The Ledge

The Ledge (http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/index.php)
-   Stevie Nicks (http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/forumdisplay.php?f=7)
-   -   Stevie Nicks abortions (http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=44669)

ryguy2010 09-12-2010 10:04 PM

Stevie Nicks abortions
 
Find this article drawn up on Stevie regarding her abortions via VOX Mag. Interesting I always heard it rumoured with her and Henley, etc.. but never found any substantial proof until now. What does everyone think? Sorry for not commenting in a while have been super busy with school!


Come Into My Parlour

Spencer Bright
VOX Magazine (London) February 1992***

Deserted by Mick Fleetwood, bullied by her record company, and haunted by the memory of four abortions, Stevie Nicks is rich but not happy. Spencer Bright breaks out the Kleenex for the woman who couldn't go her own way. Homely snaps by George Bodnar.

I pull a Kleenex from its box and hand it to Stevie Nicks. She wipes a tear as it slides down her cheek. She cries when she speaks of Mick Fleetwood, she cries when she speaks of the babies she might have had, and she cries when she speaks of the bullies in the record industry shoving her around. She's like a damsel in distress in her castle, and we're in her fairy land lounge. There is a warm glow from the chunky candles and the blue flame on the log fire. While outside in LA, the temperature sizzles up to 80.

Stevie points out her favourite chaise lounge. Her favourite doll, which resembles her, sits regally upon it. Shawls are draped about. One, a 12-year-old garment, is loosely draped around the chanteuse. Stevie needs the comfort of these long familiar possessions; they stress a continuity and equilibrium that have been sadly lacking in her emotional life.

To say that Stevie Nicks is considered flaky is a mild understatement. But, as with so many things Nicksian, it's a mythical fog that masks the true woman. She isn't just a mystical old crone running a witches coven in the Hollywood Hills. The fantasy world she appears to inhabit actually stems from her love of England, mainly its history, kings and queens.

Her home in Encino - up the road from Dave Stewart's house and over the brow of the hill from that of her former lover Tom Petty - is the sort of chocolate box creation you'd expect to find in a theme park. From the outside it's a Tudor mansion with Elephantitis; as you enter there's a drained waterfall replaced by plants and flowers running alongside the winding brick staircase.

Climbing the stairs it changes from medieval to Hansel and Gretel, as the carved wooden banisters meander perpendicularly up three more stories. At the top of the house is an octagonal bell tower, but there's no bell, just a viewing platform and windows where Stevie, her friends, and employees go to watch the sun set over San Fernando Valley.

I'm given a guided tour that the barman at my hotel would have died and gone to Heaven for. There's Stevie's grand four-poster bed with lace cushions and lacy covers. In the adjoining dressing room a sweet musty smell of perfume hangs in the air. All around are satin and silk nightgowns bunched on hangers. Stevie says she bought this house because she could imagine Ann Boleyn living here.

When Stevie Nicks first made money with Fleetwood Mac, she was able to fulfil her Dickensian fantasies of looking like a "ragged doll"- she came off resembling Artful Dodger, Bill Sykes' girlfriend from Oliver Twist and Miss Haversham from Great Expectations.

Stevie is not quite sure where this obsession with English things came from. "It was born into me. Maybe my last life was in England." Thus, when, in January 1975, a 6'5'' English eccentric named Mick Fleetwood came and asked her and her boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham to join his band, she had to say yes. "Just the idea that his band was English was reason enough to join. It was a dream come true." It was also a perfect opportunity to learn about kings, queens, princes and princesses.

Fleetwood perfectly matched her dreams. "The first time Mick walked into the room I thought I was witnessing the entrance of an English king, because that's how he looked to me. He was wearing a burgundy coloured water silk vest (waistcoat) with a watch chain and a very long jacket that was very nipped at the waist, and beautifully made pants. I was awe struck. I still am to this day of Mick's presence. The whole air around him is power." The people who saw Fleetwood's performance with Samantha Fox may find this a little hard to accept.

Previously Lindsey Buckingham had dominated Stevie. He was the artist; he didn't know how to do anything except music. "What was he going to do, sell shoes? I had a $50,000 education, I could do anything." Her waitress job paid for the rent, the food, the car. "I knew it was going to take my strength to push Lindsey and I over the edge if we were going to make it in the music business."

