Things were 'hot and heavy' between married Mick Fleetwood and Stevie for two years

Stevie Nicks was 27 when she became the ‘Queen Bee’ of the British-American rock band, Fleetwood Mac.

Up until that time, writing songs and singing with her longtime sweetheart, Lindsay Buckingham, she hadn’t indulged in drugs. But that was all about to change.

She quickly descended into drug hell and became addicted to cocaine, alcohol, Quaaludes to sleep, and cigarettes – until her system broke down and she started having nosebleeds, falls on stage, blackouts and near overdoses.

She bought $1 million worth of cocaine and it burned a hole in her nose the size of a dime. Rumors spread that she had to have the drug blown up her derriere by an assistant.

‘There was no way to get off the white horse and I didn’t want to,' the now 66-year-old Nicks said.

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Besotted: Stevie Nicks has a two-year, off-and-on affair with married drummer Mick Fleetwood. Their passion was fueled by drugs and alcohol. Mick was still married to model Jenny Boyd at the time

Hot: Stevie and Nick made beautiful music together - both on and off the stage

She only slowed down her drug consumption when her doctor warned her she was risking permanent mental and physical damage as well as heading for a brain hemorrhage or an early grave.

The group called for an intervention and saved her life by urging her to check in to the Betty Ford Center.

Stevie got cleaned up from one drug and went into therapy, but for the next nine years she became dependent on another drug prescribed for anxiety that plunged her into years of depression and weight gain.

‘But I got through it, I was so lucky’, Zoe Howe quotes Nicks in her new book, Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams & Rumours, published by Omnibus Press, 5 February.

Nicks fell madly in love with Mick Fleetwood two years after she joined Fleetwood Mac, while she was dating the Eagles' Don Henley in 1977.

She called Mick one of her ‘great great loves’.

Fleetwood, in his own biography, writes they secretly began seeing each other in Los Angeles while on a break from a tour, the clandestine nature of the meetings accelerating their passion.

‘I was in love with her, and she loved me, and it was not something passing in the night’.

‘It was a proper Hollywood affair on a par with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’.

But the complications with significant others and band-mates made it feel like ‘utter madness’.

Mick was still married to model Jenny Boyd at the time.

True love: Stevie still carries a torch for Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh. ‘There was nothing more important than Joe Walsh, not my music, not my songs, not anything,' she said. She wanted to marry Joe

But the greatest love in Nicks' life was keyboard player and guitarist Joe Walsh of the Eagles. She still carries a torch for the musician.

But Walsh believed one of them would die from a drug overdose if they stayed together so he walked out the door.

‘There was no other man in the world for me. And it’s the same today’, Nicks confessed.

Fleetwood Mac was ‘a fairytale on acid’ to Stevie Nicks, and Mick Fleetwood was like ‘an English king’ to her when they first met in Los Angeles.

‘I was awestruck. I still am to this day of Mick’s presence’.

Endless days recording in the studio with Fleetwood, cocaine now became a daily indulgence for Nicks – as well as Courvoisier, Heineken beer, honey and hot tea and marijuana.

She consumed so many drugs that weeks went by without sleep.

Nicks wore a little gold and turquoise bottle inlaid with diamonds of coke around her neck so she would never be without the drug.

While the guys did rails of coke, the girls daintily inhaled tiny spoonfuls of the drug.

Crystal balls, knick knacks, dolls, gypsy chic chiffon dresses, shawls trinkets, feathers, lace, twirling on stage – and mountains of drugs defined her rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.

They were the world’s most hedonistic band, the author writes.

To avoid body searches by customs in Europe, they hired a private train to travel through Germany, and into France and Holland. The luxurious lounge car with its gold light fittings and velvet drapes had once belong to Hitler – including the elderly attendant who had once served the Fuhrer and was still on board.

Nicks had an affair with Eagles' Don Henley (at right in 1973 and with Stevie years later), founding member of the group, drummer and singer. She was romanced by the Maseratis, the mansions, the destroyed hotels, the parties that defined the Eagles lifestyle

Musician Lindsey Buckingham was Stevie's first love. They both joined Fleetwood Mac together in 1975

Every whim of the band members was met.

While on tour, all Nicks wanted was the presidential suite at hotels.

‘We were elegant people and we wanted a place to sleep after the show that was beautiful’.

Before falling into the arms of Mick and Joe Walsh, Nicks had an affair with Eagle Don Henley, founding member of the group, drummer and singer. She was romanced by the Maseratis, the mansions, the destroyed hotels, the parties that defined the Eagles lifestyle.

She became pregnant with his child and chose to have an abortion. The affair was quickly over but she wrote a song, ‘Sara,’ for their unborn girl.

With Eagle Joe Walsh, ‘it was love’.

‘We were busy being superstars, and everyone was doing way too many drugs. But I was so in love with him’, Nicks is quoted.as saying.

Of all the men she had been involved with, Joe was the one man she wanted to marry.

‘There was nothing more important than Joe Walsh, not my music, not my songs, not anything’.

‘I remember days of misery waiting by the phone. Me in my house, with him saying ‘I’m going to visit you’. I would kick everyone out because I just wanted to be with him, and not a phone call. [I put up with it because] I was in love with him’.

With all the drugs, ‘we were a couple on the way to hell’.

‘It took me a long, long time to get over it’.

In her heyday Stevie was considered the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll. But even after Fleetwood Mac disbanded Stevie was a quadruple platinum solo artist

She was caught up in depression for nine years that resulted from long-term use of the tranquilizer, Klonopin prescribed for her anxiety while recovering from cocaine dependency.

She supplemented the Klonopin with barbiturates.

After having her breast implants removed in December 1976, she was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr, a viral infection that causes crippling fatigue.

She underwent plastic surgery to change the proportion of her body after soaring up to 175 pounds on the drug.

The drugs were killing her and she admitted herself to the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Venice Beach.

This detox was harder than kicking her cocaine addiction.

Her last tour with Fleetwood Mac with in December 1990 until the group decided those were the best years of their lives. They mended old ills and jumped back out on tour late in 2014.

In those intervening years, Nicks, put out quadruple platinum solo albums.

‘I believe there have been angels with me constantly through these last twenty years, or I wouldn't be alive’.

Her one big regret however was not the drugs, not the affairs, but not stopping to have a baby.

Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams & Rumours, published by Omnibus Press, is available on Amazon



