Stevie Nicks Had an “Emotional” Reaction to Watching Riley Keough in ‘Daisy Jones & the Six’
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1948-present
Stevie Nicks Now: Reaction to 'Daisy Jones & the Six'
Stevie Nicks said “it was very emotional” to watch Daisy Jones & the Six, the hit Amazon Prime series starring Riley Keough about a fictional 1970s rock band that’s based on a book partially inspired by Fleetwood Mac. Nicks, who said she has watched the show twice, wrote in an August 15 Instagram post: “In the beginning, it wasn’t really my story, but Riley seamlessly, soon became my story. It brought back memories that made me feel like a ghost watching my own story.” The rock star also said she wished former bandmate Christine McVie, who died in November 2022, could have seen it.
Who Is Stevie Nicks?
Musician Stevie Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, quickly becoming a sensation. The band’s members faced many personal challenges but, nevertheless, triumphed critically and commercially. Its sophomore album, Rumours, has sold more than 21 million copies and won Album of the Year at the 1978 Grammy Awards. Nicks has also enjoyed a successful solo career—despite years of struggling with addiction—with the hit album Bella Donna and popular songs “Edge of Seventeen” and “Stop Dragging My Heart Around,” with Tom Petty. The rock star is the first woman twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Stephanie Lynn Nicks
BORN: May 26, 1948
BIRTHPLACE: Phoenix, Arizona
SPOUSE: Kim Anderson (1983-1983)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Gemini
Early Life
Singer and songwriter Stephanie Lynn Nicks was born on May 26, 1948, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. Her well-known nickname, Stevie, reportedly came from her childhood pronunciation of “Stephanie” as “tee-dee.” Nicks’ mother and father, Barbara and Jess, first met at Arizona State University. They became college sweethearts, and the couple married in 1947. Barbara was a homemaker, and Jess had a career as a corporate executive.
The tight-knit Nicks clan included the future singer’s paternal grandfather, Aaron Nicks, a would-be country star. Aaron handcrafted a guitar for young Stevie and taught her well-known selections from the country music cannon. By the time she was 5 years old, Nicks was gigging with him at local gin mills. Around this time, her brother, Christopher, was born.
As Nicks’ father rose through the corporate ranks, the Nicks family skipped around Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and California. By 1963, the family landed in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and Nicks enrolled at Arcadia High School. While there, she met her best friend, Robin, and joined Changing Times, a band patterned after The Mamas and The Papas. Her tenure with the group was short-lived; the Nicks family soon moved to Palo Alto, California, where Nicks attended Menlo Atherton High School. Here, Stevie met classmate Lindsey Buckingham, a guitarist and fellow songwriter. The two shared a close bond and forged a strong musical partnership.
Relationship with Lindsey Buckingham
After high school, Nicks briefly enrolled in San Jose State College, but by 1968, she had dropped out. The Nicks family relocated once again—this time, to Chicago—but Nicks opted to stay in California. Along with Buckingham, she joined the local band, Fritz, which established a small following. The group opened for bigger acts such as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix before they disbanded in 1971.
By this time, Nicks and Buckingham were deeply romantically involved. The couple continued to collaborate and soon landed a contract with Polydor Records. In 1972, they released Buckingham-Nicks, an album that went largely unnoticed. In an effort to make ends meet, Nicks worked alternately as a maid, a dental assistant, and a waiter.
Concurrently, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie of the rock group Fleetwood Mac struggled with band tensions and lineup changes. In 1974, the group started seeking out a new recording facility and arranged a visit to Sound City Studio in the San Fernando Valley—the same studio where Stevie and Buckingham recorded their album. As producer Keith Olsen guided Fleetwood Mac through the facility, he showcased the studio’s sound capabilities by playing the Buckingham-Nicks track “Frozen Love.” The band was taken with Buckingham’s guitar sensibilities.
Fleetwood Mac
A few weeks later, Fleetwood Mac’s then-guitarist Bob Welch quit the band. In need of a guitarist, Fleetwood remembered Buckingham’s track and arranged a meeting with the musician. The group asked Buckingham to join the band, but he refused to collaborate unless Nicks was part of the deal. Fleetwood agreed, and in 1975, Nicks and Buckingham signed on to Fleetwood Mac.
The newly forged band quickly recorded an eponymous collection that sold 500,000 copies by December 1975 and went on to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart the next fall. Nicks’ tracks—especially the mystical “Rhiannon” and the romantic ballad “Landslide”—were smash hits and transformed the singer into a sensation. Subsequent touring efforts showed audiences Nicks’ hallmark flowing outfits and whirling onstage dances.
