Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks

by Stephen Davis Narrated by Christina Delaine

Overview

Gold Dust Woman gives "the gold standard of rock biographers" (the Boston Globe) his ideal topic: Nicks' work and life are equally sexy and interesting, and Davis delves deeply into each, unearthing fresh details from new, intimate interviews and interpreting them to present a rich new portrait of the star. Just as Nicks (and Lindsay Buckingham) gave Fleetwood Mac the "shot of adrenaline" they needed to become real rock stars-according to Christine McVie-Gold Dust Woman is vibrant with stories and with a life lived large and hard:



¿How Nicks and Buckingham were asked to join Fleetwood Mac and how they turned the band into stars
¿The affairs that informed Nicks' greatest songs
¿Her relationships with the Eagles' Don Henley and Joe Walsh, and with Fleetwood himself
¿Why Nicks married her best friend's widower
¿Her dependency on cocaine, drinking and pot, but how it was a decade-long addiction to Klonopin that almost killed her
¿Nicks' successful solo career that has her still performing in venues like Madison Square Garden
¿The cult of Nicks and its extension to chart-toppers like Taylor Swift and the Dixie Chicks

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Evelyn McDonnell

…Davis is astute and respectful…adept in his literary analysis…

From the Publisher

“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

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170157372
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	11/21/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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