The Amazing Power of Stevie Nicks (a story of friendship)
 

Come sit down kiddos, and listen to a tale of friendship, one that began in the days before interwebs.
In 1991, I was a 17 year old gay boy in West Texas, obsessed with 3 things: Wonder Woman, The New Teen Titans, and Stevie Nicks. I didn't know a single other gay person, and was dreading having to come out to my family. My one place of refuge was the youth theater troupe I belonged to. In Feburary of that year, while we were in rehearsal for 'The Velveteen Rabbit,' I was reading my latest issue of The New Teen Titans in the Green Room while I waited for my scenes. The last couple of pages were always the letter column. In those days, they printed the letter, AND the name and address of the person who wrote it. In this issue, someone had signed his letter off with, 'PS: Don't you thinkg Raven would make a terrific singer/songwriter a la Stevie Nicks?' My heart skipped a beat. I knew I had found a kindred spirit. After rehearsal, I rushed home and wrote this guy a letter (on a typewriter, kids!).
A coule of weeks later, I got a reply from this gentleman. His name was Anthony. I drank up his words, so thirsty for something more than Texas. I answered immediately, and we began exchanging letters very frequently. He sent me a CASSETTE of rare Stevie songs I had never heard (including Silver Springs, pre-boxed set). We phoned on occassion, but mostly wrote.
In July of 1991, Anthony attended the Whole Lotta Trouble show in Philadelphia. Because he knew Henri David (the guy that makes Stevie's jewelry), Anthony was invited to sit with Stevie for a few minutes while she shopped in Henri's store. Anthony told Stevie about our friendship, and she signed the copy of The New Teen Titans that had his letter in it.
In 1992, I rode a greyhound bus all the way from Odessa, TX to Philadelphia, PA, ALONE, to visit Anthony. We had a great time, but neither one of us thought to take pictures.
As the years progressed, letters turned into emails, emails turned into texts and phone calls. but we were still seperated by 1862 miles.
When In Your Dreams was released, Anthony and I decided that 'For What It's Worth' is the story of our friendship.
In September of this year, I was contacted by Anthony's partner, Nick. Nick was throwing Anthony a surprise 50th birthday party (complete with a Wonder Woman theme), and wanted me to be there as a special surprise. I talked to my partner and we worked out all the details. Anthony's bithday falls between Christmas and New Year's so we were able to make it a holiday trip.
Complicating matters slightly, Anthony's father passed early in December. I wrestled with changing my flight to be there for the funeral, but my gentle and wise partner told me I should be there to cheer Anthony up at the party, so that we always have positive memories to share.
We got into Philly Christmas night and hid in the city for 2 days while we waited for the day of Anthony's party. Our hotel was right across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe. We went there for dinner, and of course, I asked the server if there was any Stevie memorabelia. She told me No, and I let it go.
I surprised Anthony at his party and we hugged like crazy. Over the next 4 days, we watched the IYD doc, drank champagne, sang along to Stevie, spun like Wonder Woman, and ate at the Hard Rock 4 more times. On our last day in Philly we caught one last lunch at Hard Rock. As we were seated, I looked up at the wall over the bar, and there it was: Stevie Nicks' yellow dress, the one from the Timespace longbox and US Weekly 1990 Behind The Mask interview. The Gay Gasp ensued as I grabbed Anthony's arm. We spent the lunch taking Stevie Dress Selfies, and planning a heist.
Too soon it was time to come home, but I am still thankful for the friendship I was given, all because of Stevie's music.

Well, that's a rather terrific story. Thanks a lot for sharing Raven. :)

I forget how much I took for granted growing up as a gay kid with the internet. I had so much access to helpful information and a feeling of connectedness to a larger gay community. Not having that would've been a very very different experience. It's always interesting to get tidbits of that from people. :)

I love the notion of Stevie signing an issue of The New Teen Titans. That just tickles me.

That is a wonderful Stevie Story - Thank you! :)

Awe! That's amazing to hear! So glad that you found such a good friend to share a love for Stevie! Thank you for sharing!

Do you have any pics of you with the yellow dress that you'd want to post? I always loved her in that. Thanks, Ricoh
p.s. Thanks for sharing your story. I was approximately the same age, at the same time, with similar experiences but in small town Colorado, so I can totally relate.

what a lovely holiday Nicksmas-esque story
gives me the warm and fuzzies

thanks for sharing :wavey:

**imagines Stevie dressed as Wonder Woman :thumbsup: **

Great story!

And great idea for a thread: "Which comic book would you have Stevie sign?" :woohoo:

Here's a pic of Ant & I with the dress. Ant is on the left, dress in the middle, I'm on the right.

Thanks to everyone who responded to this thread, it means a lot.

Thank you for posting the pic. Even though she was considered sort of "big" then the dress still looks small. Am I right or is that just a weird perspective of the photo?
Ricoh

good read...thanks for sharing...b well

Aww! That's such a cool story! I'm younger than you (I guess by quite a bit but I was some kind of freak child that came out at 10 years old... And quickly learned that oops that wasn't a very acceptable thing to do! The Internet wasn't really a big thing yet then either so somehow I just knew and was this honest kid but didn't realize it was a big deal. Totally needed a role model or someone to help me out back then because that level of honesty I had got me into a whole lotta trouble! ;) I'm one of those rarer lesbians that hangs with all the gay guys too so I could picture myself being best buds with you two actually. Gay gasping along at the yellow dress. ;) But ahh, I was a lonely little lesbian growing up and I lived for lots of strong female singers and was a little gothy mini Stevie. Now you've got me waxing nostalgic too. That's so cool though. Just on all accounts from the comic geekiness, massive Nicks fixing, and the gay aspect. I can relate a lot to all of that even though I'm a lesbian. Think I totally could've benefitted a ton in my teens if I had someone who shared my interests because I was always kind of an oddball all around. I thought I was the only kid who ran through stores squealing "OMG that's such a Stevie-esque dress! I need it!" Because I was in that weird generation when much of the time FM/Stevie wasn't super active. So I had the goth friends but they were into goth music and I liked the look because I wanted to be Stevie. Haha.

Anyway sorry to babble on. Its fun to think about that stuff. I think in general that the music that we connect with in our teens will always be so special to us. My tastes were unusual for my generation but its fun to hear about how others here basically grew up like me and if only my teen self could see she wasn't so odd after all. ;) Must've been so amazing to have that feeling at 17 in your friend Anthony.

That is such a great story! Always fun and interesting to hear other peoples great and significant moments in their lives.

I loved reading this - thank you for sharing your story.