After Buckingham came a rogues' gallery of rock'n'roll suitors not known for their wimpishness- Joe Walsh, Don Henley, Tom Petty and producers Jimmy Iovine and Rupert Hine. And the man who called his on-the-road dalliances an attack of "veal viper", Mick Fleetwood. All get their individual tributes on Stevie's Best Of compilation album, Timespace.

In parallel with the last 10 years of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie enjoyed the most successful career of the whole group. Her first solo album, Bella Donna, sold 10 million copies and subsequent collections have enjoyed less spectacular, but still reputable sales. Now, though, with the apparently final demise of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie is suffering a personal and professional crisis.

The recent Mac troubles can be traced to an old song called Silver Springs. So taken was Stevie's mother by this number that she was moved to open an antique clothing shop in Phoenix in the same name. Stevie made a gift of the song to her.

Silver Springs nearly became a classic, but was dropped at the last minute from the 20-million selling Rumours album. Stevie thought it would be nice to resurrect the song and place it on Timespace. But Mick Fleetwood refused to give up the group's performance rights; he wants the option of having the number on a boxed set due for this year's commemoration of Fleetwood Mac's 25th anniversary.

"I have told the world what a vile thing it was that Mick Fleetwood had done to me, who has fought like a dog for 15 years to keep this band from breaking up. I don't really know what's going through Mick's mind. He never returned a phone call, and he never felt it was his duty to sit down and write a letter to tell me why.

"He has always been very English, and very proper and sometimes very arrogant, but to me a very close and loving friend. And somebody that I always felt I could trust and love" says Stevie, wiping away tears.

"He has always been the boss of the group. He has always made all the decisions. And he has always made all the decisions. And he has always made them without asking anyone else. So he had no reason to do this to us. To break up the whole band."

In the tradition on rock'n'roll's greatest soap opera, Stevie has Fleetwood's soon-to-be ex-wife Sarah on her side. "She's singing with me now, she's a very good friend. She's divorcing Mick after being with him for 13 years; they are completely separated. She doesn't understand."

Stevie has included 'Beauty and the Beast' on Timespace, a song written about her affair with Mick in the late 70's. She explains that it is not a dig at him being a beast, but about the beauty and the beast within us all. The album's sleeve notes are full of similar references to her ex-lovers.

Was there a common thread among her men? "They're all very smart and very loving, and they all had a difficult time with my life and the way that I live it and how busy I am." For four lovers, a crucial test came when she became pregnant and opted for terminations. "It's always been a tragedy. But they understood." But they didn't really. "Eventually their hearts couldn't take it, they couldn't understand quite enough, how deeply embedded in this I was. And so it eventually hurt them too much and they had to leave, or face devastation on their own."

She put her relationship with her fans before a relationship with one man. Ever since she saw Janis Joplin perform, Stevie has wanted to emulate her, to achieve that state of communion with the crowd. "I just wanted to be in love with my audience and I wanted them to be in love with me back."

But now there is remorse at the havoc her abortions have wreaked on her psyche. "To give up four babies is to give up a lot that would be here now. So that bothers me, a lot, and really breaks my heart. But they're gone, so..." She composes herself. "But I couldn't have because I was too busy. And I had all these commitments." She wants to adopt, but age and single-parenthood are against her.
"I've also though about having one myself but I'm booked up for the next four years. I don't know if, at my age, I can get pregnant right away, do an album at the same time, have a baby, promote an album, go out on tour with the baby. So I'm going back and forth in my mind. At 43 years old, my time clock is ticking, so I can't afford to wait around for very long." Surely these are the same excuses she made on the last four occasions -- with two important differences. There is no obvious candidate for the father, and even if there were, the decision totally remains in her hands.

In an epic inversion of the star's role, she is subservient to the 40 people who depend on her for their livelihoods. "I don't know quite how to walk away without hurting a lot of people -- even though every one of those people would say 'you've done a lot for us and we know that you love us, but go do something for yourself for a change' But I just can't."

The determination, toughness, and pragmatism that helped her achieve success now seem elusive, but what hurts most is being pushed around by business moguls. She is smarting from the inclusion - against her wishes - of Jon Bon Jovi's song "Sometimes It's a Bitch" on Timespace.

"I was told that if I didn't do a song by Jon Bon Jovi then my career was over. I don't have any reason to hate Jon Bon Jovi. He wrote me a song that was a wonderful thing to do. I knew that just me singing it wasn't going to go over well with my fans, which it hasn't. But I was told by the industry, by management, and by everybody else that if I did NOT do this, and reach this new audience, that my career was simply, finally, completely over.

