(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Fri 23 January 2026 21:00, UK
In 1981, Stevie Nicks could have packed up her things and left Fleetwood Mac altogether.
Four years after the dust of Rumours had settled, with their 1979 effort Tusk hinting towards a slight decline in, Nicks bravely pivoted from the band who gave her the stardom she desired and stepped out into her own spotlight with her debut album Bella Donna, which boasted hits ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ and ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, while announcing herself as eternal rock and roll royalty.
A bright new future emerged in front of her, one devoid of the pain that was riddled within Fleetwood Mac and instead one that put her as the captain of her own destiny. Moreover, with Jimmy Iovine in charge, Nicks’ solo project offered her an opportunity to work with legends outside of her own band, giving her a further taste of what awaited her outside the borders of Fleetwood Mac.
“We were like Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills and Nash, living in this great house and making music,” Nicks remembers. “It was one of those real rock ’n’ roll experiences that you can never forget.”
The result was not only an artistic success for Nicks, but a commercial one also. The record reached number one on the US Billboard 100, just a few weeks after its release, before continuing to climb the record books and hitting platinum status in under three months. Eventually, the record hit quadruple-platinum for shipping four million copies, which drastically superseded the performance of Tusk.
Subsequently, Nicks earned herself a ticket off the emotional rollercoaster that she endured in the 1970s and provided herself with an opportunity to move on and leave Fleetwood Mac in the dust. But Nicks had an almost Stockholm syndrome-like relationship with the band – maybe not Lindsey Buckingham, but the remaining three members to whom the band meant everything. Against all better judgment, there was always something within Nicks’ subconscious that left her indebted to the band.
So after a whirlwind solo experience, Nicks returned to the band, with Iovine – her now boyfriend – in tow, to record their 1982 record Mirage. Nicks remembered, “I woke up three days later, in France, with no ice, no air-conditioning, in this stupid castle, and I’m thinking: ‘What just happened? Did I dream the entirety of that record?’”
Immediately, she found herself within the sort of emotional toxicity that she had freed herself from, and largely at the hands of Buckingham. She continued, “And Lindsey was not in a very good humour because I’d just made this solo record and I’ve brought my new producer boyfriend with me. They almost got in a fight. Jimmy was meant to be there for ten days but he left the next morning, he was so pissed off.”
She continued on for another decade under that rule, right up until 1990, when she officially left the band for the first time. At that point, she had already recorded another three solo albums and had set the wheels in motion to enjoy a career that centred around just her, and nobody else.
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