Stevie Nicks' Full Transformation Is A Sight To See

Think of the music industry's female pioneers, and Stevie Nicks will likely be one of the first women that comes to mind. The singer-songwriter has spent decades in the spotlight as one of the most successful and notable musicians of her time, unapologetically marching to the beat of her own drum. She's inspired countless women to do the same, including Taylor Swift. "She paved the way for me," Swift even admitted on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." 

Nicks, who's been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice (once for her solo stardom and for her work with Fleetwood Mac), became iconic thanks to her deep musical passion and unique boho-inspired aesthetic with a touch of rockstar. She made a point of choosing the path that felt authentic, not the one that would bring the most riches. 

"If I'd have wanted to really go for it, in the same way that, say, Madonna did, I could have done that. And I could have been much more famous than I am now and much richer," Nicks told Us Weekly in 1990 (via The Nicks Fix). "But it never mattered to me that much about winning thousands of awards or having a hundred Number One singles," she added. Nicks' full transformation proves she got the fame, money, and accolades in abundance anyway, but there were plenty of ups and downs on the road to her icon status.

Stevie Nicks was born Stephanie Lynn Nicks in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1948. Speaking on "Spotlight on Stevie Nicks" (via The Nicks Fix), she revealed she got the nickname "Stevie" because she couldn't pronounce "Stephanie" when she was young. "It kind of came out as 'teedee,'" she said, which evolved to become Stevie. Even in the first grade, Nicks had a natural penchant for performing. Her mom, Barbara Nicks, told McCalls Magazine (via The Nicks Fix) that her daughter would sing and dance not just for her schoolmates but also for her teacher.

Nicks got used to traveling at a young age as her family moved around for her dad's work, and she spent time in California, Utah, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. That set the stage for the star to spend the rest of her life traveling the world with her music, which she began showing serious interest in around 1964. Nicks was just shy of 16 when she got her first guitar and wrote her first breakup song. "When that song was done, I knew that I was going to be a songwriter," she told ABC News.

Stevie Nicks met 16-year-old Lindsey Buckingham, her future boyfriend and bandmate, at a party in San Francisco in 1966 while both were attending the same high school. "I heard this guy singing from a long way away, in this big room. And he was singing "California Dreamin'," Nicks recalled on "Song Exploder." She remembered going up to the stranger, who turned out to be Buckingham, and singing with him. "It was fantastic," Nicks said. That may sound like the perfect meet-cute, but it wasn't. "I thought, 'Oh, I better get outta here now before he gets really mad when it was gonna end, right?' So I just, like, disappeared into the shadows. And so, we didn't meet," she said. The two didn't see each other again for about two years.

Before she crossed paths with Buckingham again, Nicks had landed a recording contract. The 1966 deal came via her dad's connection to an employee at 20th Century Fox. Nicks told Rolling Stone that her parents let her sign the contract on the condition that she finish school and go to college, but the deal fell through before she released any music. That was a blessing in disguise, as it would have dictated the next five years of her life, which became amongst her most formative.

With her solo record deal nixed, Nicks was a free agent when she got a call asking her to join Buckingham's band, Fritz. She and Buckingham formed a tight bond and attended San José State University together, but, despite Fritz opening for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, the band disbanded in 1971. Instead, Nicks and Buckingham left college, headed to Los Angeles, and became known as the musical duo Buckingham Nicks.

In 1973, Stevie Nicks appeared on the cover of the album "Buckingham Nicks" topless (Buckingham Nicks' only album). But she wasn't happy about the risqué imagery. "That cover is about as close to selling the music on sex as you'll ever get, and I was crying when we took that picture," she told Us Weekly (via The Nicks Fix), claiming the concept was Lindsey Buckingham's. "This is not art. This is taking a nude photograph with you, and I don't dig it," she recalled telling him.

It was that cover that encouraged Nicks to change her aesthetic. She recalled trying to set herself apart from other female musicians of the time and thought, "I'll be very, very sexy under 18 pounds of chiffon and lace and velvet. And nobody will know what I really am. I will have a mystique." Her new look also went a long way in creating the legacy Nicks wanted for herself. "I'd like to be remembered as a notoriously eclectic person: a collector and a dancer and a singer and a songwriter and a fairy-dust spreader," she said. And she was well on her way to that.

