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Happy Birthday Stevie Nicks: Relive the Music Icon’s Memorable Moments

Stevie Nicks’ songs have a way of getting stuck in your head. They are nothing if not memorable. And over the course of a long musical career, the singer-songwriter has had plenty of memorable moments to choose from.

Which is not to say that Nicks hasn’t been keeping busy lately. She is preparing to headline the Shaky Knees Festival later this year in Atlanta, and she’s putting in an appearance on the upcoming Maroon 5 album Jordi.

So there are no doubt many memorable moments yet to come for Nicks. But today, on Nicks’ 73rd birthday, here are some of the music icon’s most memorable moments from the past.

Fleetwood Mac Records ‘Dreams’

The 1977 single remains the band’s only No. 1 hit song. Nicks reportedly wrote it in about 10 minutes in the Sausalito, California studio Record Plant, according to American Songwriter. She composed it amid a breakup with bandmate Lindsey Buckingham, with whom she had been in an eight-year relationship. The song begins with the lines, “Now here you go again/You say you want your freedom/Well who am I to keep you down?” (Buckingham would later write “Go Your Own Way” as an answer to Nicks.)

“Dreams” enjoyed a resurgence last year after a TikTok video incorporating the song went viral. Idaho resident Nathan Apodaca recorded a video of himself skateboarding and drinking cranberry juice while lip syncing to “Dreams.” Everyone from Mick Fleetwood to Nicks herself got in on the action, thanking Apodoca and even recording their own versions of the viral video.  

Stevie Nicks Launches Her Solo Career

In 1981, Nicks released Bella Donna, her debut solo album. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart. It included the popular singles “Leather and Lace,” “Edge of Seventeen” and the Tom Petty duet “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.”

It was difficult for Nicks to forge ahead on her own. And she told Rolling Stone in 1981 that being in the band had come to feel artistically limiting.

“My life was completely wrapped up in Fleetwood Mac,” Nicks said. “You can call in sick to a job, a boyfriend, even a husband, but you cannot call in sick to Fleetwood Mac – ever.”

Nonetheless, Nicks’ solo career flourished, with the help of Jimmy Iovine, and she went on to release well over a dozen albums. In 2018, she became the first woman ever to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.

Stevie Nicks Shakes Her Addictions

In the 1970s and ’80s, Fleetwood Mac’s members were living life in the fast life, downing epic amounts of drugs and engaging in whirlwind relationships. They did tons of cocaine, Nicks told The Guardian last year. But the addiction she really regrets is Klonopin – a psychiatrist prescribed it to her after she got out of rehab for her cocaine addiction, and she went on to use it for eight years. That period was a creative wasteland for Nicks.

“I always look back and think: what could I have done during that time? Made a Fleetwood Mac album or a solo record,” Nicks told The Guardian. “Let me tell you, if anybody ever tries to put you on Klonopin, run screaming out of the room.”

These days, Nicks is drinking a lot of tea and reveling in her newfound sobriety. She has sworn off Botox and gotten a dog, Lily, with whom she likes to watch the sunrise.