STEVIE NICKS

Called the Queen of Rock and Roll by Rolling Stone magazine,
Stevie’s Nicks Arizona roots run as deep as a vein of Bisbee Copper. Her mother, Barbara Meeks, was born in Bisbee with her mining family eventually settling in Ajo.

Stevie counts her Arizona summers spent with her grandmother in Ajo , as some of her favorite childhood memories.

In the 1940’s, Barbara was living in the city, working at The Arizona Republic.

A coworker in the circulation department was fellow Arizona native and ASU student, Jess Nicks. Barbara wrote in her diary at the time, that it was love at first sight. They were married one month later.

Stephanie Lynn Nicks was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix on May 26, 1948 . Stevie remembers her parents always having music playing for her, even in the crib, because she showed such a love for it.

At age 4, Stevie’s paternal grandfather, Aaron Jess Nicks, or AJ as he was known on the Arizona Country Western circuit, made Stevie her first guitar, igniting her passion for songwriting. Stevie’s first musical performance as a very little girl, was singing Red Sovine’s, ‘Are You Mine’, with AJ Nicks.

Later, Stevie would meet Lindsay Buckingham and record their first album Buckingham Nicks. The dedication on the 1973 album read “To AJ Nicks, the grandfather of country music”. Although the duo was largely unknown to the rest of the country, the Buckingham Nicks album would become a Phoenix favorite, garnering heavy local airplay, thanks to legendary, album rock programmer, Bill Compton.

Buckingham Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975 with Stevie’s contributing hits
Rhiannon and Landslide, for the new line-up’s self-titled, debut album. Shortly after joining the band, Bill Compton interviewed her about the first of many benefit concerts Stevie and the band would perform in Phoenix, on behalf of Jess Nicks, for The Arizona Heart Institute.
In 1977, the band released the Rumours album, one of the biggest selling albums of all time, which included Stevie’s Dreams and Gold Dust Woman.

In 1981, Nicks released her first solo album, Bella Donna. Billboard Magazine
called her ‘Fleetwood Mac’s in-house poet’. For the next two decades, she would record with and without Fleetwood Mac, recording more than 20, top 40 hits and selling over 80 million records.

In a 1995 Interview Magazine story, Stevie recalled grandfather AJ Nicks, who never found success as a singer songwriter. Luckily, she said, I became a bit more successful than he was.
For over 20 years, a constant in her life has been her home on what Stevie calls her spiritual mountain, Camelback, not far from her parent’s and brother Christopher, in Paradise Valley. Stevie calls Arizona a very spiritual place. She talks about having a place to come home to. Arizona welcomes you home, Stevie Nicks, with your induction into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.]

Stevie Nicks web site