In 1976, the band started recording their sophomore effort, but their personal lives were in total disarray. The rigors of touring had strained Nicks’ voice, and she sought medical help. The band was also in the middle of an emotional upheaval, and all of its romantic relationships disintegrated: The McVies decided to divorce, Fleetwood and his wife separated, and Nicks and Buckingham were in the midst of a tumultuous split.
The band continued to record together, however, and their next album, Rumours (1977), became a record-setting hit. It spent 31 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, went platinum in both the United States and the U.K., and earned the group a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. Nicks’ song “Dreams,” inspired by the group’s dissolving relationships, was the band’s first and only No. 1 single. During this time, Nicks had a brief affair with band member Mick Fleetwood and began an up-and-down relationship with Eagles drummer Don Henley.
Today, Rumours remains the band’s most successful album, having sold more than 21 million copies. “Dreams” saw a resurgence in popularity following a viral TikTok video from September 2020. The song re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 the following month—its first time on the chart in more than four decades.
Start of Her Solo Career
After Rumours, the band continued to put out albums, including 1979’s Tusk and 1980’s Fleetwood Mac Live, but Nicks felt the draw toward solo work. In 1981, she released Bella Donna, which featured guest vocalists Tom Petty and Tom Henley. The album almost immediately reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and featured the hit singles “Edge of Seventeen” and “Leather and Lace,” as well as a duet with Petty called “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.”
Nicks continued on at a prodigious rate, recording 1982’s Mirage with Fleetwood Mac and her second solo effort, The Wild Heart, in 1983. Around this time, Stevie’s best friend, Robin, died from leukemia. In an effort to provide a mother for Robin’s young son, Matthew, Nicks married Robin’s widower, Kim Anderson. The relationship lasted less than a year.
Addiction Struggles
Although it went platinum, Nicks’ 1985 solo album, Rock A Little, didn’t match the commercial success of her previous efforts. The singer also started developing serious problems with alcohol and drugs. She maintained a severe cocaine habit that eventually created a hole in her nasal cartilage. In 1986, she entered the Betty Ford Clinic for a 28-day rehab program, which helped end her chemical dependence.
The following year, she began working with a psychiatrist who recommended she take Klonopin. Although she was done with cocaine, Nicks became addicted to the tranquilizer and was under its influence throughout the better part of the late ’80s and early ’90s. During this time, she continued to tour and turn out independent records as well as albums with Fleetwood Mac, including the solo effort The Other Side of the Mirror (1989), Behind the Mask (1990) with Fleetwood Mac, and a solo compilation entitled Timespace (1991).
Detox and Rock Hall of Fame
After years of addiction, weight gain, and exhaustion, Nicks fully detoxed in 1993 and ended her ties to Klonopin. The next year, she released Street Angel, another solo album. As her health improved and she regained energy, Nicks returned to the studio to record new songs for multiple soundtracks.
In 1997, Fleetwood Mac reunited and released The Dance. The related tour earned them $36 million. Nicks also put out a boxed set dubbed Enchanted and added two songs to the soundtrack for Practical Magic, the 1998 Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman movie. That same year, Fleetwood Mac was given one of the greatest honors in the world of rock: induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Recent Years and Latest Work
Nicks went on to work with rocker Sheryl Crow on the former’s 2001 solo release, Trouble in Shangri-La. She also put out a new album with Fleetwood Mac, Say You, Will, in 2003. Since then, Nicks has recorded and performed as a solo act and as a member of Fleetwood Mac. Her band, unfortunately, had to cancel part of their 2013 tour because of John McVie’s ill health.
In 2014, Nicks released the album 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, comprised of new versions of demos recorded decades earlier. That year, she also served as an adviser for Adam Levine’s team on the singing competition show The Voice and appeared in two episodes of the cable drama American Horror Story.
In 2018, Nicks readied to join Fleetwood Mac on a new tour, though this one would be without her former flame and longtime bandmate Buckingham.
Already recognized with Fleetwood Mac, Nicks was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2019 by Harry Styles. She was the first women to be a two-time inductee and performed at the ceremony.
Comments about Daisy Jones & the Six
In March 2023, Amazon Prime released Daisy Jones & the Six, a series adapted from a book by Taylor Jenkins Reid about a fictional 1970s rock band. The author has said her book was partially inspired by Fleetwood Mac. The show, starring Riley Keough, quickly became a hit and picked up an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Limited/Anthology Series.
Months later, Nicks commented on the series for the first time in an August social media post after watching the show twice. “In the beginning, it wasn’t really my story, but Riley seamlessly, soon became my story. It brought back memories that made me feel like a ghost watching my own story,” she wrote on Instagram. Nicks described watching it as an emotional experience and said she wished former bandmate Christine McVie, who died in November 2022, could have seen it.
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