Buckingham Nicks: Goodbye to the first eight year

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

Stevie has never lacked in confidence. A great quality to have when you're a waitress slash cleaning lady.

Well,, not that confident in her very early days in the band. According to Mick's book:

Rolling Stone said that Stevie's singing was "callow," and many reviews said something like "...the raucous voice of Stevie Nicks and the golden-throated Christine McVie, who's the only good thing this band has left."

Stevie is extremely sensitive; she would go to pieces when she saw these things. She began to think we'd only hired her because she was with Lindsey, part of a package. And I'd say no, we love what you're doing, and the audience loves it too. This was true. I couldn't take my eyes off her when she was onstage. But she had a hard time believing it, and confided that she was beginning to think she wasn't that good. There were other factors as well. She was somewhat fragile to begin with, and the grind of the road four gigs in a row, one day off~egan to beat her down. Driving around, we were all cold all the time, and without any catering, decent meals were extremely rare. Young Stevie Nicks proceeded to lose weight she didn't have in the first place. She again alarmed her family when they saw her after we played Phoenix late in the year, and I know there were a few bad moments when she seriously considered leaving the tour and the band.

I'd say to her, "C'mon, Stevie, you've got to eat and stay fit. You're an important part of this band now. We need you."

"Mick," she'd say, "when I joined I hadn't a clue it would be like this. No one told me, and I didn't know Chris and I would be sleeping on amps in back of trucks. But I've decided that I'm going to make it through, and that no one's going to say, 'Oh, she can't cope, she should give it up.'"

No one ever did say that about Stevie Nicks.