After Buckingham Nicks failed to see major success with their debut album, Nicks started working regular jobs to pay the bills. She worked at a restaurant and as a cleaner, which kick-started her addiction. She told ABC News she first took cocaine around 1973 after finding the drug while cleaning a house.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Stevie Nicks returned to music after "Buckingham Nicks", the album, caught the attention of Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood. Fleetwood was so impressed that Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham officially joined the band in late 1974. Nicks brought a glam flair to the musical group, which also included John McVie and Christine McVie, and she was very aware of her role.

"Maybe the reason I'm in Fleetwood Mac is that I'm supposed to be the person that spreads a little fairy dust here and there," she mused to Us Weekly (via The Nicks Fix), admitting she liked to get gussied up and dressed up while her bandmates preferred casual, understated looks. "They know my life is completely strange: the strange clothes I wear, my hairdo and my makeup and the way I go about my life . . . but they need that, because otherwise they would be really way too serious for words," she explained. The singer leaned into her boho aesthetic even more as the band's frontperson, creating the signature Stevie Nicks look that can still be replicated. "Onstage I wanted to wear skirts that just flowed around me as I walked, and if there was air-conditioning, or real air, they would move," she told the Los Angeles Times. 

Nicks revealed that she began working with stylist Margi Kent to create these looks (among the celeb outfits from 1975 that everyone still remembers today). Nick's injection of whimsy clearly worked. In 1975, Fleetwood Mac released their eponymous album and saw success unlike any they'd seen in the past. The project, which reached the top spot on the Billboard 200, is certified nine-times platinum in the U.S. at the time of writing and made Nicks a household name.

Fleetwood Mac's huge success continued into 1977 when they released another mega-successful album, "Rumours." The body of work, which is 21 times platinum in the U.S. at the time of writing, is widely considered one of the best albums of all time. Part of the music's appeal came from fans decoding the tracks' lyrics, which appeared to detail the ups and downs of Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham's romance. The couple had been going through a tough time while writing and recording, and they broke up before the album's huge success. "He and I were about as compatible as a boa constrictor and a rat," Nicks would later tell Marie Claire.

Around the same time, Nicks also hit the headlines for a controversial relationship. Following her and Buckingham's split, she became romantically involved with another of her bandmates — the married Mick Fleetwood. "Everybody was angry, because Mick was married to a wonderful girl and had two wonderful children. I was horrified. I loved these people. I loved his family," Nicks told Uncut in 2013. The romance didn't go the distance, but the two managed to stay friends. "Mick is definitely one of my great, great loves," she admitted, and the relationship may at least partly explain why Nicks' favorite books are all about dark romance.

In 1981, Stevie Nicks went solo and released her first album, "Bella Donna," which catapulted to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. But the star later admitted on "Behind the Music" in 1998 (via Hello!) that she couldn't fully enjoy the album's accolades and praise. Around the same time, her long-time friend Robin Snyder Anderson had been diagnosed with leukemia and died shortly after welcoming a child. "They took the baby, and it was like he was three months premature, and it was horrible, it was such an upsetting situation," Nicks said.

Amid the heartbreak, Nicks' unconventional love life hit the headlines again. In 1983, she shocked the world when she married Kim Anderson — Robin's husband. "Everyone was just so devastated, and there was this little premature baby, and I just went crazy," Nicks said of her controversial first and only marriage. She and Kim were divorced by 1984.

Stevie Nicks saw continued solo success. She followed up "Bella Donna" with successful albums "The Wild Heart" in 1983 and "Rock A Little" in '85, all while balancing her work with Fleetwood Mac. The band continued to release music, including the commercially successful 1987 album "Tango in the Night." That same year, Lindsey Buckingham left Fleetwood Mac for the first time. He blamed his departure on his rocky relationship with Nicks. "When you break up with someone and then for the next 10 years you have to be around them and do for them and watch them move away from you, it's not easy," he told The Plain Dealer (via Parade).

In 1984, Nicks' Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie opened up about their eroding friendship and how Nicks had changed. She told Rolling Stone they didn't speak much anymore, noting, "Ten years ago, she really had her feet on the ground, along with a tremendous sense of humor, which she still has. But she seems to have developed her own fantasy world, somehow, which I'm not part of."

Amid the Fleetwood Mac drama, Nicks knew she needed to get control of her life. The star had developed a serious drug addiction and checked into a rehabilitation facility for 28 days. But after getting help, she found herself addicted to a prescription drug given to her by a psychiatrist. "It completely changed me. The light went out in my eyes. There are large chunks of time that I don't remember," she told McCalls Magazine in 1999 (via The Nicks Fix). "I missed most of my 40s completely, and I'm still angry about it," she added.

