“I’m scared”: The one tour Stevie Nicks was terrified to play
Despite being one of the world’s most respected and beloved artists, Stevie Nicks’ career has often been overshadowed by worry. This concern is justified, given the turbulence that has surrounded her and Fleetwood Mac. Throughout the band’s history, tension and distress were almost constant as personal relationships crumbled and songs became emotional weapons. However, in the 2000s, this persistent anxiety escalated into outright fear when Nicks embarked on a new tour, facing the challenge of performing with a different lineup.
Unease was an atmosphere Fleetwood Mac was accustomed to. Since the opening of Nicks’ chapter in the band when she joined in 1974 alongside her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham, drama lingered. They only lasted one album as a unit before the situation descended into chaos. The two couples that made up the majority of the lineup, Nicks and Buckingham and John and Christine McVie, both split, causing the creation of Rumours to be caught in the crossfires of two messy splits.
But it didn’t get any easier after that. From then on, they were a band attempting to make music and guide major fame while also navigating the delicate politics of being a band of exes. Matters were made even worse when Nicks, in 1978, started an affair with Mick Fleetwood, dragging the one remaining member not reeling from a major heartbreak into the mess.
Then, add drug addiction on top of that cocktail of chaos. All members were prone to the gear, but Nicks especially struggled, causing even more emotional carnage during the 1980s.
By the end of the century, the band had been through it all. Nicks should have been accustomed to anxiety and to putting on a show despite all that. She should have been well-versed in putting her nerves to one side and walking onto the stage, even when she was walking out with the people who had made her nervous in the first place.
But when the offer came to tour with someone else, without Fleetwood Mac, the genuine fear crept in.
“I’m scared, that’s what I am,” she told The Guardian. Anyone would think she was talking about one of Fleetwood Mac’s reunion tours and the worry of past problems being rehashed on the road. Instead, she was discussing her 2011 tour with Rod Steesrd, among other people.
It seemed that suddenly, the chaos of Fleetwood Mac was actually quite comforting as her old band members knew her to the bone and shared in her natural nerves. “Rod’s not scared,” she said of her tourmate. But looking back at her old band, she missed the support and understanding she had there, stating, “I have fear, he has no fear. And some people – me, Mick – we get panic attacks. Christine [McVie], too. That’s why she quit.”
But in the end, she had nothing to worry about. She said of the tour, “It went great. He’s trippy, he’s charming. I’m used to English people so I’m very comfortable with the English people. They are very witty and very funny and charming. You can’t not like Rod Stewart because he’s darling.”
It seemed that even decades into her career, Nicks still sometimes needed the comfort of a band or the encouragement of other musicians to put her nerves aside and trust her talent. “I can’t play the arenas that Rod Stewart and Fleetwood Mac play,” she said, “I could not command.” But as proved by Fleetwood Mac’s ability to work through tumult and Nicks’ skill for pushing through worry and fear, it seems her best work is done outside of her comfort zone.
