The Backstory: Stevie Nicks: Waitress to Rock Goddess to Taylor Swift Wedding Singer

Stevie Nicks has been in the spotlight this week after performing at the Madison Square Garden wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcie. But . . that wasn’t just an entertainment decision on the bride and groom’s part. This is the behind the scenes story.
Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover . . on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right. Do big stars who fought to get recognized
ever have a pinch me moment where they look in
the mirror and say, how in the heck did I
get here? Probably all the time, right, well. Perfect example
is Stevie Nicks, a waitress at an La bar who
became famous as part of Fleetwood Mac and who must
have had a pinch me moment when she sang a
few days ago at Taylor Swift's wedding at Madison Square Garden.

(00:23):
But it wasn't an easy ride. I'm Patty Steele. Few
artists have lived a life as magical and as turbulent
as Stevie Nicks, the t Swift wedding singer that's next
on the backstory. The backstory is back. She's been called
the Queen of rock and roll, the high Priestess of rock,

(00:45):
and one of music's greatest storytellers. We've seen her draped
in flowing shawls, surrounded by mystery and moonlight. Stevie Nicks
managed to create an image unlike anybody else, but before
her bond with Taylor, before all of veldt in Lays
is a woman who survived heartbreak, addiction, personal tragedy, not

(01:06):
to mention as a star of one of the most
dysfunctional bands in rock history. I mean, think about it.
Almost fifty years after becoming a superstar, Stevie found herself
on stage performing at one of the most talked about
celebrity weddings in modern history, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcey's wedding.
It just goes to show that true legends never really

(01:28):
leave the spotlight. Stephanie Lynn Nix was born in Phoenix, Arizona,
in nineteen forty eight. Music was part of her life
almost immediately. Her grandfather taught her country music and had
her singing duets with him and writing songs by the
time she was just four years old. She was a
bit of a loner growing up because the family moved
so much, from Phoenix to Albuquerque, OH Pass, Salt Lake City, LA,

(01:52):
and San Francisco, where she went to high school. She
got a guitar for her sixteenth birthday and says she
lived in her own own little musical world. But everything
changed in her senior year when she met a young
guitar player named Lindsay Buckingham. It was a junior the
chemistry was instantaneous. They became musical Partners, then Romantic Partners,

(02:14):
then Artistic Soulmates. First she joined his band Pritz, even
opening for Janis Joplin and Jimmy Hendrix, but it went nowhere,
and when Fritz busted up, the two formed their own
band called Buckingham Nicks. At that point, her plans to
finish college and become an English teacher got put on hold.
Stevie and Lindsay got a deal with Polydor Records, and

(02:37):
their nineteen seventy three album was a critical success. Problem is,
nobody bought it and the record label dropped them. Money disappeared.
They wrote songs at night, but during the day Stevie
clean houses and waited tables at local bars and restaurants.
They lived at a producer's house and started getting heavily
into cocaine. When Lindsay got a touring job with the

(03:00):
Everly Brothers, Stevie stayed behind to wait tables and write
music by herself. That's actually when she wrote Rhiannon as
well as Landslide. As a relationship with Lindsay started to
fall apart. She was at rock bottom. Her dad was
unwell and worried about her, so in October of nineteen
seventy four. She promised him if nothing happened with her

(03:21):
music career by the following January, she would come home
and finish college amazingly. On December thirty first, Lindsay got
a call from Mick Fleetwood, who had a band called
Fleetwood Mac. He offered him a job as a guitarist,
but Lindsay told him he and Stevie were a package deal.
Fleetwood thought it over for a little while and then

(03:42):
invited them to come rehearse. He says he immediately realized
Lindsay and Stevie added something to the band that had
been missing, especially if they wanted any pop success. One
year later, they put out the album Fleetwood Mac. It
went to number one on the Billboard charts and sold
nine million copies. Then came nineteen seventy seven and Rumors,

(04:04):
an album that has sold more than forty million copies worldwide.
And what made Rumors legendary wasn't just the music, It
was also the behind the scenes chaos. Every major relationship
inside Fleetwood Mac was falling apart. Stevie and Lindsay had
broken up, Christine and John McVie were divorcing, and Mick

(04:25):
Fleetwood's marriage was deteriorating too. But here's the thing. Somehow
all that pain turned into unforgettable music. Stevie wrote Dreams
inspired by the emotional wreckage around her. It actually was
Fleetwood Mac's only number one single in America. Lindsay answered
right back, would go your own way. Night after night,

(04:47):
the two stood just a few feet apart on stage,
singing songs written about each other. Can you imagine that
fans literally watched their breakup happen in real time. Stevie's
songwriter became her signature, and this is where we see
her influence years later on Taylor Swift. Stevie's songs like Rhiannon, Sarah,

(05:08):
gold Dust Woman, and later Edge of seventeen mixed her
real emotions and experiences with mythology, poetry, and mystery. Listeners
never exactly knew where reality ended and fantasy began. That mystery,
as it does with Taylor, became part of her legend.
Despite all the turmoil, the nineteen eighties brought her even

(05:30):
bigger success. Her first solo album, Bella Donna, debuted at
number one, and the hits poured out. Stopped Dragging my
Heart around Leather and Lace again, Edge of seventeen, she
was dominating both a legendary band and a solo career
at the same time. But all that success had our price,

(05:51):
the constanturing, the pressure, the cocaine, then prescription drugs. Stevie
later admitted that addiction stole years from her life and
almost killed her. She made the tough decision to get treatment,
and she was determined to win the battle. She said
she didn't want to be just another rock star who
died young and never got to keep creating her art.

(06:13):
It was a battle she won, and as the years passed,
Stevie transformed from rock superstar into a respected Elder stateswoman
of music. Young artists didn't just admire her, they came
to her for advice, especially Taylor Swift. Their friendship goes
over sixteen years, beginning when they performed together at the

(06:33):
Grammy Awards. Stevie became a mentor, praising Taylor's songwriting and
defending her against public criticism. She even contributed a heartfelt
poem to a special edition of Taylor's album, The Tortured
Poets Department. Taylor has often talked about Stevie's influence on
her life and her career, so it wasn't much of

(06:55):
a surprise when Stevie was among the music icons invited
to be a t Swift and Travis Kelsey's wedding guests say,
in addition to the intimate personal ceremony, it was an
unforgettable evening of music with Stevie Nicks performing alongside Paul McCartney.
For Stevie, it was another full circle moment. Once she

(07:17):
was a young dreamer hoping somebody would just give her
a chance. Now she's a legend performing at the wedding
of one of the biggest stars in the world. Stevie
isn't just a singer. She's an icon who proved that
sometimes the longest journeys from cleaning houses to selling out
stadiums produces the most unforgettable stories. Her secret is being authentic.

(07:41):
Stevie Nicks proved that vulnerability can be powerful, that heartbreak
can become art if you're willing to share what's inside.
I hope you like the backstory with Patty Steele. Please
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and feel free to if you have a story you'd

(08:01):
like me to cover. On Facebook It's Patty Steele and
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is a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Durant Group,
and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Mike Paeseglia. Our

(08:24):
writer is Jake Kushner. New episodes are out every Tuesday
and Friday, and feel free to reach out to me
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Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.