★ 07/10/2017
Drawing on interviews with Stevie Nicks, her family, friends, and music associates, Davis (who cowrote Fleetwood with Mick Fleetwood) offers a captivating portrait of the singer whose songwriting and stage presence gave the faltering British blues band a boost in the mid-1970s. He traces her early years in Arizona, where her parents discovered that she was a natural harmony singer, and California, where she tried her hand at songwriting. She met guitarist Lindsay Buckingham when she was 22 and at that point decided on a life in music. In the early ’70s the pair formed Buckingham Nicks and released an album to modest success in 1973. One year later, Mick Fleetwood stopped in the studio where the duo was recording, was taken with Buckingham’s guitar playing and Nicks’s beauty, and invited the couple to join his band. Davis chronicles the band’s now-well-known cocaine-fueled days and nights, extravagant tours, bitter in-fighting, and sexual betrayals, and illustrates the toll this tumult took on Nicks. By the early ’80s, she had embarked on a solo career, working only sporadically with Fleetwood Mac thereafter. Davis’s candid, energetic book reveals the life of the woman who’s arguably one of rock’s greatest singer-songwriters. (Nov.)This review has been corrected to fix a typo.
Captivating…Davis’s candid, energetic book reveals the life of the woman who’s arguably one of rock’s greatest singer-songwriters.” - Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[A]n intimate and refreshing look at both Stevie Nicks’ career and personal life.” - Departures
“An entertaining rock biography.” - Kirkus Reviews
“All you ever wanted to know about Fleetwood Mac’s mesmerizing frontwoman.” - People Magazine
"Davis is astute and respectful...adept in his literary analysis." - The New York Times Book Review
09/15/2017
The latest unauthorized biography about legendary Fleetwood Mac member and solo artist Stevie Nicks (b. 1948) is what you'd expect—a dishy retelling of her much-reported sex, drugs, and rock and roll-filled life—but with a lot of foofy words and sexist descriptions of the singer-songwriter, including an emphasis on her age, looks, and weight. This book has been in the works for several years (St. Martin's reportedly purchased the rights in 2012), and author Davis (Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga) has cobbled most of the content from previously published interviews, magazine articles, track-by-track liner notes from Nicks's various albums, and books by insiders such as bandmate (and former lover) Mick Fleetwood. Interestingly, Davis first entered Fleetwood Mac's universe when he began helping the musician pen his memoirs in 1987; his recollection of this experience is the freshest part of this book. VERDICT This title may attract curious new or casual fans looking to learn about Nicks's life, but die-hard admirers of the performer will find little new in its pages. [See Prepub Alert, 5/15/17.]—Samantha Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY
2017-10-02
An unauthorized biography of Stevie Nicks (b. 1948), best known as the lead singer for Fleetwood Mac.Rock biographer Davis (More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon, 2012, etc.) begins with his subject's Welsh ancestry, taking it as a window into the mystical element in many of her songs. Nicks was born in Phoenix but spent much of her youth in California. Music was in her family, with a grandfather who sang country songs in bars and took her along to sing harmony when she was still very young. In high school, she learned guitar and started writing folk songs. Meeting another young guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, put Nicks on the road to a musical career, though she spent several years waiting tables and hoping for breaks while they scuffled. When Mick Fleetwood came looking for a replacement lead guitarist, the engineer suggested Buckingham. He brought along Nicks, and with the new additions, Fleetwood Mac went from being reliable second-stringers to the hottest group on the planet. Davis gives readers a look into recording sessions and concert tours, playing up the personality clashes and shifting romantic entanglements that made up the mystique of Fleetwood Mac in its heyday. Given the "unauthorized" character of the book, Nicks' impressions and feelings are more or less secondhand, quoted from interviews by others or guessed at by band mates and friends. This is less a problem than it might be, since Nicks has been fairly open, at least since the early days when the band kept her under wraps. As usual, the author is good at keeping readers—even those not totally enthralled by Nicks' music—turning pages. Things get slower when Davis recounts her solo career, though there were frequent reunions and continued drama between her and her band mates, especially Buckingham—and, of course, the drug problems and other personal crises that come with being a rock star.An entertaining rock biography, even if you're a take-it-or-leave-it fan of the singer.
Christina Delaine’s performance often feels like rock singer Stevie Nicks herself is telling her story. Delaine conjures up visions of Stevie with her melodious voice, which can turn sharp as a knife when the story makes it necessary. And what a story it is: Everyone wanted her, but no one wanted to love her. This audiobook relies heavily on interviews with friends and associates, and interviews Stevie gave. It illuminates the conflicts within one of America's greatest rock bands and how its members simultaneously hate and love one another. Nicks's music comes from the pain caused by bandmate and lover Lindsey Buckingham, who, ironically, is the one man whose arrangements make her music sound perfect. The meanings of Stevie's songs are explained, exposing her tortured heart and soul. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
