Stevie Nicks claims unrivaled mastery in playing

(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)

Music

Sat 21st Oct 2023 16.30 BST

Only a handful of artists can work their magic on a crowd like Stevie Nicks. Throughout her solo career and work
with Fleetwood Mac, Nicks has lured many audiences into a trance through her magnetic stage presence, all while
singing immaculate melodies like ‘Rhiannon’ and ‘Edge of Seventeen’. Although Nicks always surrounds herself
with amazing artists, she admitted that one musician towers above everyone else in her books.

When working with Lindsey Buckingham in the early days, though, there was a good chance that Nicks wouldn’t get
to become one of the biggest stars in the world. Ten months before her joining Fleetwood Mac and having a hit
album, Nicks was waiting tables in the Los Angeles area, barely having the money to scrape by as a musician.

But things changed when Mick Fleetwood made it known that he liked Buckingham’s guitar work. Nicks’s partner
insisted that the band take her on, which made for a shot in the arm fo the band’s career and a stunning array
of radio-rock across songs like ‘Landslide’ and ‘Rhiannon’. Even though Nicks was more than happy to play with
her bandmates for the rest of her life, she had always thrived on working off the energy of the other artists
surrounding her.

Prince's Brilliance in the Studio

When working on her first solo outings, Nicks went out of her way to work with the heavy hitters in the
industry, getting production guru Jimmy Iovine as her producer and duetting with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
on ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’. While she would come back to ‘The Mac’ off and on throughout the years, she
was also greeted by musical royalty when she began work on the follow-up.

While in the studio for The Wild Heart, Nicks remembered a night when Prince entered the studio. On the
cusp of releasing the album Purple Rain, Nicks recalled how the musical tour de force took over the
studio and played all of her songs better than anyone else, explaining, “[He] walked over to the
synthesisers that were set up, was absolutely brilliant for about 25 minutes, and then left. He spoiled me for
every band I’ve ever had because nobody can exactly recreate – not even with two piano players – what Prince did
all by his little self.”

Inspiration and Musical Exploration

That creative energy also began to rub off on her peers as well. When working on the album Southern
Accents, Petty would say that he liked Prince’s approach to making records, which would inform tracks like
‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’, initially written for Nicks.

Then again, Prince didn’t have time to relish in the adulation of playing in the studio. Throughout the next few
years, he would become one of the biggest stars of MTV, going through every genre that would suit him on tracks
like ‘Purple Rain’ and ‘Raspberry Beret’. Although Prince may have been the new kid in town, Nicks also paid
close attention to how he approached his craft.

While there are clear inspirations behind every Nicks song, it’s also easy to see her branching out throughout
the 1980s, from the rootsy sounds of Bella Donna to the melodrama of Tango in the Night. Even
though Nicks could easily work around any genre that suited the song, her willingness to push herself beyond her
songwriting roots may have been sparked by Prince’s visit.