Stevie Nicks

American singer and songwriter with Lindsey Buckingham who married and divorced him; together they transformed the struggling blues group "Fleetwood Mac" into one of the most successful bands in pop history. She and Buckingham, her former high school classmate, first made a record together entitled "Buckingham and Nicks," and then were invited to join Fleetwood Mac on New Years Eve, 1974. By 1977 the group was co-winner of the Billboard Award for Album of the Year and sole winner for Group of the Year. Wearing chiffon and seven-inch heel platform boots, Stevie created her own gypsy-style look, swept the ratings and made 50 million album sales. The daughter of a well-traveled executive, Jesse Seth Nicks and his homemaker wife, Barbara, Stevie grew up in Northern California. Influenced by singer Janis Joplin, the 5 1" (1.55 m) Nicks was the hottest music star of the 1970s but she became the poster-girl for the hippie cultures excesses. She degenerated into a bloated, drugged-out cliché of the 70s sex-drugs-and rock-n-roll. Her nightmarish fall into a lost ten years began with a cocaine habit that consumed millions and burned a hole through the cartilage of her nose. While still a member of the band she launched a solo career with her hit "Bella Donna" album in 1981, but continued her coke use. In 1986 a plastic surgeon told her, "If you want your nose to remain on your face, stop right now." Nicks took his advice and completed a 28-day stay at the Betty Ford Center. But things got even worse as she continued to gain weight, looking constantly fatigued. In 1987, friends who feared she would relapse on cocaine persuaded her to see a psychiatrist who prescribed Klonopin, a powerful tranquilizer to which she then became addicted. She became so wasted that she barely remembers an entire solo tour in 1989, "I vegetated into my own little world." While hosting a bridal shower for a friend in late 1993, Nicks crashed into a fireplace and gashed her head but didnt feel a thing. That scare gave her the courage to face a brutal 45-day detox. Back home and drug-free in 1994, she embarked on a six-month solo tour despite weighing 175 lbs (80 kg) and still feeling tired. At the end of the tour she was ready to give it all up because she couldnt handle people talking about how fat she was. Her growing lethargy had been diagnosed as the effects of Epstein-Barr virus, which causes constant fatigue, but she and her mother suspected it might be related to silicone breast implants that she had in 1976. Several doctors advised that removing them would be painful and unnecessary, but in 1994 she had the surgery anyway. It turned out that the implants were totally broken. In 1983 she had a brief marriage to Kim Anderson, the grieving husband of her best friend, Robin Stucker, who had died that year of leukemia. She has also been involved with rockers Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and producer Jimmy Iovine, though she stayed single after her two failed excursions into matrimony. In 1995, Nicks lost 30 lbs (13.5 kg) and with new zest, slimmed down and drug-free she was in the best health shes had in years. In May 1997 her old band regrouped after a seven year recording hiatus to cut a No. 1 album, "Dance," and launch a three-month sold-out tour. In January 1998 Nicks and band members guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie and his ex-wife, key-boardist Christine McVie were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hal Read less