Stevie Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. She had a transient yet deeply musical childhood marked by constant moving across the American Southwest and early artistic shaping by her family.
Born Stephanie Lynn Nicks on May 26, 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona, she was raised in a household where her imagination was highly encouraged. Her early years laid the groundwork for her iconic storytelling, distinct fashion style, and her future legendary rock career.
Her father, Jess Nicks, was a high-level corporate executive who frequently climbed the corporate ladder, eventually becoming a vice president for Greyhound. This required the family to pack up and move every few years. She spent her infancy in Phoenix, moved to Los Angeles, spent two years in Albuquerque, five years in El Paso, and her junior high years in Salt Lake City. Finally settling in California during her teenage years, this nomadic lifestyle created a sense of rootlessness that heavily influenced the nostalgic, wandering themes in her later songwriting.
While her parents were massive music fans, her primary musical mentor was her maternal grandfather, Aaron Jess “A.J.” Nicks Sr.. He was an eccentric, struggling country and western singer who traveled around playing pool and music. By the time Stevie was four years old, her grandfather was already teaching her to sing harmonies. They famously performed country duets together in local saloons. This early training deeply embedded a love for performance in Stevie, who spent her adolescence constantly playing records and living in her “own little musical world.”
Her mother, Barbara Nicks, played a massive role in shaping Stevie’s distinct, ethereal aesthetic. Barbara intensely nurtured Stevie’s love for fairy tales, folklore, and fantasy. This creative breeding directly fostered the vivid imagination, poetic lyrics, and mystical “witchy” persona that defined her adulthood.
For her 16th birthday, her parents gifted her a Goya acoustic guitar. After taking lessons for only about a month, she quickly took off on her own. She immediately used the instrument to write her very first song, titled “I’ve Loved and I’ve Lost, and I’m Sad but Not Blue.”
During her mid-teens, her family relocated to the California suburbs. While attending Arcadia High School in Southern California, she joined a folk-rock group called The Changing Times, which focused on vocal harmonies.
Her family moved again to Palo Alto before her senior year. While attending Menlo-Atherton High School, she attended a Wednesday night church youth social. There, she saw a boy named Lindsey Buckingham playing “California Dreamin’” on his guitar. She walked right up to him and boldly joined in on harmony, sparking a legendary musical and romantic partnership that would eventually alter the course of rock history.
Leave a Reply