceded Fleetwood Mac, the future star almost resigned herself back to studying.
The collaborative relationship between Nicks and Buckingham began years before they were invited to join Fleetwood Mac. Meeting in San Francisco in the 1960s, the pair performed with Fritz for several years but found little success. Eventually, the band split and the couple created Buckingham Nicks, their only studio record as a duo. Despite receiving backing from Polydor, it received a similarly disappointing reception.
It was 1973 by this point, and Nicks and Buckingham were growing tired of failure. The future frontwoman waitressed to support them financially, believing it would help Buckingham creatively. “I believed that Lindsey shouldn’t have to work,” she told Uncut, “That he should just lay on the floor and practise his guitar and become more brilliant every day.
But this sacrifice began to grate on Nicks, who reached a point where she was “within weeks” of going home or returning to education. Luckily, a mammoth opportunity was just around the corner. In 1975, Buckingham accepted an invite from Mick Fleetwood to join Fleetwood Mac on one condition: Nicks would also be part of the band.
Without this offer, facilitated by her partner, Nicks has suggested that she may have given up on the industry. “If we hadn’t joined Fleetwood Mac would Lindsey and I have carried on and made it?” she wondered, “I was really tired of having no money and being a waitress. It’s very possible that I would have gone back to school and Lindsey would have gone back to San Francisco.”
Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and Nicks became a formidable force in Fleetwood Mac and an equally successful solo artist. She remains one of the best in the business and an enduring inspiration to budding frontwomen everywhere.
