Stevie Nicks has formed tons of celebrity connections over her decades-long career — and she dished about several of them in her new Rolling Stone profile.
Nicks, 76, discussed stars such as Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, Chappell Roan and her ex Lindsey Buckingham in the interview published on Thursday, October 24. Naturally, many of the stories she shared were about her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie.
“There is no more Fleetwood Mac now, because when Christine died, Fleetwood Mac died. We cannot replace her,” Nicks stated. (McVie died at the age of 79 in November 2022.)
Nicks noted that she “had not talked to Chris for a long time” before her death, partly because of the time difference between the U.S. and England. Nicks, who wanted to fly to the U.K. to see McVie, got the call that she had died from McVie’s family.
“This was a different kind of friend. This was my music soulmate, my best girlfriend. We kept that band afloat, the two of us, by keeping the peace, no matter what. By never letting people carry their problems into the studio, by stopping fights before they started, by making sure that our work was stellar,” Nicks shared. “Even when we were doing lots of drugs, we had our eyes on everyone and everything. We were the keepers of Fleetwood Mac, and that is why we cannot replace her. We did replace Lindsey two times, and it was OK. No fighting, super fun. But Christine was different.”
Scroll down to see more of Nicks’ celebrity stories:
Christine McVie
“I had her from 1975 until she died, and I miss her every day,” Nicks said of performing without McVie. “And I just finally realized being onstage, the night before last, in the rain in front of 30,000 people, that it was time for us to let her go. And stop being so sad, because I cried every single night. It’s like, “Fly. We’re not holding you down anymore.”
She went on to joke that McVie “threw down a hurricane on top of Nobu” during her celebration of life. “Almost blew the whole place away, honest to God. Tore down the entire deck that was all decorated and everything,” she explained. “So, it was kind of crazy. We all felt like she was there, because it was really intense.”
Travis Kelce
“I like to design blankets. Cashmere blankets are my favorite thing. That is what I buy for my friends if there’s a special occasion. I bought Travis Kelce a blanket,” Nicks, who is friendly with the athlete’s girlfriend, Swift, told the outlet. (Nicks is also teaming up with Travis’ brother, Jason Kelce, on an upcoming Christmas music project.)
J.D. Souther and Kris Kristofferson
Nicks called Souther’s death a “terrible, terrible tragedy,” adding that she was also upset by news of Kristofferson’s passing. (Souther died at the age of 78 on September 17, while Kristofferson died at age 88 on September 28.)
“[My assistant] came in to tell me something today. And she goes, ‘So, Stevie …’ Every time she says ‘So, Stevie,’ I go like, ‘Please don’t tell me that somebody else died. I wish you would just come in, say my name, and don’t say ‘so’ before, because it’s starting to set me up for tragedy, because we’re old,’” Nicks stated.
Don Henley
Nicks opened up about her relationship with Henley, particularly her decision to get an abortion in 1979. “Don was the first guy I actually went out with after Lindsey and I broke up,” she shared. “When this pregnancy happened, it was like, ‘What the heck happened? I am completely respectful of the world rules here, and all of a sudden this happens to me and I can’t figure it out.’”
Nicks said she thinks Fleetwood Mac would have been “done” had she not gotten an abortion. “That would’ve been sad, because I would not have married Don Henley. That was a really fun relationship, but he was in a bigger band than me,” she stated. “Those boys were rock stars, par extraordinaire. Nobody in that band was ready to get married and have children. So I knew it would just be on me, and I wouldn’t have even known what to do with that responsibility.”
Katy Perry
Nicks brought up the “Hot N Cold” singer while discussing her distaste for social media. “About 10 years ago, Katy Perry was talking to me about the internet armies of all the girl singers, and how cruel and rancid they were. I said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t know because I’m not on the internet,’” she said.
Nicks continued: “[Katy] said, ‘So, who are your rivals?’ I just looked at her. It was my steely look. I said, ‘Katy, I don’t have rivals. I have friends. All the other women singers that I know are friends. Nobody’s competing. Get off the internet and you won’t have rivals either.’”
(At the time of the convo in 2014, Perry was at the height of her feud with Swift.)
