The one singer Stevie Nicks called her “kindred spirit”
In the 1970s, to become a well-known name in rock, you had to possess a considerable amount of talent and charisma. Just look at Stevie Nicks.
Nicks has always had enough talent to make it on her own. It might have taken a lot of patience, luck, and good timing to get her there, but her fate was sealed the moment she began putting pen to paper. On top of that, she’s always had the charm and warmth to sustain her own spotlight, and the confidence and mannerisms on-stage to occupy the role of the frontwoman, even when such a position wasn’t really an established one.
Let’s be honest, getting up in front of people never came easy to her. Even now, Nicks admits she still gets that sinking feeling, wondering if she’s really earned all the praise. But she cracked on anyway, held her own, and ended up right where she belonged. That sheer grit, pushing past the doubt and carrying on like she had it all figured out, is exactly what got her there.
People usually associate such characteristics with male frontmen. Just think about it: some of the biggest names in rock are the same kinds of cool and confident characters, from Mick Jagger to Robert Plant. With Plant, especially, the allure came from the fact that the words he was singing also had a connection to mythological themes, giving the music its unique place among other rock bands.
These explorations are also shared by Nicks, especially in her own songwriting, which often hinged on otherworldly and mystical imagery to enhance emotions of love, heartache, betrayal, and loss. In ‘Silver Springs’, for instance, Nicks toys with the idea of a former lover putting a spell on her betrayer for all time, and in ‘Rhiannon’, she draws from the story of a Welsh witch to bring her fable on female empowerment to life.
Countless others hold the same appeal, from ‘Gold Dust Woman’ to ‘Sisters of the Moon’. Plant took a similar approach, often citing old, folklorish tales in his writing as well as referencing some of the literary greats of all time, like JRR Tolkien. In ‘Ramble On’, for instance, Plant sings, “Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor / I met a girl so fair / But Gollum and the evil one / Crept up and slipped away with her”.
Both writers might approach these topics from different perspectives, or sit at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their own experiences, but there were distinctive similarities in terms of mystical appeal and how their extensive world-building drew you in. Nicks even once described the pair of them as “kindred spirits” because their approaches and mindsets were so similar.
In her biography Gold Dust Woman, she recalled Plant once watching her perform a cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock and Roll’ in 2006 at the Montreux Music Festival, and how he’d congratulated her afterwards for doing such a great job. “That meant the world to me,” she wrote. “[It was] one of the great rock-and-roll moments of my life. I think Robert Plant and I are kindred spirits. I think we are both connected to the mystical side of things, but on different sides of the world.”
Elsewhere, Nicks also acknowledged how difficult it was standing apart from male frontmen like Plant, but how she managed anyway due to a lesson her mother taught her. “[My mother always wanted me] to have my independence,” she told Huffpost. “I think that’s important when talking to kids, especially women. Assert your independence. Christine and I knew that we would never be treated like second-class citizens when standing in a room with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.”
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