b. Stephanie Lynn Nicks, 26 May 1948, Phoenix, Arizona, USA. When Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in January 1975, she not only introduced her talents as a singer and songwriter, but provided a defined focal point during the band’s live appearances. A former vocalist with Fritz, a struggling San Francisco band, Nicks moved to Los Angeles with her boyfriend and fellow ex-member Lindsey Buckingham. Together they recorded 1973’s Buckingham Nicks, a promising but largely neglected album, at the Second City Studio in Van Nuys. The collection was subsequently used to demonstrate the facilities to Mick Fleetwood. By coincidence, both Nicks and Buckingham were in a nearby room and were introduced to the Fleetwood Mac drummer when he showed interest in their work. Within weeks the duo was invited to join his band to replace the departing Bob Welch. Their arrival brought a change in Fleetwood Mac’s commercial fortunes. Nicks provided many of their best-known and successful songs, including ‘Rhiannon’, ‘Landslide’ and the haunting ‘Dreams’. The latter was one of several excellent compositions that graced the multi-million-selling 1977 release Rumours, although the album itself signalled the collapse of two in-house relationships, including that of Buckingham and Nicks.
Nicks contributed harmony vocals to two major US hits in the late 70s, Kenny Loggins’ ‘Whenever I Call You “Friend”’ and John Stewart’s ‘Gold’. In 1980, following the release of Fleetwood Mac’s much-maligned Tusk, the singer began recording a solo album. Bella Donna, released the following year, achieved platinum sales and remained on the Billboard album chart for over two years. It also spawned two US Top 10 singles in ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, a duet with Tom Petty and ‘Leather And Lace’, which featured Eagles drummer and former lover, Don Henley. After working with Fleetwood Mac on their new album Mirage, a second solo selection, The Wild Heart, followed in 1983 and this bestseller produced the major US hits ‘Stand Back’, ‘If Anyone Falls’ and ‘Nightbird’, the latter recorded with singer-songwriter Sandy Stewart.
Nicks’ third album, Rock A Little (1985), was less successful, artistically and commercially, although it did spawn her biggest US solo hit, ‘Talk To Me’. Following its release Nicks entered the Betty Ford Clinic to be treated for drug dependency. She then rejoined Fleetwood Mac for their highly successful comeback release Tango In The Night, on which Nicks contributed two tracks and sang one of the album’s major hits, Sandy Stewart’s ‘Seven Wonders’. Following the end of the band’s exhausting world tour (undertaken without Buckingham who had left shortly before its start), Nicks continued her solo activities with 1989’s The Other Side Of The Mirror, a disjointed album that featured the US hit ‘Rooms On Fire’.
The singer’s tranquilizer addiction was beginning to sap her creativity, although she was not alone in contributing sub-standard fare to Fleetwood Mac’s 1990 release Behind The Mask. Another spell in detox coincided with the release of Street Angel (1994), which largely comprised material left over from previous recordings. She rejoined Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac when the Rumours line-up reconvened in 1997 to tour and record a live album, The Dance. An extensive solo box set was released the following year and a rejuvenated Nicks began work on a new studio album for Reprise Records. The star-studded but anodyne Trouble In Shangri-La returned Nicks to the US Top 5 in 2001. She subsequently rejoined Fleetwood Mac (minus Christine McVie) to record a new studio set, Say You Will.