They exerted all the pressure you could possibly exert, they scared me to death. So I did the song, and is it a big hit song? No, it's not."

She found it particularly distasteful to sing the word 'bitch', which she considers a swear word. Stevie concedes that she has difficulty challenging authority figures.

It all makes her appear so fragile. While we speak she only opens her doe eyes to wipe away the tears, preferring instead to look down when the talk gets serious. There are no crutches anymore. she gave up the cocaine and alcohol in 1986 when she admitted herself to the Betty Ford Center.

Bad as she was, she still had the inner strength to take control of her destiny, probably because she sensed she was in mortal danger. One night she was inspired to write a personal creed: "I am not special, I am not infallible, I am dying."

"I started crying really hard, and I wrote under it something to the effect never forget these three lines. And so I feel that yes, I can write stories for people, but that I'm not indestructible that I'm not special. And that I was dying. So, that was a very bug turning point at Betty Ford for me."

If Fleetwood Mac had been told to do 'Sometimes It's A Bitch', she thinks she knows what would have happened. "Mick would have ridden in on his white horse and swept me up and told them all to go to hell and say I won't let her do it." The tragedy is that after all these struggles, Stevie Nicks is a victim once again.


Photo caption:
VOX was privileged to receive a guided tour of Stevie Nicks's home. However, since several previous attempts at photographing the interior of her mansion had not matched up to her idea of how it should look, Nicks chose to recreate the interior in sympathetic lighting conditions.



Two days later Ms. Nicks summoned our photographer to a professional sound-stage at a studio near LA International airport. There, with the aid of two articulated lorries of furniture, clothes, dolls, and assorted knickknacks, she recreated her bedroom. A staff of more than a dozen people-- including caterers (note bulging fridge), lighting men, set builders, makeup artists, hairdressers, and a mysterious "personal assistant"-- spent a whole day recreating the authentic ambiance of Stevie's home.

All of this was done at her own cost. But Ms. Nicks is no stranger to excess. During the last Fleetwood Mac world tour, she had every hotel room she stayed in redecorated to her personal taste-- and at her own considerable cost.

skuncles 09-12-2010 11:13 PM

She spoke about this topic in 1994 on the "Off The Record" interview with Mary Turner. It's one of my favorite interviews because she's promoting "Street Angel" and at the same time she is trashing the album.

ryguy2010 09-12-2010 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skuncles (Post 909988)
She spoke about this topic in 1994 on the "Off The Record" interview with Mary Turner. It's one of my favorite interviews because she's promoting "Street Angel" and at the same time she is trashing the album.

Thanks Skuncles. Do you know whwere I can find the interview? I would love to see that :)

louielouie2000 09-13-2010 12:52 AM

Yeah, this article is rather infamous in the Stevie community. The people who have drank too much of the Stevie Kool Aid think she wasn't talking about abortions, but rather her songs :rolleyes:. Like skuncles said, Stevie alluded to it absolutely being about her abortions in other interviews. It's my humble opinion that she really did have that many terminated pregnancies. She had a fame bloated ego, she was doing obscene amounts of hardcore drugs and drinking for many years, and had scads of well-documented trysts. Who knows how many "affairs" there were that we didn't know about. Who knows... there could have been more than 4 abortions, we know how Stevie likes to revise history in her favor when she's interviewed.

Not sure if you know this, but Don Henley claimed in his book he was the father of one of Stevie's aborted children, that she named the baby Sara, and wrote the song of the same name about the situation. I actually think he's wrong about the story of Sara, but that's just my opinion. I do believe he did actually impregnate Stevie though, and she terminated the pregnancy.

I know for me personally, when I learned of this article and it's contents, it was a bit hard for me to digest. I had to remind myself repeatedly that I am a fan of Stevie's music, and her personal life is just that: her personal life. She's not my role model, she's not a spokesperson on morality, she's just a woman who sings and writes songs that allow me to escape from my crappy life for a few minutes.

desertangel 09-13-2010 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by louielouie2000 (Post 910001)
I know for me personally, when I learned of this article and it's contents, it was a bit hard for me to digest. I had to remind myself repeatedly that I am a fan of Stevie's music, and her personal life is just that: her personal life. She's not my role model, she's not a spokesperson on morality, she's just a woman who sings and writes songs that allow me to escape from my crappy life for a few minutes.


awww... I could hug you for that, in fact, consider yourself hugged :xoxo:
***I feel the same way***

