{"id":619244,"date":"2026-05-02T12:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619244\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T12:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:56:17","slug":"the-women-who-turned-stevie-nicks-into-a-rock-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619244\/","title":{"rendered":"The women who turned Stevie Nicks into a rock star"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stevie<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Atlantic Catalog Group<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you believe in destiny, which I do, it seems like my life was pretty mapped out,\u201d Stevie Nicks<\/a> once declared in 1990, \u201cIt seems almost like there was somebody up there moving the chess players. And I was the white queen, and I just went where I was moved\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In her own, unique way, Nicks was fated to become a star. The granddaughter of a country-and-western singer, raised with an enviable collection of records to consult for inspiration, she understood the strength that could be harnessed in poetry and melody from an early age. Her individuality came naturally, too: self-assured in her pen\u2019s ability to write her stories, as well as those of other people, taking elements from literature, history and folklore and weaving them with reality. Still, as all great artists do, Nicks was constantly learning, absorbing inspiration from the powerful women, in particular, who came before her.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Nicks told Mojo the girl groups that soundtracked her childhood, naming The Shirelles and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, largely pushed in their direction by her grandfather, Aaron Jess \u2018AJ\u2019 Nicks, who would consistently bring her record singles as gifts. Her childhood love of country shifted into R&B, then rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, once she entered her teenage years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to keep up with the rock stars of the world that were men, because there weren\u2019t very many women, once,\u201d Nicks explained, speaking on Off The Record. Parsing through the male-dominated spheres of rock, however, Nicks found two pillars of hope in Janis Joplin and Grace Slick, both of whom would remain crucial to her songwriting, persona and strength, as she transitioned from her first band, Fritz (the psychedelic rock group she joined at the invitation of her then-partner, Lindsey Buckingham) to a famous musician, in Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. <\/p>\n

\u201cGrace Slick and Janis Joplin were the ones that I loved. I wanted to be like them,\u201d said Nicks. Telling Digital Journal in 2020, she admitted that she was able to \u201ctake a few things from Grace Slick<\/a>\u201c, seeing her as a beautiful force with an \u201ceffortless, massive voice\u201d. Nicks sourced a confidence from her that informed how she conducted herself onstage, and a similar origin story is heard in her frequent credits to Joplin\u2019s persona, both onstage and off, the spirited powerhouse that she was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very influenced by Janis Joplin,\u201d Nicks expressed to the Los Angeles Times in 1997, \u201cthe one time I saw Janis in person, and all the times I saw her on television with her feathers and her bell-bottomed pants and her beautiful silky blouse tops.\u201d <\/p>\n

The two women met when Fritz was offered the chance to open for Joplin, shortly before the latter\u2019s passing (the night would also see them open for Jimi Hendrix). Not only did Fritz run over their set time, prompting Joplin to yell her off the stage in a moment that Nicks later described as \u201cone of the greatest honours\u201d<\/a> of her life, but it also introduced Nicks to one of her heroes and gave her a glimpse of what she could become: a performer with an unrivalled strength and emotive quality. \u201cFrom Janis, I learned that to make it as a female musician in a man\u2019s world is gonna be tough, and you need to keep your head held high,\u201d Nicks told The Telegraph in 2011.<\/p>\n

\"Fire<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Fotopersbureau De Boer \/ Columbia<\/p>\n

Then, when prompted by Elle Magazine in 2009 to name a record that changed her life, she chose Joni Mitchell\u2019s 1974 album Court and Spark, as another woman in whom Nicks found a kindred spirit. She was at the home of Fleetwood Mac\u2019s producer, Keith Olson and she put on Mitchell\u2019s record, which had just come out, to play on his speakers. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe went away, it was just me, and I listened to this record for three days,\u201d Nicks enthused, \u201cShe was able to stuff so many words into one sentence and not have them sound crowded. She was talking about what it was like to be very famous and to be a woman living in a man\u2019s world. She had been in the world of fame much longer than me, and she had gone out with every famous rock \u2018n\u2019 roll star that there was. And she was such an amazing guitarist that they all respected her. That was unheard of. She was in the boy\u2019s club.\u201d<\/p>\n

By January of 1974, when Court and Spark was released, Nicks was somewhat in-between worlds: her and Buckingham\u2019s eponymous Buckingham Nicks album had been released the year before to little success, and Nicks proceeded to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, including working as a cleaner at Olsen\u2019s home. Surely, in a voice like Mitchell\u2019s<\/a>, Nicks heard someone who empathised with the plights of womanhood and expectation, and the strive to succeed in retaining her artistry in a world that had the odds stacked against them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe talked about what I saw coming,\u201d Nicks said, \u201cEven though Buckingham Nicks had tanked, I knew that we were going to be very famous, very rich, and it was like a great old premonition just being laid out in front of me. There is a song on it called \u2018Same Situation\u2019, and that song just would kill me when I\u2019d hear it. Because I knew it was coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a beautiful parallel, Mitchell\u2019s songwriting influenced Nicks\u2019 own when it came to the structure of her storytelling. \u201cWhen I tell people my greatest influences, I say Joni Mitchell for phrasing,\u201d Nicks told Forbes<\/a> in 2020, \u201cShe could fit 50 words in a sentence and have them sound glorious without being rushed or crushed in, so I really learned a lot from her about phrasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac, bringing with her the soon-to-be legendary stories of \u2018Rhiannon\u2019, \u2018Landslide\u2019, and more, Nicks fully stepped into her own as a rock star. And, it was alongside her compatriot in bandmate Christine McVie<\/a> that Nicks honed her power to its full potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two women became lifelong companions, and McVie became, in Nicks\u2019 words, a \u201cmentor. Big sister. Best friend\u201d. Where someone may assume that there would be competition between two women in the same band, Nicks and McVie, instead, found common ground as two brilliant musicians, coming together to elevate their talents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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