Chappell Roan
Nicks praised Roan’s rise in the music industry and sympathized with her comments about struggling being in the spotlight. “Me and a friend of mine went and looked at her schedule, and it was outrageous. What she’s already done and then what she’s going into. It’s as bad as any schedule we ever did, and she’s new, and she’s young,” Nicks shared. “I said, ‘They’ll burn her out if that’s what they want to do, because there’s always somebody to replace you.’ It must make them all very fearful. That’s why it’s good that Chappell just said, ‘Well, go ahead, replace me. I’m canceling because I’m not going to drop dead for all you people.’”
Taylor Swift
Nicks wore a friendship bracelet given to her by Swift — which she hasn’t taken off “for almost a year” — during her Rolling Stone interview. “She is really smart, but she also went through a lot before. She’s in a good place right now, and I think she has a good man,” she said, referring to Swift and Travis’s relationship.
“I hope they fall deeper and deeper in love and ride off into the sunset,” Nicks added. “He does his thing and she does her thing, and then they come back together and get married and have babies if she wants that. I just want all of that for her.”
Lindsey Buckingham
Nicks recalled speaking to her ex for “about three minutes” at McVie’s 2022 celebration of life. “I dealt with Lindsey for as long as I could. You could not say that I did not give him more than 300 million chances,” she said.
Nicks and Buckingham famously dated during their time in Fleetwood Mac and ended their rocky relationship shortly before the band released their famous 1976 album Rumors.
Nicks reflected on seeing Buckingham at MusiCares benefit concert in recent years, noting that Buckingham “wasn’t very nice to anybody” at that time. “He wasn’t very nice to Harry Styles. I could hear my mom saying, ‘Are you really going to spend the next 15 years of your life with this man?’” she stated. “I could hear my very pragmatic father — and by the way, my mom and dad liked Lindsey a lot — saying, ‘It’s time for you guys to get a divorce.’ Between those two, I said, ‘I’m done.’”
Despite their ups and downs, Nicks said she wishes Buckingham “the best.” She added: “I hope he lives a long life and continues to go into a studio and work with other people. He’s also an icon, and he can teach people. He’s not stopped in his tracks. He can still make music and have fun.”
John McVie
“John’s wife [Julie Ann Reubens] passing away [earlier this year] has been very, very hard on him. I actually have not talked to him since Julie passed away, because he made it very clear that he really didn’t want to talk to anybody until he was miles away from it,” Nicks said of Christine’s ex-husband, to whom she was married from 1968 to 1976. “I was very close to John, so I’m only following his wishes. When I get home after [Saturday Night Live], I’m going to call him — and a lot of other people that I need to speak with that I haven’t been able to talk to in the last two years — and see how he is and go and see him.”
‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ Cast
Nicks gushed about the 2023 Prime Video series, which is based on author Taylor Jenkins Reid’s book of the same name. Given that the story is heavily influenced by Fleetwood Mac, Nicks said she was initially apprehensive about watching it.
“I didn’t even want to see it, because I thought I was going to hate it so much. I had Covid when I saw it. I was in my condo in Los Angeles, and I can remember saying, ‘Am I just watching my life go by?’” she explained.
However, Nicks praised Riley Keough’s performance as Daisy Jones, whose character is representative of Nicks. “She’s much snappier than me. I couldn’t be as snappy as her in Fleetwood Mac. Christine and I couldn’t do that, because we were the peacemakers,” she said. “[Riley] could be totally s—-y and a smart ass and totally arrogant, because she wasn’t even in the band, and they weren’t even nice to her. So that was the biggest difference. But as far as her character went, it was very similar to me. And I instantly wanted to call her and meet her, and I did.”
She went on to praise Suki Waterhouse, who played keyboardist Karen Sirko, noting that Christine “would’ve been so tickled by her.” She continued: “I thought Billy [Sam Claflin] was spectacular. I thought he captured so much of Lindsey that it was creepy. He had the curls and that dark handsomeness that Lindsey had. One of my favorites was Camila [Morrone]. I thought that Camila and Daisy were a really good combination of me, the two of them put them together.”
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