{"id":305901,"date":"2025-07-31T06:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/305901\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T06:22:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:22:19","slug":"stevie-nicks-on-what-saved-her-from-having-her-dreams-crushed-in-fleetwood-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/305901\/","title":{"rendered":"Stevie Nicks on What Saved Her From Having Her \u201cDreams Crushed\u201d in Fleetwood Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Stevie Nicks first joined Fleetwood Mac<\/a> with her partner, Lindsey Buckingham, in 1975, she had no way of knowing the tremendous ride on which she was about to embark. The British blues band was saving her and Buckingham from a disastrous fate as the folk-rock duo, Buckingham Nicks, sure. But her entry into the band did more than save her from obscurity.<\/p>\n

In a sense, it also saved her from the opposite: the pressure, sexualization, scrutiny, and judgment. She certainly wasn\u2019t naive to the dangers of the music industry. However, as she explained in a 1985 interview, the band\u2019s dynamics acted like a sort of shield.<\/p>\n

Stevie Nicks Recalls What \u201cSaved\u201d Her In Fleetwood Mac<\/strong><\/p>\n

A quick look at the lineup of Fleetwood Mac would show just how diminutive Stevie Nicks was compared to her bandmates. Her short stature, young age, and the general camaraderie that forms between bandmates led to her adopting a sort of \u201clittle sister\u201d persona in the group. On the one hand, this dynamic was challenging. Her bandmates weren\u2019t always quick to take to her ideas. Nicks\u2019 \u201clittle sister\u201d persona somewhat discredited her later solo pursuits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But on the other hand, Nicks explained in a 1985 interview<\/a>, she was incredibly fortunate to have the honorary title of \u201cFleetwood Mac\u2019s youngest sister.\u201d \u201cIn my ancient ways,\u201d Nicks begins with a hint of sardonic self-awareness, \u201cnow I know that I was very lucky to be the baby sister, you know? Yeah, let Christine [McVie] take all those hard knocks for me. She did. I didn\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey kept a lot of that bad stuff that happens away from me,\u201d Nicks continued. \u201cSo, I didn\u2019t have to have my dreams kind of crashed and ruined, which happens here in this town. I was really protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the interviewer brought up Pat Benatar, a fellow female rock icon who had famously talked about her own record label belittling and demeaning her, Nicks replied, \u201cSee, nobody ever said that to me because I was really protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking Stock Of The Soft Rock Icons\u2019 Social Hierarchy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bands, like any other frequent gathering of humans, inherently develop hierarchies to survive. There is typically a bandleader, official or de facto, who is in charge of keeping the group on task, productive, and tight. Sometimes, there is a creative force that prefers a more backseat social role. Some bands have a \u201ccomedic relief\u201d member. Others have one social butterfly who gets the band\u2019s networking done, so the shyer members don\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Rock World in 1993, Nicks described<\/a> Fleetwood Mac\u2019s social order. \u201cMick is the king,\u201d she explained. \u201cHe\u2019s the head of the band. He comes in, and you think you ought to curtsy. In the studio, Lindsey [Buckingham]\u2019s word was law. Christine [McVie] almost always delivered the hits<\/a>. She\u2019s like an earth mother, and I\u2019m her little sister. John [McVie] is the other fixed point around which the band revolves. Sometimes, it got really funny, this giant percussionist and two couples in front of him. Especially when all the relationships broke up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six years earlier, Nicks described her band persona as a \u201cspider woman.\u201d \u201cI try to imagine myself putting on a spider mask,\u201d she said. \u201cI become very subdued and quieter, I don\u2019t move so fast, I\u2019m in a state of suspended animation. This character\u2026she\u2019s interesting, but she never gets crazy, and she keeps all her emotion very much within herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo by Fin Costello\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Stevie Nicks first joined Fleetwood Mac with her partner, Lindsey Buckingham, in 1975, she had no way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,43282,269,2535,44868,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-305901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-fleetwood-mac","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rock-music","12":"tag-stevie-nicks","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114946411494405186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}