Nikolaj 09-13-2010 03:22 AM

Oh, this magazine article has come up countless times. I personally feel it is best to leave it alone, it is one time she was, in my opinion, exploited by the press. These type of confessionals, under the influence (likely Klonopin, perhaps mixed with wine or too heavy a dosage)-- these types of heartbreaking stories are not best revealed to a journalist, but to a close confidante- a best friend, a parent, a doctor, a spiritual advisor.
It's my belief that the magazine took something too private from a woman who for whatever reason revealed too much she needed to talk about, but not with or to the general public. Yet, maybe she also did need for the public to know, though I doubt it. I think she was very much unguarded and open, and may have regretted it later.
It's not anyone's place to judge her on choices she has had to deal with in her life, we perhaps can all agree it's very sad. But it'd be nicer even if we could say 'let's not discuss this very private matter.'
To me, the Vox editors and writer of the article just did their job and printed the details, when the conscionable thing would have been to realize that Nicks was either overly medicated, or in a state of trauma. They noted she had cried several times during the interview. In my opinion, the right thing to do would have been to have sent her a pre-publication version of what got printed, and asked through attorneys, 'do you really want to go through with revealing all of this?' and I think she would not have.
Or; I could be wrong, and on some level, she just had to reveal the information. I believe all of this began with Henley's drunken GQ interview* a cpl years prior, when he mentioned one situation of this sort he had with Stevie.
*Louie- Don's never written his autobiography, it was a long magazine interview.
Apparantly; Don and Stevie have mended fences long ago, but I think Don soon realized he said too much about Stevie. He learned, maybe: don't do interviews loaded. The information is just too personal. Don was drunk; and as for Stevie's revelations, I think it was a medication malfunction that she revealed it in the first place. I think it's why we still sometimes get very short answers from her to questions posed- It was really the last time, I believe, that Stevie made such unguarded public comments.
We've often had one or two-word replies from her on the Nicks Fix for questions about things that deserved to be answered in more detail, about her music. I think she learned a lesson about not revealing too much ever again with that Vox article.
Anyone can think what they feel they have to think about the subject. But I don't think it's a good topic of discussion, who wins? Nobody. It'd be nice for it to be left alone, for once. The interview was what it was and revealed what it revealed.
Fortunately, Vox didn't have a huge presence here in America, though word of the revealed details did get around. I wasn't aware she'd also discussed the subject in the Mary Turner radio interview. Hmm.

daniellaaarisen 09-13-2010 04:20 AM

Louie, interesting post, especially that end part...

This is going to sound really, really weird, but Stevie's flaws are a big part of what draws me to her. I think this is mostly because it allows me to justify my own ****ty decisions, to be quite honest. But more importantly, it makes me feel a little more confident in certain values that I have that are controversial-- "seize the day," necessary selfishness, etc. Also, I love that Stevie can almost redefine herself through her creative work, depicting her experiences in the way that she sees them. You study "Gold Dust Woman" and "Kick It" and suddenly, you can have a completely new perspective on Stevie's drug use. "Sara" and "Goodbye Baby" shed a little light on the abortions. As a writer, I appreciate her ability to work through things in a creative way. Don't get me wrong-- I do NOT approve of anyone getting four abortions.But I must admit that I am as intrigued with her flaws and insecurities as I am with her strengths.

CADreaming 09-13-2010 06:54 AM

There is also speculation that she could not carry to term. Abortion is also known as miscarriage. I think that makes a lot of sense, she seemed to want children very badly.

skuncles 09-13-2010 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CADreaming (Post 910010)
There is also speculation that she could not carry to term. Abortion is also known as miscarriage. I think that makes a lot of sense, she seemed to want children very badly.

Abortion and a miscarriage are two totally different things. A miscarriage is something that happens naturally, the body, for whatever reason rejects the fetus. An abortion is something that you have performed to you TO prevent the birth. An abortion is a decision, a miscarriage is not. You will never hear any woman mistakenly say she had an abortion if she meant she had a miscarriage.

jellyman10 09-13-2010 07:34 AM

I think it's OK ...
 
... to talk about this, if someone wants to. I wouldn't bring it up myself, but that's only because I'm a saddo who's read every single post in the Ledge archive, so I know how much everything has been talked about already. :lol:

My own opinion is that none of us need to explain to each other why we're drawn to any artist or their work, and likewise we don't need to agree on whether liking somebody's work means that you must take a view on their lifestyle. You're free to do that, but you don't have to.Let a thousand varieties of SN fan bloom, I say.