By 1994, Stevie Nicks had fallen victim to online trolling. She told McCalls Magazine (via The Nicks Fix) that she'd seen negative comments about her weight that affected her so deeply she used it as fuel to lose 30 pounds. Nicks credited exercise and prayer for her new lifestyle, and her bandmates noticed how much healthier she appeared in various aspects of her life. "She's going, 'Hey, I'm better off now than I was when I was 32! I'm living, writing and working my butt off performing.' She considers it a privilege and a serious blessing that she can still do this," Mick Fleetwood said.

Nicks celebrated her milestone 50th birthday in 1998 and proved she's a celeb confronting aging with confidence. "It's all just a state of mind. Think young. You can be 40 and feel 20," she said to McCalls Magazine, dismissing the idea that feeling youthful is all about aesthetics. Nicks would later give a four-word advice that highlights her healthy approach to aging. "Roll with the punches," she told The Guardian.

Part of the musician's healthier new lifestyle came down to her overcoming addiction following a second visit to rehab. "My life is calmer ... wonderful and exciting because I'm not on drugs," she told The Age. "A lot of the time during those last four or five years before I went into rehab, I really didn't think I was going to make it out alive. So I'm thrilled every day that I did," she added.

Stevie Nicks was happily single in 2006, proving that the traditional path of marriage and children isn't the right one for everyone. And that's okay. The then 57-year-old told The Age she wasn't totally against the idea of finding her happily ever after later in life, but explained, "If that doesn't happen I'm not lonely. I'm happy and I have lots of fun by myself. I'm not looking for somebody to fill up my life." That only bolstered her status as a trailblazer beyond music.

The superstar had previously addressed being single in her sixth decade in her 1999 McCalls Magazine interview, revealing she made the choice not to settle down. "I could have been married if I'd wanted to be. But if I had a husband and a couple of children, I don't think I could have had this career. I would have been more worried about staying married and raising my kids," she explained (via The Nicks Fix). And Nicks' reason for being childless by choice makes so much sense.

In 2018, Fleetwood Mac performed at a MusiCares event in New York, and Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham's long-time relationship suffered a new low. Buckingham was let go from Fleetwood Mac following the show, with Nicks telling Rolling Stone in 2024, "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." In 2021, she denied Buckingham's claims that she got him ousted from the legendary band. "I did not demand he be fired. Frankly, I fired myself. I proactively removed myself from the band and a situation I considered to be toxic to my well-being. I was done," she told Rolling Stone (via Billboard).

As for the chances of Fleetwood Mac reconciling with or without Buckingham? Nicks implied that it was unlikely following the sad death of their bandmate Christine McVie in 2022. "This was my music soulmate, my best girlfriend. We kept that band afloat, the two of us, by keeping the peace, no matter what," she said, noting McVie was irreplaceable.

While Nicks was clearly reluctant to reunite with Fleetwood Mac, her legacy had been well and truly cemented. In 2023, her impact on the world, particularly as an inspiration to other women, was clear when Mattel created a Stevie Nicks Barbie. "She is really her own little feminist person at not even a foot tall. She's strong and she's fierce and she's solid," Nicks told People of the doll, which was styled in a very Nicks-esque floaty, black dress.

Despite Stevie Nicks' making it clear that Christine McVie's passing likely spelled the end of Fleetwood Mac, things seemed a little more optimistic for the band in 2025. Nicks revealed during a joint appearance on "Song Exploder" that she and Buckingham were still in contact. Addressing the album "Buckingham Nicks" being re-released around 50 years after it was recorded, she said, "Lindsey and I started talking about it last night. This whole thing seems really like yesterday to us."

Though Nicks celebrated her 78th birthday in 2026, she clearly has no plans to retire into a more reclusive life away from the spotlight. In fact, she did the opposite. The star proved that fabulousness has no age limit when she made her Met Gala red carpet debut aged 77 and performed a Fleetwood Mac song with popstar Sabrina Carpenter inside the event.

Nicks seemingly doesn't have plans to leave music in her rear view mirror. When asked about the possibility of retiring during her 2024 Rolling Stone interview, she replied, "When I think that it's age inappropriate, I won't do it anymore. But then I think I would just bring the shows down. I'd be happy to tour all the beautiful gothic theaters of the United States and Europe, and do two hours and be able to sit in a chair for some of it. Do some songs in my whole catalog that I've always wanted to do and never done." That more lowkey gig move is yet to come to fruition at the time of writing, and with Nicks' track record of ageless confidence, it seems she'll continue entertaining the world on full throttle for years yet.