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Arcadia
High School
1965
Although Stephanie “Stevie”
Nicks did not graduate from Arcadia High, she was a student in her Sophomore
and Junior years. Stevie was born May 26, 1946 in Phoenix, AZ. Her grandfather
was a frustrated country singer and it was from him that she received
her early musical encouragement. While at Arcadia, Stevie was a member
of the A Capella Choir and played music with her friends. In fact, she
wrote her very first song while attending AHS. On her 16th birthday, she
received her first guitar as a present from her parents. Stevie
says, “I was totally in tears sitting on my bed with lots of paper, my
guitar and a pen, and I wrote this song about your basic sixteen-year-old
love affair thing. When I played my own song that night, I knew that second
on that I was not going to do a lot of other people’s songs. I had to
write my own.” After her Junior year at AHS, Stevie’s family moved to
San Francisco where she graduated from high school in 1966.
During that time, she
met a student who was a year behind her that would help shape her musical
destiny; Lindsay Buckingham. And the rest, as they say, is music,
not to mention romantic history! For the next several years, Stevie and
Lindsay struggled in a few bands, mainly a band named Fritz. It was during
this time that their band attracted audiences on the west coast and they
started opening for acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Creedence
Clearwater Revival. Tensions within that group surfaced and Fritz disbanded.
In 1973, Stevie and Lindsay, who by this point were having a love affair,
as well, moved to Los Angeles from the Bay area and recorded their first
album, Buckingham Nicks. The album was a commercial disappointment. However,
it caught the attention of several members of Fleetwood Mac and led to
their invitation to join the band.
Their first effort, Fleetwood
Mac, topped the charts in 1975 and their follow up, Rumours, sold over
17 million copies, which for several years was the largest selling album
of all time. In 1981, Stevie recorded and released her first solo work
entitled Bella Donna. This album had 3 top twenty hits including Stop
Draggin’ My Heart Around, Leather and Lace and Edge of Seventeen. After
several more solo efforts and additional Fleetwood Mac albums, she left
the group in 1993. However, she rejoined the band in 1997 for a tour and
the album, The Dance. She also released a boxed set, Enchanted, in 1998.
In 2001 she released her most recent solo album entitled "Troublein Shangri-La",
which was produced by Sheryl Crow.
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