But, as I'm here, and I *am* one of those people who finds SN's whole life quite fascinating, here's what i think (don't read on, if you don't care!):

1. The Vox article might be tasteless, but I strongly suspect it *does* report what she said.
2. Saying what I just said does imply that, for me, she has said out of her own mouth that she's had four terminations.
3. SN's history as a serious, serial addict makes this sort of scenario not just possible, but likely.
4. If male rock stars could get pregnant, we'd soon see how much of Stevie's experience in the 70s and 80s went with the territory, rather than because she was egregiously irresponsible.
5. I'm sure I read somewhere (can anyone remember this?) that Chris opted for sterilisation - perhaps exactly because she'd seen what Stevie went through with DH. But SN, I guess, always wanted to leave herself the option of having a child later, and with that went the risk of 'later' still not being the right time when she found herself pregnant again.
6. I suspect, having said what I just said, that there never was going to be a 'right time' for Stevie to go through with a pregnancy. In some ways, her whole artistry - perhaps even her personality - seems to be based on holding irreconcilable opposites in permanent tension (which is why she contradicts herself all the time, too ...:lol:)

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. Lunchtime!

Loz (aka JM10)

skuncles 09-13-2010 07:39 AM

The interview is on Youtube (although the sound is horrible) it's in three parts, the part about the abortion is part three (linked below). The part about trashing the "Street Angel" album is in part 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=van9uyR9ksc

holidayroad 09-13-2010 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skuncles (Post 910016)
Abortion and a miscarriage are two totally different things. A miscarriage is something that happens naturally, the body, for whatever reason rejects the fetus. An abortion is something that you have performed to you TO prevent the birth. An abortion is a decision, a miscarriage is not. You will never hear any woman mistakenly say she had an abortion if she meant she had a miscarriage.

I think some insurance companies may need to be informed about the difference. My husband's cousin had a miscarriage and on her insurance forms, it stated the reason for her medical visit was 'abortion'.

CADreaming 09-13-2010 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by holidayroad (Post 910023)
I think some insurance companies may need to be informed about the difference. My husband's cousin had a miscarriage and on her insurance forms, it stated the reason for her medical visit was 'abortion'.

The medical term for miscarriage is spontaneous abortion', meaning the body aborts the pregnancy. This article is from a London magazine and my understanding is that they used the the medical term abortion for miscarriage. Regardless, it is obvious Stevie wanted children.

LorraineRN 09-13-2010 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by holidayroad (Post 910023)
I think some insurance companies may need to be informed about the difference. My husband's cousin had a miscarriage and on her insurance forms, it stated the reason for her medical visit was 'abortion'.

In medical terminology there is no such term as a "miscarriage". The medical term is a "spontaneous abortion". In the medical field the term abortion is used for both miscarriages and abortions.

Kena 09-13-2010 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniellaaarisen (Post 910006)
Louie, interesting post, especially that end part...

This is going to sound really, really weird, but Stevie's flaws are a big part of what draws me to her. I think this is mostly because it allows me to justify my own ****ty decisions to be quite honest. But more importantly, it makes me feel a little more confident in certain values that I have that are controversial-- "seize the day," necessary selfishness, etc. Also, I love that Stevie can almost redefine herself through her creative work, depicting her experiences in the way that she sees them. You study "Gold Dust Woman" and "Kick It" and suddenly, you can have a completely new perspective on Stevie's drug use. "Sara" and "Goodbye Baby" shed a little light on the abortions. As a writer, I appreciate her ability to work through things in a creative way. Don't get me wrong-- I do NOT approve of anyone getting four abortions.But I must admit that I am as intrigued with her flaws and insecurities as I am with her strengths.

I totally agree with you about her flaws being a draw and by being intrigued with her insecurities. To me she puts so much of herself out in the open in her music. I mean, look into her lyrics as far as you want, but I swear I get something without looking to hard. Flaws, insecurities, rights, wrongs, heartaches that drive me mad, etc. Maybe I just totally understand Stevie more than anyone else.... *sigh*

Sometimes I have to remind myself that she is a real live person and not some sort of higher power. She's a rock star and I like her A LOT but she's still a person and she poops. Everyone Poops. Poop seems to put things in perspective for me.

I do admit that I have wondered who all impregnated her and when these terminations occured. I wonder if she appeared impregnatated ... None of my business but half the things I know are none of my business.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:26 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
© 1995-2003 Martin and Lisa Adelson, All Rights Reserved